Spanish Prepositions - A, DE, EN, HACIA, and CON

You have already become used to using many prepositions in Spanish. The direction words that you learned in the section on The Spanish Verb estar (such as en, entre, detrás, adelante) were prepositions. Other Spanish prepositions that you have been using without realizing it are a and de.

Resources for further reading:

• Find out how to pronounce Spanish words properly
• The top ten hacks to fast-tracking your Spanish

It is useful to go back to these prepositions and take a second look, as they can have multiple meanings depending on the context. In this lesson, we’ll look at a, de, en, hacia, and con. You will hear these words all the time in a variety of contexts. Unfortunately, there is no single meaning in English for any of them.

Preposition	Translation
a	to, at, from, by, on, for, upon
con	with, to
de	of, about, on, with, because of, by, at
en	in, on, at
hacia	towards, to, at about or around

Investigating 'a'

The word a is one of the all-time useful Spanish words. You'll hear it everywhere, wither alone of combined with el to form the contraction al.

In addition to these ordinary usages, a can also be used as a command.

Read the following story about Carlos' trip to Lima, Peru, and look at teh number of ways in which the word a is used.

1. Carlos iba a Lima.

Carlos was going to Lima.

2. Él subió al tren.

He got on the train.

3. Llegó a la ciudad.

He arrived in the city.

4. Su hotel estaba a la derecha de la estación del tren.

His hotel was to the right of the train station.

5. A la una almorzó.

At one o’clock he had lunch.

6. Al terminar de comer, recorrió la ciudad a pie.

Upon finishing eating, he went round the city on foot.

7. Compró un recuerdo a una señora en el mercado.

He bought a souvenir from a lady in the market.

8. Mandó un postal a su novia.

He sent a postcard to his girlfriend.

9. Fue a dormir.

He went to sleep.

Below are some more examples:

Don't forget that Spanish also requires you to add an a when a human being serves as the direct or indirect object of a sentence.

Por ejemplo (for example):

Examples of ‘de’

The preposition de is also widely used in Spanish for a variety of purposes. In general, it means “of” or “from,” although it can be used to indicate possession, origin, type, composition, and more. Let’s look at some uses:

Uses of de	Examples	Translation
Possession	Los padres de Sara	Sarah’s parents
	El negocio del Señor Goodwin	Mr. Goodwin’s business
Origin	Él es de argentina.	He is from Argentina.
	El queso es de Gales.	The cheese is from Wales.
Subject	Un libro de español.	a Spanish book
	Una compañía de computadoras.	a computer company
	Ella sabe todo de las matemáticas.	She knows everything about math.
Position Phrases	encima de	on top of
	al lado de	beside
From Here to There	de aquí a Miami	from here to Miami
	de una cosa a otra	from one thing to another
Parts	un pedazo de manzana	a piece of apple
	un poco de crema	a little cream
Time	de día	by day
	de sábado a domingo	from Saturday to Sunday
Cause	morir de risas	to die of laughter
	gritar de frustración	to shout from frustration
Composition	Está hecho de lana.	It’s made of wool.
	una camisa de seda	a silk shirt
	carne de res	beef

Looking at ‘en’

En is another useful, all-purpose word that can be used to express “in,” “on,” “by.”

Uses of en	Examples	Translation
Time	en el verano	in the summer
	en un minuto	in a minute
	en la mañana	in the morning
	El queso es de Gales.	The cheese is from Wales.
Place	Estamos en casa.	We are at home.
	Entramos en la casa.	We enter the house.
	Hablamos en el bus.	We talk on the bus.
	Caminamos en el bosque.	We walk in the forest.
Method of Travel	Voy en tren.	I go by train.
	Viajo en avión.	I travel by plane.
	Cruzo el océano en barco.	I cross the ocean by boat.
Mode	Hablas en español.	You speak in Spanish.
	Estás en serio.	You are serious.
Subject	Eres bueno en las lenguas.	You are good at languages.
	Eres experto en los negocios.	You are expert in business.

Understanding ‘hacia’

First of all, don’t make the mistake of confusing hacía with hacia! Hacia is one of those words that will change its meaning completely depending on whether it has an accent mark or not.

• hacia is a preposition that means “towards” or “to”
• hacía is the third person singular form of the verb hacer in the imperfect.

The preposition hacia can be used:

• to express the direction of movement (in which it means towards or to)

  Caminamos hacia la luz. - We walked towards the light.

• to express the roughness of a time estimate (where it can mean around or about)

  Te llamo hacia las tres. - I’ll call you about three.

• or in the following phrases:

  hacia abajo - down, downwards

  hacia adelante - forwards

  hacia arriba - up, upwards

  hacia atrás - back, backwards

Take a look at some examples below:

More with ‘con’

Most of the time, con will mean “with.” As a result, you’ll find it quite easy to use.

Por ejemplo:

But con has several other uses as well. You can also use con to express surprise at a known statement or simply to emphasize the importance of something or someone.

Por ejemplo:

The following usages of con are a bit more specialized. You’ll recognize them from their context.

Don’t forget that when con is followed by either mí or ti, the words merge together to form a contraction.

con + mí = conmigo

con + ti = contigo

Hopefully this cleared up some of your confusion. Feel free to take a look at lessons on other Spanish Prepositions:

• In Spanish, the prepositional pronouns are exactly the same as the subject pronouns with the exceptions of “mí” and “ti”. Check out this lesson for more!
• This lesson covers the Spanish prepositions desde, entre, sin, and hasta.
• The Spanish prepositions por and para are extraordinarily confusing in Spanish, learn how to use them here!

See you soon! ¡Hasta pronto!

Mauricio Evlampieff: Rocket Spanish