De: After Verbs

A large group of Spanish verbs require the preposition de before a following noun, pronoun, or infinitive. Like the verbs that take a, these pairings are fixed and must be memorized. Many of these verbs correspond to English about, on, from, or of — but some have no preposition at all in English.

Verbs of communication

Several verbs of speech and thought take de when you name the topic.

VerbMeaning
hablar deto talk about
tratar deto be about, to try to
quejarse deto complain about
reírse deto laugh at

Los estudiantes hablan de política en la cafetería.

The students talk about politics in the cafeteria.

La película trata de la vida de una cantante mexicana.

The movie is about the life of a Mexican singer.

Pay attention to reírse de: English says to laugh at someone, but Spanish says to laugh of someone. Mixing them up produces a very common learner mistake.

Verbs of memory and forgetting

VerbMeaning
acordarse deto remember
olvidarse deto forget
darse cuenta deto realize

¿Te acuerdas de la canción que bailamos ayer?

Do you remember the song we danced to yesterday?

Me olvidé de comprar el pan en la tienda.

I forgot to buy bread at the store.

💡
Notice that acordarse de and olvidarse de take de even before an infinitive. English remember to do and forget to do use to, but Spanish uses de.

Verbs of feeling and emotion

Several verbs that describe changing emotional states take de before the cause of the feeling.

VerbMeaning
enamorarse deto fall in love with
cansarse deto get tired of
aburrirse deto get bored with
sorprenderse deto be surprised by

Mi hermana se enamoró de un músico italiano.

My sister fell in love with an Italian musician.

Me cansé de esperar el autobús.

I got tired of waiting for the bus.

Notice how English uses with, of, or by in this group — but Spanish consistently uses de.

Verbs of stopping, depending, and leaving

VerbMeaning
dejar deto stop (doing)
depender deto depend on
salir deto leave (a place)
venir deto come from

Dejé de fumar hace dos años.

I stopped smoking two years ago.

Eso depende de la situación.

That depends on the situation.

Dejar de is especially useful: it is the standard way to say stop doing something in Spanish, and the de is never optional.

Tratar de has two meanings

The verb tratar de deserves special attention because it has two distinct uses:

  1. Tratar de + noun = to be about: El libro trata de la guerra civil.
  2. Tratar de + infinitive = to try to: Trato de hablar español todos los días.

Trato de aprender diez palabras nuevas cada día.

I try to learn ten new words every day.

Memorizing the patterns

Just as with verbs that take a, the best way to learn verbs that take de is to write them as pairs in your notes — hablar de, acordarse de, dejar de — and drill them until they sound automatic.

💡
A useful pattern: verbs about topics (talking, thinking, remembering) and verbs about emotional reactions almost always take de. When you are unsure, de is usually the right guess with these verb types.

Once a and de feel natural, most everyday Spanish conversation becomes much easier.

Related Topics

  • Prepositions OverviewA1 — An introduction to Spanish prepositions and the main words used to connect ideas.
  • De: Possession and OriginA1 — How Spanish uses de to express possession, origin, and relationships.
  • De: Material, Content, TypeA2 — Using de to describe what something is made of, what it contains, or what kind of thing it is.
  • A: After VerbsB1 — Common Spanish verbs that require the preposition a before a following noun or infinitive.