# Dear Duolingo: Why are prepositions so different across languages?

You’ll find many similarities across languages… but that won’t include prepositions!

_Welcome to another week of Dear Duolingo, an advice column just for language learners. Catch up on past installments_ [_here_](https://blog.duolingo.com/tag/dear-duolingo/) _._

Hello, learners! It’s Dr. Emilie Zuniga back again on Dear Duolingo. This week’s linguistic puzzle is a bit different from [unnecessary words](https://blog.duolingo.com/are-some-words-unnecessary/) and [the hardest languages to learn](https://blog.duolingo.com/hardest-languages-to-learn/). It highlights another way languages differ in how they organize ideas and concepts.

That is a question I’ve thought about *a lot* as a linguist and a [professional language learner](https://blog.duolingo.com/language-tips-from-a-hyperpolyglot/). Prepositions are some of the least predictable parts of any new language, and there’s a good reason for that—they reflect something much deeper than other kinds of words, namely the diverse ways in which different groups of people conceptualize the world around them.

## Not all words have a perfect match

When you learn a new language, you can expect to find words for many things that exist in your own language: You’ll learn a way to say _street_ and _car_, and also words for more abstract things like _strength_ and _equality_. For these words and concepts, there will often be a clear translation from one language to the next—so if you ask a French speaker how to say _equality_, they’ll have a simple answer ( _égalité_).

On the other hand, if you ask a French speaker how to say _in_ in French, the answer will be _Ça dépend !_ (It depends!) That’s because _in_ is a preposition, and prepositions work really differently than nouns like _street_ and _equality_. They are part of a group of words called [_function words_](https://blog.duolingo.com/are-some-words-unnecessary/#different-ways-of-classifying-words), which not only are abstract, but also serve a grammatical purpose.

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Prepositions serve a grammatical purpose that makes them different from nouns and verbs.

That grammatical purpose [may not be essential](https://blog.duolingo.com/are-some-words-unnecessary/#does-that-mean-that-function-words-arent-necessary) to communicating basic meanings, but our brains seem to _want_ this kind of nuance—people who use communication systems that lack prepositions, like pidgins, [spontaneously create them](https://blog.duolingo.com/what-language-would-kids-invent/)!

## Languages carve up meaning differently

Unlike nouns, adjectives, and most verbs, prepositions need context around them to come to life.

You can probably pretty easily define (and even draw!) _street_ and _car_—but it’s a bit tougher for the abstract nouns _strength_ and _equality_, although you could rely on associated images like a flexed bicep or scale of justice. And then… what do you do for prepositions like _at_ or _by_? 🤔 Even native speakers can’t clearly articulate what their prepositions mean. (And forget about drawing them!)

Instead of representing a straightforward concept, prepositions get to how a community thinks about relationships between space, time, movement, and more.

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You’re not just learning the translation of a preposition—you’re also learning to see the world in a new way and to choose the appropriate word for that.

In a given language, a preposition can be thought of as representing some core meaning. Here are a few core meanings from English:

- **in:** location within or into an enclosed space, as in _The keys are **in** the drawer_(inside an enclosed area) and _He is **in** love_ (enclosed in an emotional state)
- **on:** surface contact and support, as in _The book is **on** the table_ (touching a horizontal surface) and _The show is **on** TV_ (a medium as a metaphorical surface)
- **at:** specific point within a context, as in _We met **at** the park_ (a specific place) and _I woke up **at** midnight_ (a specific point in time)

English distinguishes these three kinds of physical and metaphorical relationships—one captured by _in,_ another by _on_, and another by _at_—but this won’t always be the same across languages. Where one core meaning ends and another begins isn’t a universal truth or an objective assessment. For example, in most cases, the Spanish preposition _en_ covers all three of these core meanings and can instead be thought of as “location or movement in relation to a reference point.” It captures much of the meanings of _in, on,_ *and* _at_!

## Prepositions across languages

If you’ve [studied multiple languages](https://blog.duolingo.com/can-you-learn-two-languages-at-the-same-time/), you know there will be language differences where you least expect them. You might assume that something as basic as saying _I’m going **to** the park_ vs. _I’m **at** the park_ would follow the same pattern across languages—but that’s not the case at all, even in closely related languages!

For example, Spanish and Portuguese can use different prepositions for movement **toward** a place vs. being **in** a place, while two other [Romance languages](https://blog.duolingo.com/what-are-romance-languages/) , French and Italian, each use the same preposition ( _au_ in French and _al_ in Italian). Here’s how some [Indo-European languages](https://blog.duolingo.com/language-families-overview/#indo-european) treat these situations as the same or different:

| Language | English _to_ | English _at_ | Same or different? |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| English | I’m going **to** the park. | I’m **at** the park. | different |
| German | Ich gehe **zum** Park. | Ich bin **im** Park. | different |
| French | Je vais **au** parc. | Je suis **au** parc. | same |
| Italian | Vado **al** parco. | Sono **al** parco. | same |
| Spanish | Voy **al** parque. | Estoy **en** el parque. | different |
| Portuguese | Eu vou **para** o parque. | Eu estou **no** parque. | different |
| Greek | Πηγαίνω **στο** πάρκο.<br>_Pigaino **sto** parko._ | Είμαι **στο** πάρκο.<br>_Eimai **sto** parko._ | same |

