How do Spanish prepositions differ from English ones

Spanish prepositions differ from English prepositions in several key ways related to their usage, spatial and temporal meanings, syntactic roles, and the way they convey relations in sentences.

1. Spatial Meaning and Usage: Spanish prepositions often encode spatial relationships but tend to be more verb-framed, meaning the verb itself contributes more to the expression of motion and spatial relations than the preposition alone. English is satellite-framed, placing more explicit spatial information in prepositions (e.g., in, on, at). For example, Spanish uses the preposition a to indicate direction toward a goal, which can also extend metaphorically to temporal or abstract goals, whereas English uses several specific prepositions such as to, at, or until depending on context. Spanish prepositions sometimes cover a broader semantic range and can function in ways that English prepositions do not, such as the use of hasta to mean “until” with temporal nuance. ^{14, 16, 20}

2. Syntactic and Semantic Behaviors: Spanish prepositions can show subtle semantic shifts based on context, and they can combine tightly with verbs to form “prepositional verbs” that express meanings not easily decomposed into separate verb and preposition meanings. English prepositions are generally less flexible in such compositional roles. Moreover, Spanish distinguishes between small prepositions (e.g., bajo «under») and “big” prepositions that often incorporate the preposition with an article (e.g., debajo de «underneath») displaying asymmetries not present in English prepositions. ^{19, 20}

3. Temporal Prepositions: Spanish uses prepositions like desde (since) and hasta (until) with specific interval meanings that may carry aspectual and telic distinctions not found in the English equivalents. These prepositions can indicate intervals in time with additional nuance tied to verb aspect and telicity, creating distinctions in interpreting duration and endpoint of actions that English prepositions do not explicitly mark. ^{15, 14}

4. Acquisition and Cross-Linguistic Influence: Spanish speakers learning English as a second language often face challenges with English prepositions due to these foundational differences in how spatial and temporal relations are structured and expressed in the two languages. English prepositions have more numerous and varied forms with fine semantic distinctions, whereas Spanish prepositions may carry multiple meanings across spatial and temporal domains flexibly. ^{1, 18}

In summary, Spanish prepositions differ from English ones in that Spanish prepositions can function in broader spatial and temporal contexts, contribute to verb meanings in complex ways, and convey nuances of aspect and telicity that English prepositions do not. English prepositions tend to be more discrete in their spatial and relational meanings, leading to challenges in cross-language learning and translation. ^{16, 20, 1, 14}

References

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• Acquisition of Spanish Temporal Adverbials by Multilingual Estonian Learners

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• Resultative secondary predicates in cooking recipes: an empirical study of Germanic and Romance languages

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• Cross-linguistic and cross-categorial variation of datives*

• Parents’ Perspectives about Special Education Needs during COVID-19: Differences between Spanish and English-Speaking Parents

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• Spanish prepositions and silent PLACE