Prepositional Contractions / Contracciones Preposicionales

Introduction

Introducción

Unlike English or French which have lots of contractions, in Spanish there are only two that are accepted as grammatically correct and both involve prepositions combining with el (the):

   del = de (from; of) + el
   Es la luz del mundo.
   He is the light of the world.

   al = a (to; at) + el
   Escucho al profesor.
   I listen to the professor.

It is important to note that these do not contract with él (he) or with if el is part of a name:

   Correct: ¿Lo diste a él?
   Incorrect: ¿Lo diste al?
   Did you give it to him?

   Correct: Es un producto de El Salvador.
   Incorrect: Es un producte del Salvador
   It is a product from El Salvador.