Spanish Prepositions.
Estimados SpanishDict, I am pretty much fluent in Spanish, but the one thing that trips me up are prepositions. There are many instances in Spanish when you are to add a preposition, such as "De, a, etc" following an infinitive. A couple examples I have seen in everyday usage are, "contactar a" and "despues de" Is there ever a sure fire way to know when a preposition is needed?
Gracias,
4 Answers
I have always found this site very useful.
I never forget 'asistir a' having on a number of occasions missed my Spanish class and having to email to say I couldn't attend.
At the end of the day, you're just going to have to memorize the preposition each verb uses. It sucks, and is frustrating, but prepositions are "chosen" completely arbitrarily (why is it "dream about" in English but "dream with" in Spanish?) and there's no rhyme or reason.
That's one of the reasons I feel learning sentences is more valuable than learning a list of verbs. Seeing how a verb is used in a sentence automatically lets you remember the preposition.
If it's any consolidation, tons of languages work this way (Japanese, Hindi, English, etc.) so it's not something only Spanish learners have to deal with.
In another course I learned that 'a' always follows verbs of movement such as ir verbs. "Voy a mi casa". "Vamos a tu casa."
I'm nowhere near fluent, so you may already know that, but maybe another beginner won't?
Here is a link to a good Spanish Wikipedia article on your question.
