Spanish Grammar Lesson: Prepositions

[Florencia]

Hi ! Today I bring you a grammatical post about the prepositions in Spanish.
Prepositions invariable words, which means that they can’t have a variation neither in gender nor number. A difference a little bit peculiar about Spanish prepositions is that they’re only 23, whereas in English are more than 100
The Spanish prepositions are: a, ante, bajo, cabe, con, contra, de, desde, durante, en, entre, hacia, hasta, mediante, para, por, según, sin, so, sobre, tras, versus and vía. However, “cabe” and “so”, actually, are not that frequently used.
Prepositions connect nouns/ adjectives/ verbs with the prepositions’ object. Generally, this can be a noun or a pronoun. Specifically, prepositions refer to the relationship between two parts of a phrase. The relationship tends to be of movement/ location/ direction or time.

Some examples of simple prepositions:

Some examples of compound prepositions:

What do you think about prepositions? How difficult did you find them?

[ninalmackay_30489]

Thanks for this, it’s very useful.

[martinajeanpage_1499]

Yo siempre tengo problemas con por y para.

I always have problems between por and para

[selinae94_33330]

Me too
But I figured it out and the easiest consejo I can give you is that in the majority of all cases por is used.

Explanation for para: to describe a 1.purpose, goal, receiving person, 2. a determined time (if you want to say ABOUT 5 o’ clock, you say por), 3. destination

Example 1: Yo te doy dinero para que (in order to) puedas pagar nuevos zapatos. (purpose)
Example 2: Hago mis deberes para manana. (literal translation is until here)
Example 3: El trén para Sevilla.(to, I actually used to say hacia, but it’s wrong, either para or just a)

There are also rules for por but since the para-situations are less common it’s easier to memorize them and memorize por for everything else.

[staroverthehorizon_1]

I too have trouble with por and para. I am still confused after watching this video, but I think it might help you: Por Vs. Para - An Introduction (S03E09) - YouTube

Yes, his accent is… not the best.

[martinajeanpage_1499]

Awesome, thank you so much. I’ll check it out.

[florencia.paz_22323]

Hi, some time ago a post about that topic was done. Here’s the link, hope you’ll find it helpful Uses of por and para