Spanish prepositions

The prepositions of the Spanish language—like prepositions in other languages—are a set of connecting words (such as con, de or para) that serve to indicate a relationship between a content word (noun, verb, or adjective) and a following noun phrase (or noun, or pronoun), called the object of the preposition. The relationship is typically spatial or temporal, but prepositions express other relationships as well. As implied by the name, Spanish "pre-positions" (like those of English) are positioned before their objects. Spanish does not place these function words after their objects; the language does not use postpositions.

Spanish prepositions can be classified as either "simple", consisting of a single word, or "compound", consisting of two or three words. The simple prepositions of Spanish form a closed class, meaning that they constitute a limited set to which new items are rarely added. Many Spanish school pupils memorize the list: a, ante, bajo, cabe, con, contra, de, desde, durante, en, entre, hacia, hasta, mediante, para, por, según, sin, so, sobre, and tras. This list includes two archaic prepositions — so (“under”) and cabe (“beside”) — and it excludes vía (“by way of, via”) and pro (“in favor of”), two Latinisms recently adopted into the language.