What pronouns do you use after a preposition in Spanish?

Prepositional object pronouns are the pronouns used after a preposition in Spanish. For example: Carlos habló con él (meaning Carlos spoke with him). Does the pronoun "él " look familiar to you? Fortunately, prepositional object pronouns look almost the same as Spanish subject pronouns, except in a few forms. We will cover all the forms in this post!

Prepositions are words like para (meaning for), a (meaning to), en (meaning in), de (meaning for) and they are used to indicate location, movement, time, place, etc.

Now, imagine you hear someone say, “I want a cup of coffee without” or “She left this morning with.” Would you get the complete meaning of those sentences? No, you need a word after the preposition for it to make sense. Similarly to what happens in English, prepositions in Spanish need an object (which can be an infinitive verb, a noun, or a pronoun) to be complete.

• preposition + infinitive

  No quiero nada de comer. (meaning I don’t want anything to eat.)

• preposition + noun

  Quiero un café sin azúcar. (meaning I want a coffee without sugar.)

• preposition + pronoun

  Juanita salió esta mañana sin nosotros. (meaning Juanita left this morning without us.)

Usually, object pronouns for prepositions in Spanish are the same as subject pronouns, but they change for the first person singular (yo meaning I) and second person singular (tú meaning you). For these two pronouns, we need to use mí (meaning me) and ti (meaning you) respectively:

Subject pronoun yo → prepositional object mí

Subject pronoun tú → prepositional object ti

For all other cases, you can use the same forms of the Spanish subject pronouns:

Here’s a summary with all the forms:

*vos is the equivalent of pronoun tú in many parts of Latin America

**vosotros/vosotras are only used in Spain.

The forms above are applicable to most prepositions in Spanish, such as para (meaning to), sin (meaning without), hacia (meaning towards), hasta (meaning until), contra (meaning against), a (meaning to), ante (meaning in front of), por (meaning for), de (meaning from), desde (meaning from), or en (meaning in).

There are a few exceptions, such as with preposition con (meaning with) and según (meaning according to). Let’s find out more!

• Preposition ‘con’

  The forms with preposition “con” are different for pronouns yo and tú, they are: conmigo (meaning with me) and contigo (meaning with you).

  El director quiso hablar conmigo pero no contigo.

  Translation: The principal wanted to speak with me but not with you.

  There are two forms used with the singular pronouns él, ella, usted and the plural pronouns ellos, ellas, and ustedes. When the subject and the object of the preposition are different, we use con + the same form as the subject pronoun: con él (meaning with him), con ella (meaning with her), and con usted (meaning with you-formal), etc. But when the subject and the object of the preposition are the same (i.e. reflexive) we use the form consigo for all six pronouns.

  Queremos hablar con él.

  Translation: We want to speak with him.

  El señor Sánchez trajo consigo los documentos.

  Translation: Mr. Sanchez brought the documents with him.

  Mi perro se quiere ir con ustedes.

  Translation: My dog wants to leave with you (all).

  Ustedes se llevarán consigo una importante lección.

  Translation: You will take with yourselves an important lesson.

• Prepositions that take the same forms as subject pronouns

  There are a few prepositions that do not take mí and ti and instead use the same forms as the subject pronouns. These prepositions are:

  • entre (meaning between)

    Te voy a decir algo entre tú y yo.

    Translation: I’m going to tell you something between you and me.
  • excepto (meaning except)

    Todos fueron excepto yo.

    Translation: Everyone went except me.
  • según (meaning according to)

    Según tú, este es el mejor puesto de tacos.

    Translation: According to you, this is the best taco stand.

The prepositional object pronouns are the personal pronouns used after prepositions in Spanish. They have almost identical forms to the Spanish subject pronouns, which make them easy to remember. So, next time you want to use a preposition joined by a pronoun, don’t forget to use the right forms for yo and tú! Ready to put your new skills to the test? Here’s an exercise for you!

For a summary of the prepositional object pronouns, check out this table!