Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Pronouns and Prepositions, Premium 3rd Edition (2016)
Part I. PRONOUNS
Chapter 3. Prepositional pronouns
Standard prepositional pronouns
The pronouns that follow prepositions are nearly identical to the subject pronouns. The only change comes with the first- and second-person singular forms mí and ti. In this context, mí takes an accent over the i to distinguish it from mi, the possessive adjective, which means “my.”
Note that after a preposition, the word ello means “it” when the referent is an object, event, or idea that is either masculine or neuter; use ella for a feminine referent.
The following exercise includes several frequently used prepositions. For fuller discussion and a more complete vocabulary listing of prepositions, consult Part II, Prepositions.
Use these prepositions in translating the following sentences. Unless otherwise indicated, use the second-person singular Spanish form for English you.
1. He has a book for me. __________________________________________
2. I have a gift for you. __________________________________________
3. What do you have for me? __________________________________________
4. The table is from her. __________________________________________
5. I buy my books from them. __________________________________________
6. She runs ahead of us. __________________________________________
7. You are behind him. __________________________________________
8. He lives near me. __________________________________________
9. The carpet (la alfombra) is underneath us [f.]. __________________________________________
10. He lives near you [pl.]. __________________________________________
11. He writes a book about her. __________________________________________
12. We walk behind them. __________________________________________
13. She dances to the right of me. __________________________________________
14. They work to the left of you. __________________________________________
15. The food is in front of us. __________________________________________
Pronouns with con
Certain pronouns undergo some changes when they follow the preposition con (“with”). Those changes are as follows:
In situations where clarification is needed in the third person, the standard prepositional pronouns are used with con (“with”), as shown here:
In the first- and second-person singular, mí and ti become conmigo and contigo.
In the third person (both singular and plural), consigo is typically used when the object of the preposition refers to the subject.
Use con plus the appropriate standard prepositional pronoun when the object of the preposition refers to someone other than the subject of the sentence.
In the nosotros and vosotros forms, the subject pronoun and the prepositional pronoun are identical.
Traducción Translate the following sentences. Use the indicators given to determine the appropriate Spanish form of you.
1. I’m with you [sing., informal]. ___________________________________________
2. You [sing., formal] are with me. ___________________________________________
3. She’s with him. ___________________________________________
4. He’s with her. ___________________________________________
5. I work with you [sing., informal] now. ___________________________________________
6. They live with me. ___________________________________________
7. Does she study with you [sing., informal]? ___________________________________________
8. Who lives with you [pl., formal]? ___________________________________________
9. Why don’t you [sing., informal) want to work with him? ___________________________________________
10. I want to speak with you [sing., formal]. ___________________________________________
11. He lives with us. ___________________________________________
12. She always takes the keys (la llave) with her. ___________________________________________
13. They [m.] never take the keys with them. ___________________________________________
14. The force (la fuerza) is with you. ___________________________________________
15. Why don’t you [sing., formal] take the umbrella (el paraguas) with you? ___________________________________________
16. Why don’t they [f.] take the umbrella with them? ___________________________________________
Subject pronouns with prepositions
There are six prepositions that take a subject pronoun—even in the first- and second-person singular—instead of the standard prepositional pronouns.
The prepositions excepto, menos, and salvo, all of which mean “except,” can, for the most part, be used interchangeably.
Traducción Translate the following sentences into Spanish. Unless otherwise indicated, use the second-person singular Spanish form for English you.
1. There are twenty people here, including you and me.
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2. According to her, money can buy happiness (la felicidad).
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3. Between you, me, and the grand piano (el piano de cola), this painting is ghastly (espantoso).
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4. I think (creer) that everybody (todo el mundo) here speaks German, except me.
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5. Between us and them, we have enough (suficiente) money.
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6. Everyone (todos) here is outraged (escandalizado), including me.
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7. Everyone in the neighborhood (la vecindad) has a swimming pool (la piscina), except us.
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8. We are in a lot of trouble (tener muchas dificultades), according to me.
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9. Everybody is ready (listo), except you [sing., formal].
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10. According to them, it is possible to live on Mars (Marte).
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Reflexive pronouns following a preposition
When you do something for yourself, it is called a reflexive action, because the action is reflected back to the performer of the action. (For a more complete discussion of reflexive pronouns, see Chapter 11, Reflexive object pronouns.) A reflexive action can be expressed either with a reflexive pronoun alone or with a PREPOSITION + PRONOUN. When a preposition is used—in the examples given below, we use the preposition a (“to”)—then the pronouns that follow the preposition are as shown below:
Traducción Translate the following sentences into Spanish.
1. I buy the car for (para) myself [m.].
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2. He does everything for (para) himself.
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3. They do everything by (por) themselves [m.].
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4. She hurts (perjudicar a) herself when she tells a lie (la mentira).
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5. You [f. pl., informal] only (sólo) hurt yourselves.
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6. I write notes (la nota) to myself [f.] in order to (para) remember (recordar) the things that I need to do.
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7. You should have time for (para) yourself [m.] every day.
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8. She always buys a gift for herself on her birthday.
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9. When I travel, I send my purchases (la compra) to myself [f.] through the mail (por correo).
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10. You [m. sing., formal] can’t sell your house to yourself. It’s ridiculous!
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Traducción Translate the following paragraph into Spanish.
Pedro is my friend. I am very happy, because he lives next door to me. A raccoon lives underneath my house. Between you [pl.] and me, I think that raccoons are interesting animals. I’m reading a book about them now. Usually the raccoon lives in a tree, but I am lucky because my house is on top of this raccoon. According to Pedro, the raccoon is part of the bear family, and he believes that if he sees the animal in front of him, it’s “good-bye, world.” When Pedro leaves (from) or enters (into) my house, he always looks to the left and then to the right.
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