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3.10 Prepositions

Each preposition in Esperanto has its own fixed meaning and only few of them are used for more relations (mostly in temporal and local meaning and preposition de).
E.g. alto, anstataŭinstead of, antaŭbefore, apudnext to, ĉenear, ĉirkaŭaround, daof (with quantity), deof, dumduring, eksteroutside of, elfrom within, enin, ĝistill, interbetween, among, kontraŭagainst, krombesides, kunwith, malgraŭin spite of, perper, poat rate of, porfor, postafter, priabout, profor, because of, senwithout, subunder, superabove, suron (position), trathrough, transacross
E.g. al Prahato Prague, en la ĝardenoin the garden, per la martelousing the hammer, sur la tabloon the table, de la patrofrom father

In cases where no existing prepositions can be logically used, preposition je should be used. Preposition je has no concrete meaning.
E.g. je la tri horoHat three o’clock, krei je Diotrust in God, esti je kvar jaroj pli aĝato be four years older

Except these simple prepositions, there are also complex prepositions (prepoziciaĵoj). They are formed mostly by adverb and another preposition.
E.g. dank’ al[25]by virtue of, thanks to, proksime alnear to, rilate alrelating to, kompare kuncomparing with, kontraste kunin contrast with, kune kun together with, etc.

3.10.1 Types of prepositive

1) nominative-prepositive – preposition + noun in nominative
This is the most often case, e.g. sur la tabloon the table
2) prepositive-prepositive – preposition + preposition + noun
This case is used, when it is necessary to express some move (spatial or temporal) from, to, over, etc. some place already expressed by some preposition. It is necessary to use two prepositions. The second preposition makes a prepositive with the noun and the first relates to this whole phrase. The second preposition expresses a position (spatial or temporal) and the first express an move relative to the complex of the second preposition together with the noun. E.g. el sub la litofrom under the bed
3) accusative-prepositive – preposition + noun in accusative
The accusative in this case is used to express a move[26]. It can be replaced by second case using preposition al: sub la liton = al sub la litounder the bed (direction).
Li iras en la domon.He goes to the house.
Veturi ekster la urbon.Drive out of the town.
It is beyond the scope of this grammar overview to explain meaning and usage of all prepositions of Esperanto, as a good source, I can recommend PMEG – maqvor.html and PIV.

[25] This is the only case of elision of an adverbial e.
[26] For overview of accusative usage, see chapter 5.1.