Now for Some Prepositions

English grammar and Spanish grammar have many of the same parts of speech. That helps out a lot when learning Spanish. It definitely makes it easier in becoming familiar with the different types of words. In this lesson, we will be covering a specific word type. We will be covering the “preposition”. So, are you ready for some “prepositions”? Then let’s start learning!

Looking back at your English lessons, you learned that a “preposition” is a word that is used to show the relationship between a noun (or a pronoun) and other words in a sentence. In short, a preposition will tell you what is happening. It will also tell you when something is happening or has happened.

There are two different types of “prepositions”. First you have the “simple prepositions” and then you have the “complex prepositions”. You will learn more about “complex prepositions” in a future lesson. For this lesson we will be focusing on only some of the most commonly used “simple prepositions”. So here we go.

ENGLISH	SPANISH	AUDIO	WHERE TO USE IT:
about	de	1	“It was about time to leave.”
against	contra	2	“She was against raising property taxes.”
as far as	hasta	3	“Mary went as far as she could go.”
at	a	4	“He was at school.”
because of	por	5	“He did it because of his convictions.”
below	bajo	6	“The test scores were below average.”
by	en	7	“John went by the car lot.”
for	por	5	“I will get that for you.”
from	de	1	“Where do we go from here?”
in	en	8	“She is in the kitchen.”
in exchange for	contra	2	“He was given amnesty in exchange for information.”
in order	por	5	“In order to go he had to make a promise.”
inside	en	8	“The ring was inside the box.”
into	en	8	“The puppy got into everything.”
in the presence of	ante	9	“They were in the presence of greatness.”
of	de	1	“The tree was made of glass.”
per	por	5	“She followed the directions per your instructions.”
through	por	5	“They went through the back door.”
to	a	4	“He went to school.”
under	bajo	7	“The car ran under the bed.”
until	hasta	3	“Until later.”
with	con	9	“I will go with you.”
within	en	8	“He was within his rights to fight.”
without	sin	10	“She had to do it without any assistance.”

Two of the above Spanish preposition to point out are “hasta” and “bajo”. Their phonetic pronunciations are “ă-stă” and “bă-hō”. The “h” in “hasta” is silent and the “j” in “bajo” has an “h” sound.

Although there are a total of 25 English prepositions in the above list, did you notice that there are only 10 Spanish prepositions that match them? That’s right! Remember, Spanish has half the number of words in it than does English. This is yet another example of why that is so. One word in Spanish says several things. Look at the Spanish preposition “en”. It means “in, into, by, inside” and “within”. In other words, it covers 5 English words. Many of the other prepositions also cover multiple English words. Some people believe this makes Spanish an easier language to learn. What do you think?

Well, before you can say what you think, let’s do a few practice quiz sentences. After all, how can you know without trying them out? Therefore, check out the Task section below and then move onto the Quiz.

Task

Although there are only 10 Spanish preposition words to learn in this Lesson, they each are prepositions that you need to be able to know very well to form proper Spanish sentences. There, take plenty of time to get to know each one and the occasion where each one would need to be used. In addition, practice saying each several times (remember to say them out loud so you can hear them). Next, find a book or magazine and read through some of the sentences. As you do, locate any prepositions found in those sentences. Once you find them, substitute them out using the proper Spanish preposition word or words. This will further help the brain to recognize where they will fit in. Finally, write down each preposition in your Spanish notebook and put beside each one all of the English prepositions that it represents.

Quiz

Each Quiz sentence contains a preposition in English which has been underlined. Your challenge is to locate the correct Spanish preposition to use in its place.