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Filling and supplying: why Spanish says 'llenar de' for 'fill with'

When you fill, supply or load something in English, the contents come after with: you fill a bottle with water and supply a town with food. Spanish usually introduces the contents with de instead: llenar una botella de agua, abastecer una ciudad de alimentos. The same de appears with proveer, cargar, inundar and rodear, and with adjectives such as lleno and repleto.

English speakers tend to translate with as con every time. With these words that often sounds less natural than de, and with adjectives like lleno it is simply wrong. Once you notice the pattern, you will hear it everywhere.

Word list
abarrotadomA2 crowded abarrotado de gente = crowded with people atestadomA2 crowded atestado de gente = crammed with people llenarA2 to fill llenar una botella de agua = fill a bottle with water llenomA2 full lleno de fotos = full of photos mojadomA2 wet la cara mojada de lágrimas = face wet with tears repletomA2 crowded repleto de turistas = packed with tourists abastecerB2 to supply abastecer una ciudad de alimentos = supply a city with food empapadomB2 soaked empapado de sudor = soaked with sweat inundarB2 to flood inundar a alguien de mensajes = flood someone with messages proveerB2 to supply proveer a alguien de libros = provide someone with books rodearB2 to surround rodearse de amigos = surround oneself with friends cargarC1 to load cargar el coche de maletas = load the car with suitcases rebosarC1 to abound rebosar de flores = be bursting with flowers
How it works

The construction has three parts: the verb, the thing that gets filled or supplied, and then de plus the contents. Think of de as meaning "made full of" or "stocked with".

Verb + container + de + contents

llenar el vaso de leche (fill the glass with milk)

Adjective + de + contents

lleno de leche (full of milk)

English uses two different words here, with after verbs and of after full. Spanish uses de for both. That makes the rule of thumb easy: when something ends up containing, holding or being covered by something else, put the contents after de.

The verb dotar (to equip, to endow) follows the same pattern: dotar un hospital de equipos modernos.

The words
Filling and loading

Llenar is the everyday verb for filling. Cargar means to load, whether that is a car, a truck or a weapon.

Llenaron las botellas de agua.
(They filled the bottles with water.)
Cargamos el coche de maletas.
(We loaded the car with suitcases.)
Supplying

Abastecer and proveer both mean to supply or provide. The one who receives comes first, then de and what is supplied.

La organización abastece la zona de alimentos.
(The organization supplies the area with food.)
El colegio provee a los alumnos de libros.
(The school provides the students with books.)
Flooding and surrounding

Inundar works literally with water and figuratively with messages, offers or work. Rodear takes de when you surround something or someone with something else, and the reflexive form rodearse de is very common.

Mis amigos me inundaron de mensajes el día de mi cumpleaños.
(My friends flooded me with messages on my birthday.)
A mi hermana le gusta rodearse de gente positiva.
(My sister likes to surround herself with positive people.)
Full, packed and soaked

The adjectives are where de is strongest. Lleno, repleto, abarrotado and empapado all describe the result, and the verb rebosar (to overflow, to teem) follows the same logic.

La caja está llena de fotos antiguas.
(The box is full of old photos.)
El tren iba repleto de turistas.
(The train was packed with tourists.)
La plaza estaba abarrotada de gente.
(The square was crowded with people.)
Llegué a casa empapado de sudor.
(I got home soaked with sweat.)
En primavera el jardín rebosa de flores.
(In spring the garden is bursting with flowers.)
Watch out

With the verbs, con is not an error. Llenar con agua, cargar con munición and proveer con are all heard, especially when the focus is on the material or tool used. De is simply the more typical choice for the contents, so it is the safer default.

Llené el vaso con agua del grifo.
(I filled the glass with tap water.)

With the adjectives, stick to de: lleno con sounds wrong to native speakers. Empapado en is also possible, but de is always correct.

Finally, rodear only takes de when something is placed around something else. When the subject itself does the surrounding, there is no preposition at all.

Las montañas rodean el pueblo.
(The mountains surround the town.)
Summary

When something gets filled, supplied, loaded or covered, Spanish normally puts the contents after de: llenar de, abastecer de, lleno de, repleto de. With verbs, con is sometimes possible too, but de is the natural default. With adjectives like lleno, always use de.