Esperanto Prepositions: The Full List, With Examples

Each Esperanto preposition has one meaning, and none of them changes the noun after it. Kun la amiko, sen mono, sur la tablo: the noun stays plain. Five rules cover the whole system:

Where: place and movement

Six of the commonest, round one box:

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1. 1sur la skatolo
2. 2sub la skatolo
3. 3en la skatolo
4. 4apud la skatolo
5. 5malantaŭ la skatolo
6. 6antaŭ la skatolo

Sur la skatolo, on the box; sub, under it; en, in it; apud, beside it; malantaŭ, behind it; antaŭ, in front of it.

The rest of the place words:

Sur touches, super does not: the book is sur la tablo, the lamp hangs super la tablo.

And the movement words:

When

Antaŭ, post, ĝis and ĉirkaŭ work for place and for time; dum only for time:

• Ni manĝos post la filmo. - We will eat after the film.

The rest: with, for, about

English with hides two words. Kun is company; per is the tool:

• Mi manĝas kun amikoj. - I eat with friends.
• Mi manĝas per forko. - I eat with a fork.

No case after a preposition, except direction

A noun after a preposition stays plain, even when the verb lands on it: Mi parolis pri la filmo. (I talked about the film), never pri la filmon.

The one exception is movement. After a place word, -n turns where it is into where it goes:

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1. 1Li iras en la domon.
2. 2Li estas en la domo.

Li iras en la domon, he goes into the house: movement, so -n. Li estas en la domo, he is in the house: no movement, no -n.

Al and el already mean movement, so they never take it: Mi iras al la urbo. (I am going to the town). The accusative has the full set of jobs for -n.

je: when nothing else fits

The 14th rule of the Fundamento gives every preposition a fixed meaning and adds je for when none of them fits. Je means nothing by itself. Usage has settled it on a few jobs:

The same rule lets a bare accusative replace je where the meaning survives: la trian horon also means at three o'clock. Not everywhere: Mi kredas je vi is I believe in you, while believing what someone says is Mi kredas al vi, a different claim. Use je sparingly; a preposition with a meaning is usually clearer. The tricky prepositions has the rest of je, and po.

da or de

Da follows a quantity and joins it to the stuff measured. De does the rest: whose, and where from.

No la after da: for many of the people say multaj el la homoj. Quantity has the minimal pairs.

anstataŭ, krom, malgraŭ

These three need more than a table row.

Anstataŭ (instead of) can take an infinitive straight away, like por and sen:

• Anstataŭ labori, li dormis. - Instead of working, he slept.

Malgraŭ (despite) takes a noun:

• Malgraŭ la nokto, ni marŝis. - Despite the night, we walked.

Krom means both except and besides. The rest of the sentence decides:

When it must be unmistakable, escepte de li is always except him.

A clause after a preposition: tio, ke

A preposition takes a noun, not a clause. To hang a clause on one, put tio in the noun's place and the clause after ke:

• Pro tio, ke ni ne havis monon, ni restis hejme. - Because we had no money, we stayed at home.
• Ni parolis pri tio, ke li foriris. - We talked about the fact that he had left.

A few pairs have become conjunctions of their own and take ke directly:

The long form with tio is just as correct. Pro ke and pri ke are not standard: say pri tio, ke, and pro tio, ke or simply ĉar (because).

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Describe your room with six place prepositions.
2. Say three things you did with a tool (per) and three with a person (kun).
3. Then read the tricky prepositions for po and the rest of je.

See also

• The tricky prepositions - je, po, and anstataŭ mi against anstataŭ min.
• The accusative - every job of -n, direction included.
• Quantity - da, de and the quantity words.
• Subordinate clauses - ke and the other clause words.