_(Sometimes, different prepositions are possible, but here you just see one option for simplicity)._

You can see the situation this puts learners in: If your language uses the same preposition in both contexts, you’ll be surprised to have two different ones in the new language! And if your language uses two different prepositions, it’s easy to forget which one to use in the new language. 😵‍💫

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If this is something you’ve struggled with, remember that [your mistakes are normal](https://blog.duolingo.com/common-mistakes-language-learners/) and [they make sense](https://blog.duolingo.com/5-mistakes-professional-language-learner-still-makes/)!

## Languages without prepositions

Another even more mind-blowing fact is that **not all languages even have prepositions.**

While English and many other languages rely on prepositions to express relationships with space, time, movement, etc., languages can use other tools, some entirely different, the most common of which are [cases](https://blog.duolingo.com/what-are-noun-cases/), **_post_** positions (instead of **_pre_** positions) and particles. Even languages that do have prepositions (like German) often use them together with other grammatical strategies (like cases).

### **Case systems**

Languages like German, Russian, Finnish, Turkish, and Basque use case systems to add information directly to nouns (and other words), often reducing the need for a separate word (like a preposition).

For example, Turkish uses an ending on a noun to show location—sort of how we use _in_ in English. One version of this ending is _‑ta_, and it is added to a noun, like _mutfak_ (kitchen), to create a single word with the location information: _mutfak **ta**_( **in** the kitchen). You can replace _‑ta_ with different case endings to express other meanings, like _‑tan_ to show source or starting point, as in _mutfak **tan**_ ( **from** the kitchen).

Sometimes, a language can even combine an actual preposition with different case endings to express different meanings! German has a set of such prepositions, including _in_ and _an_ (two German prepositions, that happen to look like English!). When followed by one case, they indicate movement, but when followed by another, they show location:

| Preposition | Accusative case (for movement) | Dative case (for location) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| in | German | Ich gehe in **die** Schule. | Ich bin in **der** Schule. |
| Translation | I’m going into the school. | I’m at school / in the school. |
| an | German | Ich hänge das Bild an **die** Wand. | Das Bild hängt an **der** Wand. |
| Translation | I’m hanging the picture on the wall. | The picture is hanging on the wall. |

Here, _die_ is the accusative form of the (feminine) definite article, so it gives _in_ and _an_ a meaning related to movement, whereas _der_ is the dative form of the same article, so it gives _in_ and _an_ a meaning related to location without mention of movement.

### **Postpositions**

Did you ever notice that prepositions go before a noun? But they don’t have to! Instead, some languages place these words _**after**_ a noun. For example, to say _before class_ in Basque, you can say _klase aurretik_, and in Turkish _dersten önce_. In both cases, the noun comes first, so you’re literally saying _class before_!

### **Particles**

Japanese and Korean use particles that function differently from prepositions and postpositions, but serve a similar role. For example, in Korean, to say _on the table_, you’d say 식탁위에(siktak wie), where 식탁 (siktak) means _table_, 위 (wi) is a noun that expresses the meaning _on_, and 에 (e) is a _locative particle_—a word that shows location. It’s essential to the grammar and has to occur with 위 (wi).

The Japanese for _on the table_ is テーブルの上に (tēburu no ue ni), where テーブル (tēburu) means _table_, の (no) is a particle that [links nouns together](https://blog.duolingo.com/japanese-particle-no/) (here, _table_ and _top_), 上 (ue) means _top_, and に (ni) is the location particle that indicates that we’re talking about something that’s happening _**on** top of the table_ (as opposed to just saying _the top of the table_).

Here are some examples of these non-preposition strategies for location and movement towards a place:

| Language | English _to_ | English _at_ | Strategy |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| English | I’m going **to** the park. | I’m **at** the park. | prepositions |
| Basque | Parke **ra** noa.<br>_park- **to** I’m-going_ | Parke **an** nago.<br>_park- **in** I-am_ | case system |
| Turkish | Park **a** gidiyorum.<br>_park- **to** I-go_ | Park **ta** yım.<br>_park- **in**-I am_ | case system |
| Korean | 공원 **에** 가고 있어요.<br>Gongwon **e** gago isseoyo.<br>_park- **LOCATION** I’m going_ | 공원 **에** 있어요.<br>Gongwon **e** isseoyo.<br>_park- **LOCATION** I-am_ | postpositioned particle |

## Access new ways of thinking!

When you learn how to use prepositions (or their alternatives) in a new language, you change how you think about space, time, and relationships. Keep going—you’re not just learning grammar, you’re expanding your mind!

For more answers to your language and learning questions, get in touch with us by emailing [dearduolingo@duolingo.com](mailto:dearduolingo@duolingo.com).