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Prepositions

Overview

Prepositions are relational words such as to, at, from, above, around, toward, for, after, before, etc. They combine with nouns or pronouns to make a phrase that refers to or modifies another word in the sentence. The prepositional phrase itself functions either as an adjective or an adverb.

List of commonly used prepositions

Examples:

Uses

In additional to their usual relational uses, certain prepositions demand special treatment and study of their less common uses. These include the prepositions a, con, de, en, para, and por.

The preposition a

The preposition con

The preposition de

The preposition en

In addition to its usual uses to translate the English words "in" and "at," the preposition en is often used in conjunction with verbs such as confiar en, consistir en, entrar en,*insistir en, interesarse en, and pensar en.**

* In Latin America entrar + an object is entrar a.
** Note that pensar en means "to think about," while pensar de means "to have an opinion of."

The preposition para

In a very simplified way, the preposition para, often meaning "for" or "in order to" in English, is used to signify something that is projected toward the future, whether that is a goal, destination, or purpose. It is also used for comparative purposes.

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish whether to use por or para in a sentence. Often the contexts are quite similar. In those cases it is helpful to remember a pair of simple contrasting uses such as the following:

The preposition por

Por has many translations in English and is used in many different contexts, the most frequent of which are to express the following:

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish whether to use por or para in a sentence. Often the contexts are quite similar. In those cases it is helpful to remember a pair of simple contrasting uses such as the following: