5. POR AND PARA Por and para tend to cause a lot of trouble to English speakers, as they can both translate as “for”. A useful way of remembering the difference is that, generally speaking, “por” expresses “origins” and para expresses “purpose”. A more comprehensive list of uses follows: -
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POR To express gratitude or apology: “Perdón por haberte ofendido” For multiplication or division: “Cuatro dividido por dos es dos” For frequency: “Voy al cine dos veces por semana” To mean “along”, “through”, “by” or “in the area of”: “Voy a dar un paseo por el campo” To mean “in exchange for”: “Me dio cien euros por el cuadro” To mean “on behalf of” or “in favor of”: “Hago esto por mi familia” For parts of the day: “Por la tarde está cerrado, pero por la mañana abrimos como siempre” For means of communication: “¿Te llamo por teléfono o hablamos por Whatsapp?” When followed by an infinitive, to express that an action remains to be completed: “La cena está por cocinar” To express cause or reason: “Fue a la cárcel por ladrón” To express the agent in passive constructions: “El puente fue construido por los romanos”
PARA – it has relatively fewer uses: To indicate destination: “Vamos para el centro” To show the use or purpose of a thing: “Necesito un boli para escribir una carta” To indicate a recipient: “Este regalo es para mi madre” To express a deadline: “Acábalo para mañana” When followed by an infinitive, to mean “in order to”: “¿Qué tengo que hacer para aprobar?” N.B. In this sort of sentence, in English you don’t always have to say “in order to”, since “to” on its own will suffice. However, in Spanish you must say “para”. This is easily one of the most common mistakes when learning Spanish. Sometimes, using por or para can completely change the meaning of a sentence: Voy a comprar un regalo para mi madre (“mi madre” being the recipient of the gift”) Voy a comprar un regalo por mi madre (on behalf of my mother) ¿Por qué estudias idiomas? (What is the reason of you studying languages?) ¿Para qué estudias idiomas? (What is the purpose of you studying languages?)
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