Would I use por or para here

Question

On this website it says to use por when you are about to do something. An example sentence it gives is "We are about to finish the job" or Estamos ______ terminar el trabajo. I filled in the blank with para and the website told me I was wrong. In the reference article here on this site it says to use estar para when you are about to do something. These both cannot be right. I think the other website is wrong but I'm not sure. Which is correct?

Answer 1

Anybody else care to give this a shot?

Answer 2

While i would agree with You and Marianne that por sounds/would sound more natural in this instance,than para, perhaps another translation could be used instead:

Estamos en punto de terminar el trabajo

= We are on the point of finishing the work/ We are about to finish the work/job

This would avoid the problem of whether to use por o para

I hope that this helps You

Edit: I actually thought para was the correct answer and not por. The website told me I was wrong though. I agree the sentence you gave would work but I am not trying to avoid the problem here. I am trying to learn something.

Of course we can write/speak around the use of Por vs. Para, but it's best to learn the proper uses, yes? - --Mariana--, Aug 28, 2010

Yes, Marianne I agree :) I was just trying t help sorry :red: - FELIZ77, Aug 28, 2010

Answer 3

I also learned that you use "por" to say Estar + Por + Infinitive.

So, I would say "Estamos por terminar el trabajo."

Let's wait and see what others have to say about this tricky subject.

But our reference article here says estar por means "to be in the mood to do something" - fatchocobo, Aug 28, 2010