Prepositions of idea and time: a pesar de, antes de que

Ideas: a pesar de, en vez de, gracias a

A second family links ideas rather than places. Learn these whole, because the meaning does not fall out of the parts:

En vez de and en lugar de mean the same. Gracias a is for a cause you are glad of; for one you blame, Spanish says por culpa de:

• Llegamos tarde por culpa de la lluvia. - We were late because of the rain.

Before a verb: antes de salir, antes de que salgas

A compound preposition can take a noun, an infinitive or a whole clause. The clause needs que:

Same subject in both halves: the infinitive. A new subject: de que and a conjugated verb.

• Antes de salir, cierro la puerta. - Before I go out, I shut the door.
• Te llamo antes de que salgas. - I'll ring you before you leave.
• A pesar de que llovía, salimos. - Although it was raining, we went out.

Antes de que always takes the subjunctive. A pesar de que depends on meaning: a known fact takes the indicative, as in llovía above. The full set is on the subjunctive in adverbial clauses page.

Space or time: delante de or antes de

English "before" covers space and time. Spanish splits them:

Dentro de una hora counts from now: an hour from now. En una hora says how long something takes:

• Vuelvo dentro de una hora. - I'll be back in an hour.
• Lo hice en una hora. - I did it in an hour.

Much of Latin America also uses en una hora for an hour from now; dentro de is clear everywhere.

Mistakes English speakers make