Spanish has a compact inventory of prepositions — fewer than twenty in everyday use — and they do an enormous amount of work. They glue verbs to their objects, mark relationships in time and space, link nouns to other nouns, and govern half of the structural decisions in a sentence. The single most important thing to know before you begin is that they do not map one-to-one to English. On is not always en. Of is not always de. To is not always a. Learn each preposition as a Spanish word with its own logic, not as a translation of an English one.
This page lays out the full inventory, sketches the core meaning of each, and flags the traps where English intuitions will betray you. Each preposition has its own dedicated page; this is the map.
The full inventory
A surprisingly short list — most of them you will meet in your first month of Spanish.
| Preposición | Core meaning(s) |
|---|---|
| a | direction, time, personal direct object, indirect object |
| de | possession, origin, material, "of" |
| en | location (interior), time (months, years, seasons) |
| con | accompaniment, instrument |
| por | cause, agent, route, exchange |
| para | purpose, destination, recipient, deadline |
| sin | lack of, without |
| sobre | on top of, about (topic) |
| bajo | under (literal and figurative) |
| ante | in front of, faced with (formal) |
| tras | behind, after (formal/literary) |
| hacia | towards |
| hasta | up to, until |
| desde | from, since |
| entre | between, among |
| contra | against |
| según | according to |
The list also includes durante (during) and mediante (by means of), which the RAE treats as prepositions, but they behave more like adverbs in practice. Stick with the seventeen above as your working inventory.
The seven core prepositions
These are the workhorses. You will use them in every sentence you ever say.
a — direction, time, personal DO, IO
The most multipurpose preposition in Spanish. Its core meaning is endpoint — the destination of motion, the moment of an action, the human target of a verb.
Voy a Madrid el jueves.
I'm going to Madrid on Thursday.
La reunión empieza a las nueve.
The meeting starts at nine.
Veo a Marta todos los días en el café.
I see Marta every day at the café.
Three uses, one preposition: direction (a Madrid), time (a las nueve), and the personal a before human direct objects (veo a Marta). The last one is unique to Spanish among the major Romance languages and trips up every English speaker at first.
de — possession, origin, material
If a points outward, de points inward to a source. It marks where things come from, what they are made of, who they belong to.
El coche de mi hermano es nuevo.
My brother's car is new.
Soy de Granada, ¿y tú?
I'm from Granada, and you?
La mesa es de madera de roble.
The table is made of oak wood.
There is also de + infinitive meaning "if" in conditional shorthand: de saberlo, te lo digo ("if I had known, I would have told you"). Common in writing, not so much in everyday speech, but worth knowing.
en — interior location, time periods
En marks containment: inside a place, within a time period, on a surface conceived of as a kind of container.
Vivo en Bilbao desde hace cinco años.
I've been living in Bilbao for five years.
Nos casamos en mayo de 2024.
We got married in May 2024.
Los libros están en la mesa.
The books are on the table.
That last one is the classic English-speaker trap: in Spanish, en covers both "in" and "on" when the surface is being treated as a location. En la mesa = "on the table." Use sobre only when you want to stress on top of.
con — accompaniment, instrument
The companion preposition: who or what you do something with.
Voy al cine con mis amigos esta noche.
I'm going to the cinema with my friends tonight.
Lo cortó con un cuchillo de cocina.
He cut it with a kitchen knife.
Note that with pronouns, con fuses: conmigo, contigo, consigo (with me / with you / with him/her/itself). Never ❌con mí.
por and para — the two "for"s
The most famous Spanish preposition pair, and a permanent thorn in the side of English speakers. Both can translate as "for," but their meanings are quite different. The full distinction has its own page; the headline:
- por marks cause, route, exchange, agent: why something happened, the path it took, the deal that was made.
- para marks purpose, destination, deadline, recipient: what something is for, where it is going, when it is due.
Gracias por la cena.
Thanks for the dinner. (the dinner was the cause of my thanks)
Este regalo es para ti.
This gift is for you. (you are the recipient)
Pasamos por el parque.
We went through the park. (route)
Salimos para el parque.
We're heading to the park. (destination)
sin — without
Mercifully simple: lack of something. The negative twin of con.
No salgo de casa sin las llaves.
I never leave home without my keys.
Café sin azúcar, por favor.
Coffee without sugar, please.
sobre — on top of, about
Two meanings, both common: physical on top of and the topical about.
El gato se ha subido sobre la nevera otra vez.
The cat has climbed on top of the fridge again.
Hemos hablado mucho sobre política últimamente.
We've talked a lot about politics lately.
For "about (a topic)," sobre and de are often interchangeable: un libro sobre/de Cervantes. Sobre is slightly more formal; de is everyday.
The locational refinements
These prepositions sharpen spatial relationships beyond the basic en.
bajo, ante, tras — the formal three
These three are mostly literary or formal in modern peninsular Spanish. In conversation, you would use debajo de, delante de, and detrás de instead.
Bajo el régimen anterior, la prensa no era libre.
Under the previous regime, the press was not free. (figurative; formal)
Ante el juez, todos somos iguales.
Before the judge, we are all equal. (formal/legal)
Tras la tormenta, salió el sol.
After the storm, the sun came out. (literary)
If you say ❌el gato está bajo la mesa, a Spaniard will understand you but mark you as bookish — debajo de la mesa is what people actually say.
hacia, hasta, desde — directional refinements
These add nuance to motion and time. Hacia gives direction without commitment to arrival ("towards"). Hasta marks the limit you reach. Desde marks the origin point.
Caminé hacia la playa pero me cansé antes de llegar.
I walked towards the beach but got tired before reaching it.
Te espero hasta las once, después me voy.
