FAM: Lesson - The Preposition DE

A null sign, indicating that the letters 's are not allowed.The Preposition DE

In English, when we express possession, we often use a special ending which includes the letter s and an apostrophe ('s/s'):

  • Singular: the dog's bowl
  • Plural: the boys' friends

Spanish will not use a formation like this, instead using a prepositional phrase featuring the word de. There is no apostrophe s in Spanish!

Spanish Possession with De

Have a look at these examples to see how it works:

  • La abuela de Lucía. - Lucía's grandma.
  • El libro de mi hermana. - My sister's book.
  • Los lápices de mi hermano. - My brother’s pencils.
  • Los amigos de Carlota. - Carlota's friends.

As you can see, in Spanish the word order is different from the English use of 's.

In Spanish, we name the possession first, the preposition, and then the possessor. So, we see:

  • la abuela (possession)
  • de (preposition)
  • Lucía (possessor)

Which gives us the literal translation: the grandma of Lucía.

Contractions with De

Spanish uses contractions, and one of them involves the preposition de. If the article el comes after de, you need to contract the two words to del:

  • El cuaderno del estudiante. - The student's notebook.
    • del takes the place of "de el" (you can see why del would be preferred, right?)

On the other hand, you will not contract in front of the feminine article la:

  • El cuaderno de la niña. - The girl's notebook.

Video Lesson

A notebook and pen with ¡Toma apuntes! written on it.Watch this video lesson to see more examples of how to use the preposition de. Don´t forget: necesitas un lápiz y un cuaderno para tomar notas (you need a pencil and notebook to take notes).

Reminder: the speaker in this video uses a regional pronunciation of the Spanish LL sound. In our previous lesson, we learned that LL makes a y sound in Spanish: me llamo = me yamo. However, in some regional dialects of Spanish, the LL sound makes a sound closer to the English J sound: me llamo = me jamo. The narrator in the following video uses this alternate pronunciation.  For our course, you are expected to use the standard y pronunciation for LL.

Video credit: Spanish Pod 101 - Innovative Language (mobileapps@innovativelanguage.com)

A stick note with La actividad de práctica written on it.

Practice Activity

Was this lesson helpful? Do you think you can use DE in a simple sentence in Spanish? Let’s practice together. All practice activities have unlimited attempts. Practice as many times as you need. 

NOTE: You are required to use information from this course to complete all practice activities. Additionally, fill-in-the-blank activities can be very particular: if an item is marked incorrect, double check that it wasn't something as minor as an extra space or a capital letter in the wrong place!

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