Verbs with en and con: pensar en, soñar con, confiar en

Explicación

Some verbs lock onto en: pensar en ('think about', pienso en vos), confiar en ('trust'), insistir en, consistir en, fijarse en ('notice'), tardar en + infinitive ('take time to', tardó en responder), quedar en ('agree to'). Others lock onto con: soñar con ('dream of/about'), contar con ('count on'), casarse con, cumplir con, encontrarse con.

Pensar is worth a closer look, because the preposition changes the meaning: pensar en = think about someone/something; pensar de = have an opinion about (¿qué pensás de…?); and pensar + infinitive (no preposition) = plan to (pienso viajar en julio).

The catch for English and French speakers is that the Spanish preposition often differs from theirs — 'dream of' but soñar con, 'think about' but pensar en — so the safest approach is to memorize each verb together with its preposition as a single vocabulary item.

Ejemplos

Reglas relacionadas

• The preposition con: with
• The preposition en: in, on, at