Prepositions (a, de, en, con, sin, por, para, sobre, hasta, desde, entre)

A preposition is the word that connects a noun or pronoun to the rest of the sentence. I’m going to the store. The book is on the table. I came with my friend.

Spanish prepositions look small but do enormous work, and they almost never line up one-to-one with English. A is sometimes to, sometimes at. De is sometimes of, sometimes from, sometimes about. En is sometimes in, sometimes on. The mismatch is the source of a thousand small errors that disappear with reading.

This page covers the most common prepositions and the patterns they fall into. Por and para are deep enough to deserve their own page — see por-vs-para.

A — to, at, in (specific points)

A is the most-used Spanish preposition. Its job is to mark a destination, a precise location, an indirect object, a time, or — uniquely — a human direct object.

The personal a

A defining Spanish feature: when the direct object is a person (or a specific animal you’re attached to), Spanish inserts a before it.

Veo a María. — I see María. Conozco a tu hermano. — I know your brother.

Compare to inanimate objects:

Veo la casa. — I see the house. (no a) Conozco la ciudad. — I know the city.

This is one of the most distinctive features of Spanish syntax. Don’t forget the a before personal direct objects.

Cities sometimes take a (when treated as personified): Visité a Madrid and Visité Madrid are both used; the a form treats the city as a kind of person.

De — of, from, about, made of

De marks origin, possession, partitive amounts, or specification.

En — in, on, at (general locations and time)

En covers general locations, transport, and time within periods.

Note: Spanish uses en for both in and on in many contexts. En la mesa can mean on the table or at the table; context distinguishes.

Con — with

With pronouns yo and tú, con fuses: conmigo (with me), contigo (with you). Con él, con ella, con nosotros don’t fuse.

Sin — without

Sin azúcar. — Without sugar. Estudio sin parar. — I study without stopping.

Sin + infinitive is the standard construction for without -ing.

Por and para — for, by, through, in order to

The famous Spanish pair. Por covers cause, exchange, route, duration. Para covers purpose, recipient, deadline, direction. See por-vs-para for the full treatment.

Sobre — on, about, above

Sobre and en overlap for surfaces but sobre emphasizes “on top of” more explicitly. Sobre is also the standard for about in topic contexts.

Hasta — until, up to, as far as

Hasta mañana. — Until tomorrow. Camino hasta el parque. — I walk as far as the park. Hasta que llegues. — Until you arrive.

Desde — since, from (origin in time or space)

Vivo aquí desde 2010. — I’ve lived here since 2010. Desde Madrid hasta Sevilla. — From Madrid to Sevilla. Desde que llegaste… — Since you arrived…

Desde…hasta is the canonical “from…to” structure in Spanish.

Entre — between, among

Entre Madrid y Barcelona. — Between Madrid and Barcelona. Entre amigos. — Among friends.

Hacia — toward, around (approximate)

Contra — against

La lucha contra la injusticia. — The struggle against injustice. Está contra la pared. — He’s against the wall.

Verbs that take specific prepositions

A particular kind of vocabulary work: Spanish verbs each have their own preposition habits, and you have to learn them with the verb.

These are not predictable from English. Learn them as combinations.

What you don’t need to do

You don’t need to learn all prepositions in a single sitting. Start with a, de, en, con, sin. Add the rest as you read.

You don’t need to translate prepositions one-to-one from English. Pensar en doesn’t mean think in. Soñar con doesn’t mean dream with. Treat Spanish prepositions as Spanish ideas with their own logic.

You don’t need to memorise verb-preposition pairs as a list. Learn them in context: reading Pienso en ti in a book makes pensar en stick with the verb.

Common confusions

• A vs. en for location. Voy a Madrid (motion to). Estoy en Madrid (state in). The verb determines the preposition.
• Personal a is mandatory. Veo a María, not Veo María. With human direct objects, always a.
• Pensar en vs. pensar de. Pienso en ti (I’m thinking of you, fond). ¿Qué piensas de él? (What do you think of him? — opinion).
• Por vs. para. The two prepositions both mean for but cover different territory. See the dedicated page.
• Conmigo and contigo are special fused forms. Con él, con ella, con nosotros don’t fuse.

Where you’ll meet it in the library

Prepositions are in every sentence. The books that drill them most cleanly:

• Don Quijote (A2+) — Cervantes’s prose is full of motion, location, and abstract relations. Every chapter contains dozens of prepositional uses across multiple categories.