Por experencia

Question

Is this "in my experience"? Por experenica, un hombre de mi edad sólo puede conocer quinceañeras de modo ilegal. In my experience, a man my age can only attend quinceañeras by using an illegal method. Gracias. It's from TV show.

Edit: I see "por experencia propia" on google, do they both work? Gracias.

I think conocer here, means "to meet" - Sheily, Aug 27, 2010

transliterated. - jeezzle, Aug 27, 2010

Oh, what does that mean? - Sheily, Aug 27, 2010

Answer 1

The preposition "para" indicates the destination, the end, the aim, the recipient,... in other words, it points towards the "end of the journey". "Por", on the other hand, describes where, when, why and how we go or have gone through the path that we call the journey.

Using the above metaphor, "por experiencia" indicates, not that we are aiming towards an experience (that would be "para"), but that we've gone "through it". You could translate it as "From experience", but more literally, "Through experience".

through experience, I get it, through experience I have learned that you can't walk through a door but rather, must open it. Got it. - jeezzle, Aug 27, 2010

Such a nice clear explanation to a good question. thkyou - margaretbl, Aug 27, 2010