HOME Prepositions Prepositions are words that head adjectival or adverbial phrases, such as the man in the red car, play baseball with my friends, etc. Their function is similar to that seen in English, although Spanish prepositions do not have the flexibility of placement seen in English, most notably in that Spanish prepositions cannot be placed a the end of a phrase as in English put my shirt on, the man I spoke with, etc. Two principal aspects of the study of Spanish prepositions are these: Use of the very common prepositions a, con, de, en, with particular reference to their use (and non-use) in the middle of verb-infinitive and verb-noun combinations. These are summarized below. The por/para distinction. Click on link for more on that. USES OF A, CON, DE, EN These four prepositions occur in the middle of a large number of phrases headed by a verb--generally in a personal (conjugated) form), and ending either with an infinitive or a noun or pronoun. These can sometimes be correctly predicted from their English counterparts (insist on→insistir en, for example), but often cannot be, as in English depend on vs. Spanish depender de. Too, in some cases one language uses a preposition where the other uses none. So some memorization is necessary. Below are lists of the most common combinations.
VERB-PREPOSITION COMBINATIONS BEFORE AN INFINITIVE
NO PREPOSITION
	Spanish	English
	aconsejar	advise (someone) to
	conseguir	manage to
	deber	should, ought (to)
	decidir	decide to
	dejar	allow, permit (someone) to
	desear	want (to)
	evitar	avoid ____ing
	gustar(le)	be pleasing to
	hacer	cause to, force to
	impedir	prevent from ___ing
	intentar	attempt, try to
	lograr	manage to
	mandar	order to
	necesitar	need to
	pensar	intend to
	poder	can, be able to
	preferir	prefer to
	prohibir	prohibit from ___ing
	prometer	promise to
	querer	want to
	resolver	resolve to
	saber	know how to
	sentir	regret ___ing
a
	aprender a	learn to
	atreverse a	dare (be brave enough) to
	ayudar a	help (someone) to
	comenzar a	begin to
	empezar a	begin to
	invitar a	invite (someone) to
	ir a	be going (have the intention) to
	negarse a	refuse to
	obligar a	oblige to
	ponerse a	begin to
	salir a	go out to
	volver a	(verb) again (repeat action)
con
	amenazar con	threaten to
	contar con	count on; have at one's disposal
	soñar con	dream about
de
	acabar de	have just _____ed
	alegrarse de	be happy about
	cansarse de	get tired of
	deber (de)	must (supposition)
	dejar de	stop ___ing
	jactarse de	brag about ___ing
	tratar de	try to
en
	consistir en	consist of
	dudar en	hesitate to
	influir en	influence (something, someone)
	insistir en	insist on
	ser el primero en	be the first to _____
	tardar (amount of time) en	take (amount of time) to
VERB-PREPOSITION COMBINATIONS BEFORE A NOUN OR PRONOUN
NO PREPOSITION
	buscar	look for
	escuchar	listen to
	mirar	look at
	pedir	ask for, request
a
	asistir a (una clase, etc.)	attend (a class, etc.)
	faltar a	miss (a meeting, etc.)
	holer a	smell like
	jugar a	play (a sport)
	parecerse a	look like
	saber a	taste like
	sonar a	sound like
con
	acabar con	put an end to
	casarse con	marry
	contar con	count (rely) on
	soñar con	dream about
	tratar con	have dealings with
de
	aprovecharse de	take advantage of
	burlarse de	make fun of
	cansarse de	get tired of
	depender de	depend on
	disfrutar de	enjoy
	enamorarse de	fall in love with
	enfadarse de	get angry at
	enojarse de	get angry at
	hacer de	act as; play the role of
	jactarse de	brag about
	pensar de	have an opinion about
	quejarse de	complain about
	preocuparse de	worry about
	reírse de	laugh at
	salir de	leave from (place)
	tratar de	be about (subject)
	tratarse de	be a matter of; be the subject at hand
en
	consistir en	consist of
	convertirse en	convert to; change into
	pensar en	think about
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