Lesson 40: More prepositions - with, to, of, from
Every language uses prepositions slightly differently when expressing certain concepts. In English we say 'about you', in Spanish we say 'in you'
Discovering these different uses can either be seen as a hurdle or as something fascinating. If you spend a little time to ponder "why?" on each occassion that you find a difference you will find learning much easier in the long term.
For exampe in English we say "I fall in love with you", In Spanish we say "I fall in love of you" and there is a philosophical point here to think about. In Spanish we recognise the process of falling in love is one sided - "I am in love of you" rather than the English where we attempt to make it a two way event by using "with" even if the feeling is only one sided!
If you have ever done any reading into Mindfulness or even basic Budhism you will have come across the concepts of "I" and "me". You'll notice these are far more evident in Spanish than in English when looking at prepositions as well as verbs such as "to like" which is in a lesson not far after this one!
So with that said lets fall in love ...
enamorarse - to fall in love
Of course 'enamorarse' is not a verb because it doesn't end 'ar', 'ir' or 'er' but the 'se' on the end is a signal that this is a reflexcive verb - it is something you do to yourself - and the actual verb is then 'enamorar'.
The closer English translation is really "to enamor" and it is perhaps better to remember it this way because in Spanish we are recognizing that "you enamor me" in the way we express this verb.
 Spanish |  English |
|---|---|
| Me enamoro | I enamor myself / I fall in love |
| Me enamoro de ti | I enamor myself of you / I fall in love with you |
| Me enamoro de él | I fall in love with him |
| Estoy enamorando me | I'm falling in love |
| Me estoy enamorando de él | I'm falling in love with him |
Those last two just point out the flexibility of where you can place 'me'.
Pensar
We covered 'pensar' earlier which is the verb "to think" and one we can remember thourgh "pensive" because that is how we can be when we are thinking.
In Spanish we say "I think in you" rather than "I think about you".
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Pienso en ti | I think about you |
Again we are seeing the 'e' in 'pensar' splitting to 'ie' because we put the accent on it while it doesn't happen in the "we" form because the accent goes on the penultimate syllable which becomes the 'a'.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Pensamos en ti | We think about you |
| Pensamos en ella | We think about her |
And remember we use 'ella' because we are not doing something "to" her. If we were it would be "le".
Soñar - to dream
'Soñar' is an especially interesting one because in English we say "I dream about you" while in Spanish we say "I dream with you".
Perhaps here there is a trace, in Spanish, of ancient thinking (and actually more modern thinking in certain beliefs) that we as humans believe others are actively in our dreams.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Soñar | To dream |
| Sueño | I dream |
| Soñamos | We dream |
| Sueño con ella | I dream about her |
| Sueña con él | He dreams about him |
Conmigo and Contigo
We said in the last lesson that 'con means "with" and we can remember that because we see it in English - "Consequence" means "with sequence".
We also saw how you can say 'con él' to mean with him. There are two exceptions to this:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Conmigo | With me |
| Contigo | With you |
| ¿Quieres venir conmigo? | Do you want to come with me? |
| ¿No quieres venir conmigo? | Don't you want to come with me? |
| ¿Por qué no quieres venir conmigo? | Why don't you want to come with me? |
| Tienes que venir conmigo | You have to come with me |
| ¿Puedes venir conmigo? | Can you come with me? |
So lets have a look at that concept with prepositions
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Sueño contigo | I dream about you |
| Voy contigo | I'm going with you |
| Depende de ella | It depends on her |
Let's try a mega sentence: "It depends on if she wants to go" by breaking it down:
- "It depends" - 'Depende'
- "on" (or more literally "of") - de
- "if" - 'si
- "she wants" - 'quiere'
- "to go" - 'ir'
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Depende de si quiere ir | It depends on if she wants to go |