La preposición 'con'

The preposition con is one of the easiest Spanish prepositions to get a working grip on, because two of its three meanings line up neatly with English with: you do something with someone, you cut something with a knife. But con also has a third use that English handles differently — turning an abstract noun into an adverb of manner (con cuidado = "carefully") — and one structural quirk that no other Spanish preposition shares: it fuses with the first, second, and reflexive person pronouns to form conmigo, contigo, consigo. Get those three forms right and you have already mastered most of the con you'll need at A1.

The three core uses

1. Accompaniment — who you are with

The clearest of the three. Con marks the person, animal, or thing that is together with you.

This is the use that English speakers find most intuitive, because the mapping is one-to-one. The only catch is what to do when the companion is a pronoun — and that is where the special forms conmigo, contigo, consigo come in. We'll come to them in a moment.

2. Instrument — what you do something with

Con also marks the tool, instrument, or means by which an action is performed.

This is again very close to English — write with a pen, cut with a knife. There is, however, a Spanish-specific trap: when the "instrument" is a body part used in a typical way (hablar con la boca llena, señalar con el dedo), Spanish prefers the definite article la / el over a possessive (con mi dedo sounds odd to a Spanish ear). This is part of the wider Spanish habit of using the definite article with body parts.

3. Manner — how you do something

The third use is the most interesting from an English-speaker's point of view. Con + abstract noun = adverb of manner. Where English would use a single adverb in -ly (carefully, patiently, happily), Spanish very often prefers con + the corresponding noun.

You can build dozens of adverbial phrases this way: con calma (calmly), con prisa (in a hurry), con cariño (lovingly), con educación (politely), con dificultad (with difficulty), con frecuencia (frequently), con razón (rightly so). This pattern is so productive that for many adverbs, con + noun is the default spoken form, while the -mente adverb feels heavier or more bookish. Habla con calma is much more natural in conversation than habla calmadamente.

The special pronoun forms: conmigo, contigo, consigo

Here is the one structural feature of con that you simply have to memorise. Spanish prepositions normally take the special prepositional pronoun forms mí and ti — para mí, sin ti, por mí. Con is different: it doesn't sit alongside the pronoun; it fuses with it.

The -go ending of conmigo, contigo, consigo is a fossil from Latin (mecum, tecum, secum, with the postposition cum — "with" — already attached). Spanish then added con on the front again, doubling up the marking. This is purely a historical accident; learners just need to memorise the three forms.

The third form, consigo, is the reflexive one — used when the "with" pronoun refers back to the subject. It corresponds to English "with himself / herself / itself / themselves / yourself (formal)."

Consigo is somewhat formal and more common in writing than in everyday speech. In casual Spanish, con él mismo / con ella misma (with the explicit reflexive mismo/-a) often appears for emphasis: está enfadada con ella misma is more natural in conversation than está enfadada consigo. But consigo is the technically correct reflexive form and you'll meet it in newspapers, novels, and formal writing.

Con + infinitive — conditions and concessions

A pattern worth knowing at A2 onwards: con + infinitive can express a condition or sufficient cause, roughly "by doing" or "just by doing."

The closest English equivalent is "just by [V-ing], …" — the infinitive names a minimal condition. This use is common in everyday speech and worth recognising; producing it actively comes later.

Con tal de / con tal de que — provided that

The compound con tal de introduces a willingness to do something in exchange for a condition: "as long as / provided that."

With the same subject, con tal de + infinitive. With different subjects, con tal de que + subjunctive. The construction is high-frequency in Spain and carries a slight nuance of resignation or trade-off — "I'll put up with X in exchange for Y."

Idioms and fixed phrases with con

A handful of con expressions are so common they function as set pieces:

Con permiso (asking to pass through), con razón (no wonder / rightly), con la boca abierta (open-mouthed, astonished), con vistas a (with a view to / overlooking), con cuidado (carefully). These are not strict idioms — each follows one of the three core uses — but they appear so often in fixed shapes that learners benefit from recognising them as units.

Con vs English "with" — the false friend cases

Most of the time, con and English with match. But there are several specific cases where English speakers reach for con and produce ungrammatical Spanish, because the Spanish verb actually demands a different preposition. The verb-preposition pairing is lexically fixed in Spanish — you cannot derive it from English.

The big offenders:

• enamorarse de — fall in love with. English with, Spanish de. Me enamoré de ella, never ❌me enamoré con ella.
• soñar con — dream about. English about, Spanish con. Sueño contigo todas las noches, not ❌sueño sobre ti. This one goes the other way: where English uses about, Spanish uses con.
• casarse con — marry. English uses no preposition (marry someone); Spanish requires con. Se casó con un médico.
• hablar con — talk to / with a person. English allows both to and with; Spanish uses con when the focus is on a two-way conversation, and might use hablar a for one-way addressing (lecturing, scolding).

These verb-preposition pairings are listed in full on the page about verbs and their prepositions. The rule is unforgiving: each verb selects its preposition lexically, and the choice does not follow from meaning.

Common Mistakes

Key takeaways

• Con covers three core uses: accompaniment (con Marta), instrument (con un cuchillo), and manner (con cuidado).
• The manner use — con
  • abstract noun — is the everyday spoken equivalent of -mente adverbs. Prefer con calma over calmadamente in conversation.
• Con fuses with first, second, and reflexive third person pronouns: conmigo, contigo, consigo. All other pronouns use the regular pattern (con él, con nosotros, con ellos).
• Consigo is the reflexive form and is somewhat formal; everyday speech often uses con él mismo / con ella misma instead.
• Con tal de / con tal de que expresses "provided that," followed by infinitive (same subject) or subjunctive (different subject).
• Several Spanish verbs take a different preposition where English uses with: enamorarse de, casarse con, soñar con. Learn each verb together with its preposition.