Spanish Prepositions: Usage, Examples and Exercises

Spanish Preposition: Are you planning to learn Spanish? Well, when learning common words in Spanish, conquering prepositions in this language is very important to have a proper vocabulary. Some of the common Spanish prepositions are: en, al, hasta, del, desde and several others. For those of you who don’t know, prepositions play the role of an object of all the existing prepositions and the rest follow the case.

Keep in mind that it is very difficult to speak Spanish without these common prepositions. Therefore, we have compiled a blog on Spanish prepositions through which you will be able to learn them. 

Also Read: 20+ Ways to Say Goodbye in Spanish

What are Prepositions?

A preposition is a word or a group of words that are used in sentences to show the relationship nouns, phrases and nouns have with other words in the sentence. Prepositions are implemented in the latter part of the sentence but before a noun or a pronoun. 

As per the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, prepositions are a group of words such as: from, in, to, out of, behalf of and several others are used before a pronoun or a noun. 

Also Read: Prepositions: Definition, Types, Examples & Exercise

How to Use Spanish Prepositions?

As we all know, prepositions are known to be flexible and can have multiple meanings, therefore, it is very important to understand the context of the sentence. Prepositions are of many types as can be seen from the following list below.

Here’s how these prepositions can be used in the Spanish language. 

Prepositions of Place

When writing sentences on prepositions of place, there are some rules which you should keep in mind. Here are some of them.

• ‘En’ is used in sentences to indicate something in being a place. Example: Estoy en casa. (I’m at home.)
• For more specific usage of direction, use ‘hasia’. Example: Camina hasia el parque. (He walks towards the park.)
• Finally, use ‘a’ to indicate movement to a place. Example: Voy a la tienda. (I’m going to the store.)

Prepositions of Time or Method

Here are all the rules that you must follow when making sentences on prepositions of time. 

• When you are talking about periods, years or months, you must use ‘en’. Example: Estudio mucho en la tarde. (I study a lot in the afternoon.)
• If you are talking about specific periods, then you make use of ‘a’. Example: Nos vemos a las 5. (See you at 5.) 

Prepositions of Position

Prepositions of Place also referred to as Prepositions of movement use words like a, hacia, de, desde, hasta, en and several others in their sentences. There are no rules for this. Here are some examples of this preposition.

Example: El museo está a 500 metros de aquí. (The museum is 500 meters from here.)

Nos vemos a la entrada del café. (See you by the coffee shop entrance.)

Prepositional Phrases

In Spanish, two categories come under it: simple and compound. Simple prepositions contain a single word whereas compounds contain two or more words.

Why Do We Use Prepositions in Spanish?

Prepositions are a fundamental part of the Spanish language. They are used to provide the necessary context as well as structure for creating relations between words by indicating direction, time, manner, possession, location etc. Below we have mentioned the following uses of prepositions. 

• Prepositions are used to show the direction of something in a sentence. 
• They are used to represent spatial relationships. 
• They are also used to show the time of an event.
• They can also be used to denote the location or position of an object.
• Lastly, Prepositional phrases are combined with all the above-mentioned prepositions and then used in sentences. 

Now that we are aware of what prepositions are. We’ll come straight to the list of common Spanish prepositions. 

19+ Most Common Spanish Prepositions

We’re going to begin with a list of more than 19 Spanish prepositions that can be used in Spanish. We will also provide an example as well as the meaning of these Spanish prepositions.

