Ah, prepositions!

They surely give us one heck of a hard time when we are learning a foreign language. If you want to learn Spanish one of the most common prepositions is “de”. Let’s check out some of its uses.

1. from, indicates origin

Venía del teatro cuando vio el accidente. [He was coming from the theater when he saw the accident.]
Tren procedente de Bilbao. [Train coming from Bilbao.]
La vajilla es de China. [The china is from China – cool this one, isn’t it?]

2. possession

La casa de nuestros amigos está muy lejos. [Our friends’ house is very far.]
La puerta de mi habitación está rota. Tengo que arreglarla. [My bedroom door is broken. I have to fix it.]
Este auto es de María. [This car is Maria’s.]

3. Content

Un vaso de vino [a glass of wine]
Un tren de mercancías [a merchandise train]
En la heladera hay un plato lleno de frutas. [In the fridge there’s a plate full of fruits.]

4. What something is made of

Una silla de madera [a wooden chair]
Una máquina de acero [a steel machine]
Una camiseta de algodón [a cotton T-shirt]

5. Topic

Hablaremos de los problemas de la educación pública. [We will talk about public education.]
El arte de la cocina [the art of cooking]

6. Age

Tengo un hijo de ocho años. [I have an eight-year-old son.]
Tienen un hermano de cinco meses. [They have a five-month-old brother.]

7. Price

Un coche de quince mil dólares [A fifteen thousand dollar car]
Un piso de un millón de pesos [A million pesos apartment]

8. If, indicates condition

De ser como tú dices, debemos ir de prisa. [If it’s as you say, we must hurry.]

9. When it comes before a number, it expresses that something was done fast.

Se bebío la cerveza de dos tragos. [He drank the beer in two gulps.]
Vamos a terminar este trabajo de una vez. [Let’s finish this work once and for all.]

10. It can contain pity, shame or threatening expressions.

¡Ay de ti si te encuentro otra vez fumando! [You’re dead if I catch you smoking again!]
¡Pobre de mi mamá! La veo tan triste. [Poor Mom! She looks so sad.]

11. With an infinitive it can create several expressions:

duro de pelar [a hard nut – difficult person]
hora de dormir [time to sleep]
fácil de hacer [easy to do]
difícil de creer [hard do believe]

These are only the most common uses of “de”. Remember when you study Spanish to pay attention to how it’s used, write it down, review it all the time. Want to learn more Spanish? We have we’ve got a lot of great resources for you.  Just keep at it and you’ll get there!

Por hoy es todo. Nos vemos muy prontito.