Estoy tratando 'de' (?) aprender

Question

Hi,

I'm fairly okay with the use of 'de' as a preposition in Spanish (eg. to express possession, origin etc). But I recently saw this sentence:

Estoy tratando de aprender.

Which I understand to mean... I am trying to learn.

My question is, why is 'de' used in this sentence?

I'm sure there's a simple explanation! Thanks in advance, Tom

With auto correct and format problems my link isn't great but the profedeele.es site is very good. - Mardle, Aug 23, 2017

Answer 1

Some verbs in Spanish are always followed by a preposition eg Asistir a means to attend Soñar con = dream of or dream about. Some verbs change their meaning depending on the preposition which follows. Tratar de in your sentence = try to.

Just imagine how difficult our phrasal verbs are for Spanish speakers? Try adding different prepositions to the verb break.

Here is a short list on the profe for site. If you search his site he does have a downloadable PDF with more than 300 examples

Profe ele 100 verbs followed by preposition

Many thanks. That's very helpful! - Tom4445, Aug 23, 2017

@Mardle, I edited your link so that it's clickable. - NKM1974, Aug 23, 2017

Thanks again. - Mardle, Aug 23, 2017

Answer 2

The expression is
Tratar +de+ infinitive. There is no reason.

Yo trato de estudiar mucho.
Tú tratas de comer poco.
Pedro trató de ganar más dinero.
Yo trataré de aprender a cocinar.

Why do you say interested in and not interested of ?
Why do you say congratulate on and not congratulate of?
Why do you say depend on and not depend of ?

The preposition that is correct with a certain verb, noun or adjective doesn't usually have an explanation. Native speakers of a language know which preposition is correct. They feel it though there are lists of the appropriate prepositions.
Remember prepositions are mostly grammar words not content words.

Answer 3

Hello!

This link from 2010 might be pertinent to this subject. How do you say, "I'm trying to learn Spanish"?

Hope this helps.

Regards!