Here is the list of Spanish prepositions which you can learn and when to use them in sentences:

S.No.	Spanish Preposition	English Translation	Example
1.	Con	Relation with	No me contestes con un dicho. (Don’t answer me with a saying.)
2.	Contra	Against	¿Estás conmigo o en mi contra? (Are you with me or against me?)
3.	Desde	Since	Él ha estado leyendo desde hace una hora. (He has been reading for an hour.)
4.	Durante	During	Durante las clases de informática normalmente chateo con mis amigos en Chile. (During the computer science lessons, I usually chat with my friends in Chile.)
5.	Encima de	On top of	Volábamos por encima de las nubes. (We flew above the clouds.)
6.	Según	According to	Todo queda según estaba. (Everything stays as it was.)
7.	Via	Through	El vuelo no es directo, sino vía Londres. (The flight is not direct, but rather via London.)
8.	Tras	After	Tras nuestra casa hay un jardín. (There is a backyard behind our house.)
9.	Sobre	On	Aquí había un libro que tenía algunos datos sobre la vida de Rubén Darío. (There was a book here that had some data on the life of Rubén Darío.)
10.	Por	For	No traigas nada por favor. (Don’t bring anything, please.)
11.	Para	To	¿Quiere la computadora para mañana? (Do you want the computer for tomorrow?)
12.	Hacia	Towards in direction of	El capitán guía al equipo hacia la victoria. (The captain guides the team to victory.)
13.	Entre	Between	Bayreuth está entre Berlín y Munich. (Bayreuth is between Berlin and Munich.)
14.	Detrás de	Behind	Detrás de ti hay un niño. (There is a child behind you.)
15.	Enfrente de	In front of	Estaba sentado enfrente de mí. (You/he/she were/was sitting in front of me.)
16.	Hasta	Until	Ayer estuvimos en el instituto hasta trade. (Yesterday we were in the institute until late.)
17.	Sin	They are	No debió hacerlo, sin embargo lo hizo. (He should not have done it, however he did it.)
18.	Bajo	Low	Existe un bajo riesgo de incumplimiento. (There is a low risk of default.)
19.	Cabe	Close to/Near to	Ella Cabe en la silla. (She fits in the chair.)
20.	Mediante	By Means of	¿Mediante la apicultura también se consigue cera? (Is wax also obtained from beekeeping?)
21.	Ante	In the face of	Sí, por favor, díganos qué le ocurre y ante todo, ¡tranquilícese! (Yes, please, tell us what’s happening and above all, be quiet!)
22.	Con	With	No te encuentras con tus amigos. (You do not meet with your friends.)
23.	En	In	Yo estoy en Portugal. (I am in Portugal.)

Spanish Prepositions: Exercise 1

Fill in the blanks with the correct Spanish preposition.

1. El libro está ____ la mesa. (on)
2. Vivo ____ Madrid. (in)
3. Vamos a caminar ____ el parque. (through)
4. El gato está ____ la caja. (inside)
5. El perro corre ____ el jardín. (across)
6. El lápiz está ____ la mesa. (on)
7. Mi casa está ____ la tuya. (next to)
8. El autobús va ____ la estación. (to)
9. Los niños juegan ____ la playa. (on)
10. El avión vuela ____ las nubes. (above)

Check Your Answer:

1. en
2. en
3. por
4. dentro de
5. a través de
6. sobre
7. al lado de
8. hacia
9. en
10. encima de

Spanish Prepositions: Exercise 2

Fill in the blanks by choosing the correct Spanish prepositions from the two choices.

1. El gato está ___ la silla. (a/en)
2. Me gusta caminar ___ el parque. (por/en)
3. El restaurante está ___ la esquina. (en/a)
4. El libro está ___ la mesa. (sobre/debajo de)
5. El tren va ___ la estación. (a/hacia)
6. Hay un árbol grande ___ la casa. (en/junto a)
7. El avión vuela ___ las nubes. (sobre/entre)
8. Vamos a nadar ___ el mar. (en/por)
9. La tienda está ___ la calle principal. (en/entre)
10. Mi casa está ___ la tuya. (cerca de/al lado de)

Check Your Answers:

1. en
2. por
3. en
4. sobre
5. hacia
6. junto a
7. sobre
8. en
9. en
10. al lado de

We hope the above two exercises helped you in testing your knowledge on spanish prepositions.

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