Este regalo es para ti.This gift is for you.

After a preposition — para, de, sin, a, en, and many more — Spanish uses a set of pronouns that's almost identical to the subject pronouns you already know. Among the non-reflexive pronouns, only two forms actually change: yo becomes mí, and tú becomes ti. Everything else — él, ella, usted, nosotros/as, vosotros/as, ellos/ellas, ustedes — stays exactly the same whether it's the subject of the sentence or sitting after a preposition. There's also a reflexive pronoun, sí, used when the object refers back to the subject: Piensa demasiado en sí mismo. (He thinks about himself too much.) Like él or ella, sí doesn't change after most prepositions either — but it does get its own fused form after con, covered below.

Quick shortcut: after most prepositions, swap yo → mí and tú → ti; every other pronoun, including reflexive sí, is unchanged. After con, mí, ti and sí fuse into conmigo, contigo and consigo instead.

The pattern

Subject pronoun After a preposition Example
yo mí Este mensaje es para mí.
tú ti Pienso mucho en ti.
él / ella / usted él / ella / usted Trabajo para él. / Vivo cerca de ella.
nosotros / nosotras nosotros / nosotras Vienen con nosotros.
vosotros / vosotras vosotros / vosotras Esto es de vosotras.
ellos / ellas / ustedes ellos / ellas / ustedes Hablaban de ellos.

Mí always keeps its written accent — without it, mi just means "my." Ti is never written with an accent at all, so there's no similar mix-up to worry about there.

Conmigo and contigo

Con ("with") doesn't combine with mí or ti the normal way. Instead, the three fuse into single words:

¿Vienes conmigo? (Are you coming with me?) Sí, voy contigo. (Yes, I'm going with you.)

There's a third fused form, consigo, for the reflexive pronoun sí — used when the subject is doing something with themselves: Lleva el pasaporte consigo. (She's carrying her passport with her — herself, specifically.) Every other pronoun follows con normally, with no fusion: con él, con ella, con nosotros, con ellos.

Entre, según, excepto and menos: the exception

A small group of words — entre (between/among), según (according to), excepto and menos (both "except") — break the pattern above and take the ordinary subject pronouns yo and tú instead of mí and ti:

Entre tú y yo, no hay secretos. (Between you and me, there are no secrets.) Según tú, la película es mala. (According to you, the movie is bad.) Todos vinieron excepto yo. (Everyone came except me.)

There's no fused form here either — entre never becomes anything like entremigo.

Common mistakes

  • ❌ Este café es para yo. → ✅ Este café es para mí. (a preposition needs mí, not the subject pronoun yo.)
  • ❌ Voy con ti al cine. → ✅ Voy contigo al cine. (con fuses with mí/ti into conmigo/contigo — the two never stay separate.)
  • ❌ Entre mí y ti no hay problema. → ✅ Entre tú y yo no hay problema. (entre takes yo/tú, not mí/ti.)

Quick check

  1. Este regalo es para ___. (I) — fill in the right pronoun.
  2. ¿Puedo ir ___? (with you, informal)
  3. ___ tú, hace demasiado frío. (According to)
  4. Correct this: Todos lo saben, menos mí.
Show answers
  1. Este regalo es para mí.
  2. ¿Puedo ir contigo?
  3. Según tú, hace demasiado frío.
  4. Todos lo saben, menos yo.

Key takeaways

  • After most prepositions, only yo and tú change form: yo → mí, tú → ti. Every other pronoun (él, ella, usted, nosotros/as, vosotros/as, ellos/ellas, ustedes), including reflexive sí, stays the same as the subject form.
  • Con + mí/ti/sí fuses into conmigo/contigo/consigo — never con mí, con ti or con sí.
  • Entre, según, excepto and menos are exceptions: they take yo/tú, not mí/ti.
  • Don't drop the accent on mí — without it, the word reads as the possessive mi ("my").