Ask any of my intermediate students what still feels random after a year of Spanish and they say the same thing: the prepositions. En or a? Por or durante? Desde or hace? This hub organizes Spanish prepositions by the question they answer, where, when, how and for how long, so the choice stops feeling like a coin toss.
The map is simple. Three lessons cover the three big families of Spanish prepositions: place, time and manner. Three more zoom in on the trickiest job of all, talking about duration, where English "for," "since" and "how long" all need their own Spanish solution.
Where, when, how, and for how long
1. Spanish prepositions of place. En, sobre, debajo de, entre, delante de, detrás de: El gato está debajo de la mesa. (The cat is under the table.) Start here because location is the first thing you describe in a new city, and because estar + place is a pattern you already know.
2. Spanish prepositions of time. A for clock time, en for months and years, por for parts of the day, de for "in the morning" after a time: La reunión es a las nueve de la mañana. (The meeting is at nine in the morning.) Schedules, appointments and plans.
3. Spanish prepositions of manner. Con, sin, según, como, a: Lo hizo con cuidado. (He did it carefully.) Café sin azúcar. (Coffee without sugar.) How something is done, in one small word.
4. How long in Spanish. ¿Cuánto tiempo llevas…? and ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que…?: ¿Cuánto tiempo llevas en México? (How long have you been in Mexico?) The question every traveler gets asked, and the two structures that answer it.
5. Since and for in Spanish. Desde for a starting point, hace and desde hace for a length of time: Vivo aquí desde 2019. (I've lived here since 2019.) Vivo aquí desde hace cinco años. (I've lived here for five years.) Notice the present tense where English uses the present perfect.
6. Present perfect continuous in Spanish. The verb pattern that completes the duration set: llevar + gerund. Llevo dos horas esperando. (I've been waiting for two hours.) It belongs here because it is the natural answer to "how long," and because it replaces the clunky he estado esperando most learners reach for first.
Prepositions of place lean on estar, and the duration lessons lean on the present and present perfect, so the Spanish tenses hub is the best companion to this one. If articles and pronouns still feel shaky, the basic Spanish grammar hub comes first; prepositions attach to nouns, and nouns bring their articles with them.
| Lesson | Form / formula | Example | Use it when… |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prepositions of place | en, sobre, debajo de, entre, delante de, detrás de, al lado de | Las llaves están sobre la mesa. — The keys are on the table. | saying where someone or something is |
| Prepositions of time | a + hour · en + month / year · por + part of day · de + a.m. / p.m. | Nos vemos a las ocho. — See you at eight. | clock times, dates, schedules |
| Prepositions of manner | con, sin, según, como, a + noun | Habla con calma. — She speaks calmly. | describing how something is done |
| How long in Spanish | ¿Cuánto tiempo llevas + gerund? · ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que + present? | ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que estudias? — How long have you been studying? | asking about duration up to now |
| Since and for | desde + starting point · hace / desde hace + length of time | Trabajo aquí desde hace un año. — I've worked here for a year. | saying since when, or for how long, something has been true |
| Present perfect continuous | llevar + time + gerund | Llevo tres meses aprendiendo español. — I've been learning Spanish for three months. | an action still in progress, with its duration |
Do not study Spanish prepositions from a list; study them from a room and a calendar. Describe where everything in your kitchen is, then describe your week hour by hour, then answer "how long have you…?" about five things in your life. Three short exercises, and you will have used every preposition in this hub in a sentence you actually mean.