The Difference between POR and PARA

Understanding the difference between por and para can be a constant challenge for students learning Spanish. Even students at high levels continue mixing up the two prepositions that have caused so many headaches for both teachers and learners. The different grammatical approaches have failed to offer satisfying rules illustrating their differences. When we say satisfying we mean:

1. A rule that explains all cases without exceptions
2. A rule that is understandable; the concept of purpose is often used, which many students find too abstract and even to be lacking a cause within the mental map of their native language.
3. A rule that can be memorized, not endless lists, so the student can make a quick and appropriate decision in a normal conversation.

This is another area in which Cognitive Grammar has helped me a great deal.

It’s a problem in three parts, the first of which involves looking for a unique grammatical description for all cases without exceptions, based on the way the language is really used and not on standard rules that have nothing to do with actual communication. Here, in the first of these three parts, Cognitive Grammar does not provide anything really new in terms of classic descriptions, in the sense that PARA is a later creation in Spanish, the product of the union of the prepositions POR and A. So POR carried the value of approximation, which it had since the days of Latin, and A the value of direction, giving us “hay un farmacia por ahí” (at an imprecise and approximated location) and “voy a la playa” (direction of the movement). Put them together and we have a whole new thing: “Voy para la playa” (imprecise direction).

We think Matte Bon’s descriptions are pretty well on target in the sense that POR implies the coexistence between the two objects related to each other by the preposition (“entrar por la ventana”; in which the action entrar coexists with the window), they’re contemporaries. PARA however implies a posterior relation (“voy para la ventana”, in which the window is reached once the action IR is completed).

Cognitive Grammar is particularly helpful with understanding the metaphor, or metaphoric thought as the generator of grammatical meanings. So the preposition A’s value of direction in space allows PARA to express ideas of destination, of objective and of usage. In other words, what PARA contributes to the Spanish prepositional system is the idea of posterity which is expressed in different uses and contexts.

In my years as a teacher I’ve found that this explanation is too abstract for my students, and as they say, years sharpen the tool, so I’ve come up with a much simpler and effective explanation. It’s just one simple rule: when you’re unsure whether to use POR or PARA, if element B comes afterward, then use PARA.

Examples

Estudio español para trabajar en Argentina (estudio -> trabajo)

Compré un regalo para mi madre (regalo -> mamá)

Un sello para Italia (compro el sello -> la carta va a Italia)

Estudia para ingeniero (estudiar -> llegar a ser ingeniero)

Me compré un vestido para la fiesta (comprar -> la fiesta)

These are just a few examples to whet your appetite and get you thinking about all of this. Next week we’ll take a closer look at the explanation that this post has talked about.

See you next week.