(f) Composition or content
un montón de libros‘a pile of books’
un paquete de caramelos‘a packet of sweets’
un vaso de agua‘a glass of water’
(g) Linking words denoting the same thing or person
la ciudad de Roma‘the city of Rome’
el tonto de Juan‘silly Juan’
(h) An agent or action and its object
los constructores de las pirámides
the builders of the pyramids
la destrucción del medio ambiente
the destruction of the environment
25.1.7.2 Deexpressing direction from or origin
He venido del centro.
I’ve come from the centre.
Rosa vive a tres kilometros de aquí.
Rosa lives three kilometres from here.
Mi marido es de Argentina.
My husband is from Argentina.
34.2 (p. 205)
There are a number of ways of rendering English ‘from... to.. .’:
(a)De ... a ... and desde... hasta... are equivalent, the former being used especially
with shorter nouns and in speech:
de Buenos Aires a Tucumán
from Buenos Aires to Tucumán
desde el siglo XV hasta el día de hoy
from the fifteenth century up until the present day
(b)De... en... is used to indicate frequency or repeated movement:
de vez en cuando‘from time to time’
de casa en casa‘from house to house’
25.1.7.3 Dedenoting an agent
De is sometimes used instead of por to introduce an agent, especially when a state of
affairs rather than a definite action is involved:
El campo estaba cubierto de nieve.
The countryside was covered in snow.
Ye r m a, de García Lorca
Ye r m a, by García Lorca
Basic use of prepositions 25.1