I'll wait for you until eleven, after that I'm leaving.
Vivo aquí desde 2019.
I've lived here since 2019.
entre — between, among
Used for both two-item and multi-item situations.
El banco está entre el quiosco y la farmacia.
The bank is between the news kiosk and the pharmacy.
Entre los presentes había varios periodistas.
Among those present there were several journalists.
A famous peculiarity: entre takes nominative (subject) pronouns, not the usual prepositional ones. You say entre tú y yo, not ❌entre ti y mí. We will come back to this in a moment.
contra — against
Opposition, both physical and abstract.
El balón rebotó contra la pared.
The ball bounced against the wall.
Votaron contra la nueva ley.
They voted against the new law.
según — according to
The reporting preposition, also famously irregular.
Según el periódico, la huelga continúa.
According to the newspaper, the strike is ongoing.
Según tú, ¿quién tiene razón?
According to you, who's right?
Like entre, según takes nominative pronouns: según yo, según tú, never ❌según mí, según ti. The pair entre and según are the two prepositions that break the otherwise watertight rule "prepositions take object pronouns." Learn this exception and you have learned all of it.
The two pronominal anomalies
Most Spanish prepositions take a special prepositional pronoun form for first and second person singular: mí, ti. So you say para mí, sin ti, por mí. But two prepositions break this rule:
- entre — takes nominative: entre tú y yo, never ❌entre ti y mí.
- según — takes nominative: según tú, never ❌según ti.
This is one of the few hard rules of Spanish you simply have to memorise.
Entre tú y yo, esto no me convence.
Between you and me, this doesn't convince me.
Según tú, ¿esto está bien?
In your opinion, is this OK?
The third anomaly — con — fuses with pronouns rather than breaking them: conmigo, contigo, consigo. So while entre and según take the wrong-looking pronoun, con takes the right-looking pronoun stuck onto its own back.
The English-mismatch problem
Here is where most learner errors live. English and Spanish each grew their preposition systems independently from Latin, and the modern mappings are wildly inconsistent. The same English preposition can correspond to half a dozen Spanish ones, and vice versa.
| English | Spanish (depending on context) |
|---|---|
| in | en, dentro de, durante |
| on | en, sobre, encima de |
| for | por, para, durante |
| of | de, sobre |
| at | a, en |
| by | por, en, a, con |
| with | con, de |
The only safe strategy is to learn each Spanish verb together with the preposition it takes, the way you might learn an English phrasal verb. Pensar en ("think about"), enamorarse de ("fall in love with"), soñar con ("dream about"), casarse con ("marry"), consistir en ("consist of"). Trying to derive the Spanish preposition from the English one will produce errors more often than not. The dedicated pages on verbs followed by a/de/en/con walk through the verb-by-verb pairings.
Common Mistakes
❌ Pienso de mi familia todos los días.
Wrong — pensar takes en, not de.
✅ Pienso en mi familia todos los días.
I think about my family every day.
❌ Me enamoré con ella.
Wrong — enamorarse takes de, not con (the English 'with' is a false friend).
✅ Me enamoré de ella.
I fell in love with her.
❌ Entre ti y mí, no me gusta.
Wrong — entre takes nominative pronouns (tú, yo), not prepositional ones.
✅ Entre tú y yo, no me gusta.
Between you and me, I don't like it.
❌ Según ti, ¿esto vale la pena?
Wrong — según also takes nominative pronouns. Use 'tú'.
✅ Según tú, ¿esto vale la pena?
In your opinion, is this worth it?
❌ Hablamos mucho de el tiempo.
Wrong — a + el → al and de + el → del are obligatory contractions.
✅ Hablamos mucho del tiempo.
We talk a lot about the weather.
Key takeaways
- The Spanish preposition inventory is small — seventeen everyday words — but their meanings overlap with English in messy, non-systematic ways.
- The seven core prepositions are a, de, en, con, por, para, sin, sobre. Master these first; the rest fall into place.
- Bajo, ante, tras are mostly formal/literary; everyday speech prefers debajo de, delante de, detrás de.
- Entre and según are the two anomalies that take nominative pronouns (entre tú y yo, según yo) instead of the usual prepositional ones.
- A + el → al and de + el → del are obligatory contractions.
- Always learn a Spanish verb together with its preposition: pensar en, enamorarse de, soñar con, casarse con. Translating preposition by preposition from English will fail.
Now practice Spanish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Spanish→Related Topics
- A para direcciónA1 — The preposition a marks the endpoint of motion in Spanish — destination, target, the place you are heading. Contrast with en (location) and learn the peninsular preference for entrar en over entrar a.
- A para tiempo: '¿a qué hora?'A1 — The preposition a marks clock time in Spanish — a las tres, a las nueve y media, a mediodía. Contrast with en (months, years, seasons) and por (parts of day).
- A personal: con objetos directos humanosA2 — The personal a is the small word that marks a human direct object in Spanish. Mandatory before specific people and personalized animals, optional or absent before non-specific humans. One of the great learner traps.
- Verbos seguidos de 'a' + infinitivoB1 — Verbs that lexically require 'a' before an infinitive — empezar a, aprender a, ayudar a, atreverse a — usually involve motion, initiation, learning or commitment toward an action.
- Verbos seguidos de 'de' + infinitivoB1 — Verbs that demand 'de' before an infinitive — acabar de, dejar de, tratar de, acordarse de — cluster around stopping, completing, remembering, and trying.
- Verbos seguidos de 'en' + infinitivoB2 — A small but high-frequency set of verbs takes 'en' before an infinitive — insistir en, pensar en, tardar en, consistir en — clustered around focus, duration, and absorbing one's attention into an action.