Chapter 16 · B1
Prepositional Pronouns
Might help first: Ch. 11 — Subject Pronouns & Pro-Drop (a suggestion, never a requirement)
Every preposition needs something after it — a noun, or a pronoun standing in for one. English reuses the same object pronouns everywhere (“for me,” “with me,” “than me”), but Spanish reserves a dedicated set specifically for the slot after a preposition, and that set isn’t quite identical to any pronoun group you’ve already learned. Most of it is a near-copy of the subject pronouns from Chapter 11, with two small but essential changes in the first and second person singular — plus one genuinely irregular fusion, born centuries ago and never smoothed out, that native speakers use every day without a second thought: conmigo, “with me.”
Core Pattern: The Six Prepositional Pronoun Forms
Meet the set
A1Prepositional pronouns fill the familiar six-way grid. Compare them side by side with the subject pronouns from Chapter 11 and notice that only yo and tú actually change shape:
Este regalo es para mí.
This gift is for me.
No puedo salir sin ti.
I can't go out without you.
Use after common prepositions
A2Almost any preposition that governs a noun governs one of these pronouns the same way: de, en, para, por, sin, sobre, contra, hacia, desde, ante, tras…
No sé nada de él.
I don't know anything about him.
El regalo es para nosotros, no para ellos.
The gift is for us, not for them.
Confío en ti más que en nadie.
I trust you more than anyone.
Building Out: The Conmigo/Contigo/Consigo Fusion
The irregular fusion: conmigo, contigo, consigo
B1Con (“with”) is the one preposition that refuses to combine with mí and ti the ordinary way. Instead of con mí and con ti, Spanish fuses them into single irregular words — a fossil left over from Latin, where “with me” and “with you” were built by tacking -cum (“with”) onto the end of the pronoun (mecum, tecum). Centuries later, speakers stopped recognizing -cum as meaning “with” on its own, so they added a second, redundant con to the front — and the doubled-up result is what stuck:
| Person | Fused form |
|---|---|
| yo | conmigo |
| tú | contigo |
| él/ella/usted, ellos/ellas/ustedes (reflexive only — see below) | consigo |
| él/ella/usted, nosotros, vosotros, ellos/ellas/ustedes (non-reflexive) | con él / con nosotros / con vosotros / con ellos… |
¿Quieres venir conmigo al cine?
Do you want to come with me to the movies?
Siempre trae su perro contigo — perdón, contigo no, ¡conmigo!
He always brings his dog with — sorry, not with you, with me!
Consigo: reflexive only
B1+Consigo is the third fused form, but it has a narrower job than conmigo/contigo: it’s used only when “with him/her/you/them” refers back to the same person who is the subject of the sentence — a reflexive relationship, in the same spirit as Chapter 15’s reflexive pronouns. When the object of con is a different third person from the subject, Spanish uses the ordinary, non-fused con él/con ella/con ellos instead:
Lleva las llaves consigo a todas partes.
She carries the keys with her everywhere.
María fue al cine con él.
María went to the movies with him.
Nuance, Exceptions & Contrast
Prepositional pronouns vs. subject pronouns after que
B1Chapter 5 flagged this contrast and depends on it, so it’s worth stating cleanly here: a true preposition — para, sin, de, con, contra, and the rest — always takes a prepositional pronoun (mí, ti). But que, in a comparison like más alto que yo, isn’t a true preposition at all; it introduces an elliptical clause (más alto que yo [soy alto], “taller than I am tall”), and clauses take subject pronouns, not prepositional ones:
Corre más rápido que yo.
He runs faster than I do.
Este regalo es para mí, no para ti.
This gift is for me, not for you.
The test is mechanical, not a matter of feel: if you could restate the phrase as a clause with an implied verb (que yo [corro]), use the subject pronoun; if the word genuinely governs the pronoun the way a preposition governs a noun, use mí/ti.
A few words that look like prepositions but take subject pronouns
B2Que isn’t alone. A small set of prepositions — entre (between), según (according to), and the near-conjunctions excepto/salvo/menos (except) — also break the mí/ti pattern and take subject pronouns instead, for reasons rooted in their individual histories rather than one shared rule:
Entre tú y yo, no confío en su plan.
Between you and me, I don't trust his plan.
Según tú, el examen fue fácil.
According to you, the exam was easy.
Todos vinieron excepto yo.
Everyone came except me.
Redundant, emphatic doubling: a mí, a ti…
B1Some verbs grammatically require an indirect object pronoun even in an ordinary, unemphatic sentence — gustar and its whole family are the most common case, covered fully in Chapter 24, but the same mechanic shows up with doler, interesar, and any verb that uses an IO pronoun (see Chapters 13–14). When you want to add emphasis, contrast, or clarification, Spanish doesn’t replace that IO pronoun — it adds a plus the matching prepositional pronoun alongside it:
A mí me gusta el chocolate, pero a él no le gusta.
I like chocolate, but he doesn't.
A ti te toca ahora.
It's your turn now.
Bringing It Together
A mí me encanta viajar, así que le pregunté a mi hermana si quería venir conmigo. Entre tú y yo, no esperaba que dijera que sí — pero al final decidió que, según ella, un viaje así solo se hace una vez, y no quería perdérselo por quedarse en casa sin mí.
I love traveling, so I asked my sister if she wanted to come with me. Between you and me, I didn't expect her to say yes — but in the end she decided that, according to her, a trip like this only happens once, and she didn't want to miss it by staying home without me.
Prepositional pronouns are a small, closed system, and one question resolves almost every choice: is a true preposition governing this pronoun (use mí/ti, or the fused conmigo/contigo/consigo after con), or is que/entre/según/excepto involved instead (use the subject pronoun)?
Where to Go Next
- Chapter 5, Adjectives: Comparatives, Superlatives & Productive Suffixes — the que yo, not que mí comparison rule this chapter restates and fully explains.
- Chapter 7, Possessives — uses de él/de ella/de usted from this chapter’s core pattern to disambiguate su/suyo.
- Chapter 13, Indirect Object Pronouns and Chapter 14, Double Object Pronouns — the IO pronouns that a mí, a ti… doubles for emphasis.
- Chapter 15, Reflexive Pronouns & Reflexive Verbs — the reflexive logic behind consigo, spelled out fully there for verbs rather than prepositions.
- Chapter 24, Gustar & Verbs Like It — the full verb family behind a mí me gusta, only previewed here.
Ready to practice?
9 exercises · multiple-choice, fill-blank, error-correction…