Prepositional Pronouns

So what are prepositional pronouns? They’re pronouns that follow prepositions. Unfortunately, these days the next question is “What are prepositions?” You shouldn’t reach college without knowing what prepositions are. Unfortunately, many of you have.

Prepositions are words that show the relationship between other words. The boy with the gorgeous smile is my brother. “With” shows the relationship between “boy” and “smile.” He lives in Alaska. “In” shows the relationship between “lives” and “Alaska.”

In English, prepositions are usually, but not always, short words: offrom toat innear forunder overwith BUT betweenbeneath duringbefore besideinside outside

A large number of Spanish prepositions have “de” with them: después de--afterantes de--before debajo de--undercerca de--near al lado de--besidedentro de--inside fuera de--outside entre—betweencon—with en—in, at, onsobre—on, about de—fromdurante—during a—topor—for, by para--for

In English, direct object pronouns (d.o.), indirect object pronouns (i.o.), and prepositional pronouns (p.p.) are all the same: meus youy’all him,her,itthem d.o. i.o p.p. Juan sees me./Juan gave me the rose./Juan lives near me.

In Spanish, however, there are three different sets: direct indirect menosmenos teosteos lo, lalos, lasleles prepositional mínosotros tivosotros él, ella, Ud.ellos, Uds.

Let’s look at those again: prepositional nosotros vosotros él, ella, Ud.ellos, Uds. They look a little familiar. That’s because, with the exception of “mí” and “ti,” they’re identical to SUBJECT pronouns: nosotros vosotros él, ella, Ud.ellos, Uds. mí ti yo tú

“Mí” probably also looks a little familiar. That’s because you’ve had “mi.” Remember what it means? “My”—mi casa. So the accent mark is important. It makes the difference between a prepositional PRONOUN (mí) and a possessive ADJECTIVE (mi).

Let’s see what these pronouns look like in context: Juan habla con ella. Yo compré un libro para ti. Elisa vive cerca de mí. Esa carta es de nosotros.

So it’s simple. Whenever you have a preposition and need a pronoun after it, use one of these: prepositional mínosotros tivosotros él, ella, Ud.ellos, Uds.

And you’ll never guess how you’ll be tested over it: multiple choice But there’s a catch. You’ll have direct objects, indirect objects, reflexives, subjects, and possessives mixed in there. So it might be a good idea to review them.

prepositionalsubject mínosotrosyonosotros tivosotrostúvosotros él, ella, Ud.ellos, Uds.él, ella, Ud.ellos, Uds. direct object indirect object menosmenos teosteos lo, lalos, lasleles reflexive possessive ADJECTIVES menosminuestro teostuvuestro sesesusu

Click here to go to your first homework exercise.here Click here to go to your second homework exercise.here Below are links to other pronoun lessons: Direct objects Indirect objects Reflexive Subject Possessive ADJECTIVES