Español — Verbs governing prepositions
In Spanish many verbs require a specific fixed preposition before their complement, and the choice is not predictable from English. You must learn pensar en, soñar con or acordarse de as whole units, because using the wrong preposition — or none — sounds clearly foreign.
How it works
The verb and its preposition form a fixed unit: the preposition is not chosen by meaning but tied to the verb. So it is pienso en ti ("I think about you"), sueño con viajar ("I dream of travelling") and me acuerdo de él ("I remember him"), never pienso ti or sueño de. The complement — noun, pronoun or infinitive — always follows the preposition: depende de ti, tardé en llegar.
Examples
| Verb + preposition | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| pensar en | to think about | Pienso en mis vacaciones. |
| soñar con | to dream of | Sueño con vivir junto al mar. |
| contar con | to count on, rely on | Cuento con tu ayuda. |
| acordarse de | to remember | ¿Te acuerdas de aquel día? |
| tratar de | to try to | Trato de entenderlo. |
| tardar en | to take time to | Tardó en contestar. |
| insistir en | to insist on | Insistió en pagar la cuenta. |
| depender de | to depend on | Todo depende del tiempo. |
Good to know
The preposition stays even when the complement is a verb, and that verb goes in the infinitive: tratar de entender, insistir en pagar, tardar en llegar — not the English -ing form. Watch out too for pairs that change meaning with the preposition: pensar en algo ("think about") vs pensar de algo ("have an opinion of"), and soñar con ("dream of") vs the wrong soñar de. When in doubt, memorise the whole chunk rather than reasoning from your own language.