Prepositions / Adverbs

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Last Updated: Thursday, 04 July 2024 16:56

Published: Wednesday, 08 November 2023 05:32

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Prepositions and Adverbs:

Prepositions are words that show the relationship between elements in a sentence. Simply put, prepositions are connector words. These connectors customarily tie a noun to an idea.  An example of this is in the sentence, “I went to the store.” “To” connects the location of “store” to where the person went. So,"to" is a preposition. A preposition takes an object. If there’s a noun following the term, it usually indicates the term is a preposition

Adverbs are similar to Prepositions, but slightly different. An adverb doesn’t take an object. Adverbs such as these usually appear at the end of the clause or sentence. 

ex: "He ran down the stairs", then down is a preposition, since the noun "stairs" appears after the term "down". If it's "He ran down", then "down" is an adverb since there's no object.

ex: Maria looked out the window. => Here out is a preposition, since object "window" is present. If it's "We’re going out at 7:00 pm tonight", then out is an adverb, as there's no object, It's just the time that's mentioned.

Spanish language has same word for different prepositions, so it's very hard to learn how to use them properly. They are the ones that are mastered the last, but are used the most. Many words are both adverbs and prepositions, and their usage with or without an object determines what they classify as. We'll go over basic prepositions and adverbs (they are not strictly one or the other but general guidance).

Prepositions:

Often a preposition is a short word such as but, for, and, etc.

• pero => but (i.e I want to go, but I can't => quiero ir, pero no puedo). Also used as "yet", which is similar to "but". ex: yet I failed => but still I failed.
• para => for
• por => By
• y (pronounced spanish "e" or English "a") => and. i.e Balls and balloons.
• o => OR. Do you like tennis or Football? => ¿te/le gusta el tenis o el fútbol? =>  gustar is explained under -ar verb separately.

Adverbs:

Often adverbs are words like If, then, with, to, etc.

• Si => If. This is w/o an accent. If we put an accent on i, then Sí (with an accent on i) => yes.
• con => with.
• a => To (we saw this in verb section and personal "a" section).
  • al => To the. If "a" is followed by el (masculine noun), we combine them to form short cut +el = al. See in "ir verb" section.
• en => in/on. It can mean either "in", "on","at", "inside", etc and meaning is clear from context. estar form is used as it's location.
  
  • in: estoy en casa => I'm in the house
  • on: el libro está en la mesa => the book is on the table. If we used "la caja", then en will mean "in" as most likely "it's in the box".
• de => of or from. Most commonly used meaning of "de" is of, but sometimes it means "from" too. There are many other meanings too depending on context.
  
  • of:
    • el presidente de Francia => the president of France
    • to the right/left of => a la derecha de / a la izquierda de
  • from:
    • Soy de Londres. I’m from London.
  • del => of the / from the. If de is followed by el (i.e masculine noun), we combine the 2 words to form "de+el=del". el is used as "the" for masculine nouns, so del only appears with masculine nouns (of + the + masculine noun). If we have feminine nouns that require la, then de + la remain separate.
    • Es la casa del padre de mi amigo => It is the house of my friend’s father (the father of my friend). Since it's "de el padre", it becomes "del padre"
      
    • Es la casa de la madre de mi amigo. Here, because madre is feminine, you use la, (don't combine de and la)
      
    • He is from the market => él es del mercado. If it was "from the class", then it's "de la clase"
• sobre => about. ex: I want a book about cars => quiero un libro sobre autos
• adentro / afuera => inside / outside
  
  • ex: ¿Dónde están las llaves? => Where are the Keys? Response would be "The keys are inside / outside" => las llaves están adentro / afuera (we can drop "las llaves" as is generally donw with I, you in spanish). So simply "están adentro / afuera"
• cada/todo/todos=> each/all (see in "numbers" section)
• tambíén => Also. as well, too
  
  • ex: él también tienes mucho talento => He too has a lot of talent.
• entonces => then or so. As we use in common sentences. ex: Then what? => ¿entonces qué?

Prepositional Pronouns (PP):

When Pronouns are used after a preposition, they are known as prepositional pronouns (PP). Ex: This is for him. Here "him" has preposition "for", so it's a PP, and has to follow the table below. The transformation table for PP remains same for all entries of 3x2 table, except for 1st and 2nd person singular. There is one other rule with "con" => 1st and 2nd table entries change to combine con with PP. It becomes con+PP+go all in 1 word. See below.

 NOTE: him, her, them, us, etc should have followed DOP/IOP tables shown in Pronouns section. But instead since they have prepositions, they follow the below table.