Spanish Prepositions - and Why You Need to Get These Right!

by Damian M.

Spanish is an amazing language to learn, and is probably one of the easiest languages to lean for English speakers. However, at times it can get tricky - and this is when you need to know your stuff, or else it will come to haunt you later on.

In English, prepositions are straightforward. We use "for" a lot, from, to, through, etc. These are all easy to use, and often each one can be used for several ideas. Take for example the following two phrases:

"I am giving the book to Ana."
"We are going to Madrid."

In Spanish, while prepositions are used for different ideas, they are a lot more precise and it is important you choose the correct one when building your sentences. It is easy to mix up some of the prepositions and use the wrong one.

I'll introduce to you the basic - but most important - prepositions. Here we will look at "a", "para" and "por". These last two are ones that often cause trouble since both can sound, to one's ear, good in the same sentence.

The preposition "a" always means there is movement; we are usually going somewhere. It will also be used for time, distance and verb complements. See the examples below:

Movement: "Viajamos a Madrid." / We are travelling to Madrid.
Time: "Me acuesto a las siete." / I go to sleep at 7.
Distance: "Está a veinte minutes en coche." / It is 20 minutes away by car.
Complement: "Veo a Antonio." / I saw Antonio.

The preposition "por" is used for:

• A motive or cause - She is crying for nothing.
• A place not properly defined - Over there.
• Movement within a defined place - We are walking within the park.
• Time during the day - I eat in the morning.
• Time frame - We ski for 3 hours.
• Frequency - I ski three times a month.
• The way of doing something - by plane, by fax etc.

The preposition "para" is used for: IN ORDER TO =>

• Final time, deadline - The paper is for Monday.
• Use of something, role of something - Glasses are for reading.
• Destination - I am going to your house.
• For someone - This book is for you.
• Opinion or point of view - For me, it means nothing.

Now try some examples:

• Estudio POR / PARA aprender. (Answer: para - in order to).
• Me encanta pasear POR / PARA la ciudad. (Answer : por - walk within the city).
• Esta carta es POR / PARA Luisa. (Answer : para - for someone).
• Voy a esquiar tres veces POR / PARA mes. (Answer : por - frequency).

For more Spanish learning tips and tricks, visit my website at www.learntospeakspanishnow.com and get free Spanish tips and tricks.

Information about Spanish | Useful Phrases | Silly Phrases | Idioms | Family words | Time | Weather | Tongue twisters | Tower of Babel | Articles | Links | My Spanish learning adventures | My podcast about Spanish | Books about Spanish on: Amazon.com and Amazoncouk | Learn Spanish through stories

Articles

Writing systems | Language and languages | Language learning | Pronunciation | Learning vocabulary | Language acquisition | Motivation and reasons to learn languages | Arabic | Basque | Celtic languages | Chinese | English | Esperanto | French | German | Greek | Hebrew | Indonesian | Italian | Japanese | Korean | Latin | Portuguese | Russian | Sign Languages | Spanish | Swedish | Other languages | Minority and endangered languages | Constructed languages (conlangs) | Reviews of language courses and books | Language learning apps | Teaching languages | Languages and careers | Being and becoming bilingual | Language and culture | Language development and disorders | Translation and interpreting | Multilingual websites, databases and coding | History | Travel | Food | Other topics | Spoof articles | How to submit an article

[top]

---

Why not share this page:

 

If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or by contributing in other ways. Omniglot is how I make my living.

 

Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr are affiliate links. This means I earn a commission if you click on any of them and buy something. So by clicking on these links you can help to support this site.

Get a 30-day Free Trial of Amazon Prime (UK)

If you're looking for home or car insurance in the UK, why not try Policy Expert?

[top]