Prepositions are the little words that connect nouns, adjectives or verbs to a noun or a pronoun. They usually indicate information like location, movement, time and direction. They don’t have any shortcuts, they just have to be learned and memorised individually.

There are simple prepositions which are one word prepositions and there are compound prepositions which are usually 2 or 3 words.

The table below contains some of the most common examples.

a to, at
ante before, in front of, in the face of
bajo under
con with, to
contra against
de of, from, about
desde since, from
durante during
en in, on, at, by
entre between
encima on top
hacia towards, to
hasta until, up to
mediante by way of, through, by means of
para for
por by
según according to
sin without
sobre on
tras behind
versus versus
vía via

Some examples of complex prepositions:

Antes de Before
Con respecto a Regarding
En cuanto a With regards to, referring to
A pesar de Despite
No cabe duda There is no doubt
Después de After

Some verbs require specific prepositions to follow them; it is important to know and be able to identify these.

Some examples are:

  • Pensar en – to think about
  • Soñar con – to dream about
  • Hablar de – to talk about