Spanish · Chapter 39 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
Compound prepositions and tricky choices
Beyond a, en, de: the phrasal prepositions of place (delante de, detras de, encima de) and idea (a pesar de, ademas de, en vez de), plus verbs whose preposition is not the English one (soñar con, pensar en).
The short version
The de in delante de is not optional
Most Spanish place prepositions are really adverbs bolted onto a noun with de, and the de is compulsory. Delante de la casa, detrás de ti, cerca del centro. Drop it and the phrase collapses. With a pronoun the de stays and pulls in the accented strong form, so it is delante de mí, not the loose delante mi.
Se sentó delante de mí.
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