How well do you know prepositions of movement in Spanish?
If you can understand and use prepositions correctly you can do anything! Prepositions are tough because they don’t translate well. They tend to cause English students grief. But in this episode of the podcast we will be looking at a few examples to try and make things a little bit easier.
There are lots of Spanish prepositions that you will need to get to know overtime. But you maybe able to find some solace in the fact that there are lots of language students out there that are struggling to learn prepositions going from any language to any other language – it doesn’t just apply for English to Spanish.
To break things down, in this episode we will be looking at prepositions of movement.
What this means is that we will be looking at things like: arriving to, leaving from, coming to, entering into etc.
Now in that last sentence can you see the prepositions – to, from, to, into – think about someone learning English and having to understand that you enter “into” not enter “in” or enter “to”. Hopefully, you can see here that they are tough and that you should definitely be kind to yourself if you make mistakes with these.
Earlier podcast episodes mentioned:
– Tip number 9 – Para ser
– Tip number 11 – Estoy por
The two tips of the podcast are:
- In Spanish people travel “in” (en) cars, trains, aeroplanes.
- Things travel “by” (por) cars, trains, aeroplanes.
So there are 8 prepositions of movement that we discuss in today’s podcast they are:
- Estar en
- Ir a
- Irse de
- Llegar a
- Entrar en
- Volver / Regresar a
- Salir de
- Venir de
Examples from today’s episode:
I’m at home – Estoy en casa.
She is in Córdoba with her family – Ella está en Córdoba con su familia.
We are at the movies – Estamos en cine.
I go to the office in a train – Voy a la oficina en tren.
Normally I go to work in an aeroplane – Normalmente voy al trabajo en avión.
We go to Spain in two days – Vamos a España en dos días.
I leave Barcelona next monday – Me voy de Barcelona el próximo lunes.
My mother leaves from México – Mi madre se va de México.
I have already arrived at home – Ya he llegado a casa.
The aeroplane arrives at Madrid at 3 o’clock – El avión llega a Madrid a las 3.
I arrive at Logroño on saturday mornings – Llego a Logroño los sábados por la mañana.
Maria enters the school at 9 o’clock – Maria entra en la escuela a las 9.
We enter the park – Entramos en el parque.
We are returning to Australia this month – Vamos a volver a Australia este mes.
I have returned to Valencia by train this morning – He vuelto a Valencia en tren esta mañana.
Ana returns to Barcelona today – Ana vuelve a Barcelona hoy.
We leave Madrid – Salimos de Madrid.
We leave Granada – Salimos de Granada.
Marcos leaves his house during the afternoon – Marcos sale de casa por la tarde.
I leave Seville on Friday – Salgo de Sevilla el viernes.
My brother comes from Gijón on wednesday – Mi hermano viene de Gijón el miércoles.
I have come from the beach – Vengo de la playa.
Send me a letter by aeroplane – Mandame una carta por avión.
This episodes quote:
“Todo ser nuevo que encontramos viene de otro relato y es el puente que une dos leyendas y dos mundos.” – William Ospina
How else can these prepositions of movement be used?
Podcast: Play in new window
I’m wondering about the example sentence “Vengo de la playa” for “I have come from the beach”. Are there situations where you would say “He venido de la playa” instead of “Vengo de la playa”? Thank you for the great study material.
Gracias Gary por la pregunta. Yes, you can use both constructions. If you were being slightly more formal, if someone asked you “where have you come from?”, you could say “he venido de la playa esta mañana” (I have come from the beach this morning). If someone asked you why you are wearing your beach clothes, you could say “vengo de la playa” (I come from the beach). This second case doesn’t sound so natural in English but it is okay in Spanish.