Lesson 51: When to use 'Para' or 'Por' (Part 2) + false friends
Here we'll carry on the difference between 'Para' and 'Por' and where to use them as well as a look at some words which aren't what they appear (false friends!)
So in the last lesson we looked at 'por being used for:
- "because of"
- "for [periods of time]"
While 'para' is "for [a person]" like "for you".
 Spanish |  English |
|---|---|
| Estoy para ti | I'm here for you (informal) |
| Estoy por usted | I'm here because of you (formal) |
| Estoy por ti | I'm here because of you (informal) |
Note we didn't use any word for "here" because we are using the 'Estar' version of "to be" so this implies location. In the same vein if you just want to ask someone "Are you there?" you simply say 'Estás?' or 'Está Juan?' - "Is Juan there?".
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| He venido por ti | I have come because of you |
| Es por ti que hemos venido | It is because of you that we have come |
'por' when exchanging something "for" something
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Cambiaría este por ese | I would change this one for that one (masculine things) |
| Cambiaría estos por esos | I would change these ones for those ones (masculine things) |
| Cambiaría estas por esas | I would change these ones for those ones (feminine things) |
| ¿Cambiarías estas por esas? | Would you change these ones for those ones (feminine things)? |
| ¿Por qué no cambiarías estas por esas? | Why wouldn't you change these ones for those ones (feminine things)? |
'Por' as "times"
'Por' is also what you use timestables.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Ocho por ocho | Eight times eight |
Because "times" in this context is a way of saying the "x" in "8 x 8" you might also see Spanish people sometimes use "x" as an abreviation for 'por' in things like SMS texting.
So you might see 'Gracias x venir' - "Thanks for coming".
Verbs after prepositions - to, for, with
Another take away from 'Gracias por venir' is to see that the 'to' form of the verb is used after 'por'
This is actually true of all verbs which follow a preposition compared to the English way of adding "ing"
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Gracias por llamar | Thank you for calling |
| Gracias por llamarme | Thank you for calling me |
| Estoy cansada de trabajar | I am tired of working (female) |
| Estaba cansada de trabajar | I was tired of working (female) |
| Estábamos cansados de trabajar | I was tired of working (male/mixed group) |
| Es una forma de hacerlo | Its a way of doing it |
False Friends
In Spanish when we want to talk about arguing in terms of a conflct we use 'discutir' which you will often see translated as "to discuss". However in reality it has a heavier meaning of talking about a disagreement while to refer to a discussion we would use 'hablar' - "to speak".
Meanwhile 'arguir' is used to mean if you are arguing a case or a point - to be building a case for something, no conflict needs to be involved.
We can refer to these words in Spanish as "false friends" because we think we know the translation but we get caught out.
Another is 'actual' which doesn't mean "actual" but "current".
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Mi trabajo actual | My current job |
| Actualmente | Currently / at the moment |
And we've already talked about 'realizar' which means "to realize a project" / "to complete something in reality" rather than "to realize"
99% of the time a guess is right but now and then it isn't and that's always just worth remembering. These sort of exceptions can be so surprising that its quick to remember them though!
So to end lets have another mega sentence which we can break down: "I don't believe in arguing in this way"
- "I don't believe" - 'No creo'
- "in arguing" - 'en discutir'
- "in this way" - 'de esta forma'
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| No creo en discutir de esta forma | I don't believe in arguing in this way |