Compound Prepositions | Spanish (Latin America) Grammar

Many of the most useful "location" expressions in Spanish are compound prepositions — phrases that usually end in de. Where English uses single words like "behind," "under," "near," or "inside," Spanish uses structured phrases: detrás de, debajo de, cerca de, dentro de. These are the prepositions you'll use constantly to describe where things are.

The master table

Spanish	English	Example
debajo de	under, beneath	El perro está debajo de la mesa.
encima de	on top of, above	Los libros están encima del escritorio.
delante de	in front of	Hay un árbol delante de la casa.
detrás de	behind	El gato se escondió detrás del sofá.
enfrente de	facing, across from	El banco está enfrente del parque.
cerca de	near, close to	Vivo cerca de la universidad.
lejos de	far from	Queda lejos de aquí.
dentro de	inside (of), within	Las llaves están dentro del cajón.
fuera de	outside (of)	Los zapatos están fuera de la casa.
al lado de	next to, beside	La farmacia está al lado del café.
alrededor de	around	Nos sentamos alrededor de la fogata.
antes de	before (in time)	Llámame antes de las siete.
después de	after (in time)	Nos vemos después de la clase.
a pesar de	in spite of, despite	Salimos a pesar de la lluvia.
además de	in addition to, besides	Habla inglés, además del español.
en medio de	in the middle of	El cuadro está en medio de la pared.

Why the "de"?

Most of these are made of a location word plus de: detrás means "behind" as an adverb, but to add a reference point ("behind the house") you need de + noun. So:

El gato está detrás. — "The cat is behind." (behind what? unspecified)
El gato está detrás de la casa. — "The cat is behind the house."

This is why the de is obligatory when there's a noun following.

Physical location expressions

Let's see some of these in full sentences.

El restaurante está al lado del hotel, no muy lejos del parque.

The restaurant is next to the hotel, not very far from the park.

Pusieron la bicicleta detrás del garaje, debajo de una lona.

They put the bike behind the garage, under a tarp.

Me senté enfrente de ella para poder hablar mejor.

I sat across from her so we could talk better.

Notice that de contracts with el to form del: detrás del garaje, not detrás de el garaje. But de + la, de + los, de + las don't contract: detrás de la casa.

Dentro de and fuera de

These work in both literal and figurative senses.

Hay mucho ruido dentro del edificio.

There's a lot of noise inside the building.

Espérame fuera de la tienda.

Wait for me outside the store.

Figuratively, dentro de can also mean "within" a time frame:

Estaré listo dentro de una hora.

I'll be ready within an hour.

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Dentro de una hora means "in an hour" (the action will happen then), not "during an hour." For "during," use durante.

Time expressions: antes de, después de

These are some of the most useful compound prepositions for everyday speech.

Lávate las manos antes de comer.

Wash your hands before eating.

Después del partido vamos a tomar algo.

After the match we're going to get a drink.

Both can be followed by an infinitive (same subject) or a full clause with que + subjunctive (different subject):

antes de salir (before leaving — same subject)
antes de que salgas (before you leave — different subject, subjunctive)

Concessive and additive: a pesar de, además de

A pesar de means "despite" or "in spite of." It's one of those phrases you'll use often in essays and formal speech.

A pesar del mal tiempo, la celebración continuó.

Despite the bad weather, the celebration continued.

Además de means "in addition to":

Además del español, habla portugués y francés.

In addition to Spanish, she speaks Portuguese and French.

Like antes de and después de, both can take an infinitive or a clause.

En medio de — in the middle of

Literal or figurative:

Se paró en medio de la calle.

He stopped in the middle of the street.

Estábamos en medio de una conversación cuando llegó.

We were in the middle of a conversation when he arrived.

Combining with pronouns

When a compound preposition takes a pronoun, the pronoun goes in its prepositional form: mí, ti, él, ella, etc.

Alguien se sentó detrás de mí en el cine.

Somebody sat behind me at the movies.

No puedo vivir sin ti, pero tampoco lejos de ti.

I can't live without you, and I can't live far from you either.

Remember that conmigo, contigo, consigo are irregular contractions — but those only happen with con, not with compound prepositions.

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Compound prepositions are everywhere in beginner dialogues: "Where is the bathroom?" answers will almost always use one of al lado de, enfrente de, detrás de, cerca de. Memorize this set early and you'll understand directions anywhere you travel.

For verbs that pair with specific prepositions (including some compound ones), see verbs with prepositions.