What does the word "para" mean in Spanish?

Question

I want to know what the word "para" means because I am wrinting a pieece for homework and i need some help. Here is what I am writing... I am going to the cinema with my friends to see the scary film The Hole. Voy ir al cine con mi amigos mirrar la perícula espantosa The Hole. Two things: One - is this right? Two - when I put my English translation into this translator it said "para mirrar la perícula espantosa The Hole" So please can someone tell me which one it is and what "para"means?

Just to help you it should be 'piece' (not pieece) for homework :) - FELIZ77, Sep 28, 2010

I've never known a translator to have such poor spelling. - samdie, Sep 28, 2010

Answer 1

one: No, it is not correct.

Either Voy al cine (I am going to the theater..)

or

Voy a ir (I am going to go to the movie (future time))

para (for) is often translated as "in order to" when pointing toward some end result. If you haven't found out yet, por and para are very confusing for English students.

para---->end result

por (the reason or motive for) -----I see my problem, my arrow was taking as format coding.-----the end result (arrow pointing left.)

In your sentence to see the film, The Hole is the end result.

Going to the theater is not the motive for seeing the move. It is the other way around. You are going to the theater in order to see the movie.

Recognizing this the translator added para to your sentence.

I had a more elaborate and better answer, before it was truncated, but I 'm too lazy to reproduce it all.

You also have several misspellings.

Voy a ir al cine con mis amigos para mirar la película espantosa, The Hole.

are we allowed to use "damn" here?? - princessjane, Sep 28, 2010

That was V E R Y tempered compared to what I was thinking. I has an elaborate explanation that disappeared into cyberspace. - 0074b507, Sep 28, 2010

Weird. I'd say swearing was called for, but please do so in Spanish. - KevinB, Sep 28, 2010

¡Caramba! actally it wasn't weird at all. When I thought about it I understood what - 0074b507, Sep 28, 2010

haha, it did it again. I didn't think formatting was recognized in comments. Anyway, I understand why it's truncating. - 0074b507, Sep 28, 2010

Answer 2

Close. You have a few spelling errors and you're missing a couple of words.

Voy a ir al cine con mis amigos para ver la película espantosa, "The Hole".

Edit: Whether you use ver or mirar to "see" a movie is regional. Do you watch a movie or see a movie? It depends.

Welcome to the forum, by the way.

My welcome was chopped off my post. - 0074b507, Sep 28, 2010

Answer 3

You are asking the wrong question. Think of it: some words in English have over 80 different meanings. If someone asks you what does "XXX" mean, and your dictionary needs three full pages with small print to explain that, what do you answer to that question in short? You can't. The preposition "para" has only a total of 13 meanings without idioms and other expressions ("for" in English has no less than 27), but the thing is... English does not have a word with exactly those meanings! So, how can you get a simple translation? You can't, and you are wasting your time, believe me. It doesn't mean "anything" in English; it means a lot in Spanish.

True, but how is that going to help him understand why the translator was adding it to his sentence. - 0074b507, Sep 28, 2010

It's not really "adding" but supplying a phrase that is a reasonable expressin of the thought. - samdie, Sep 28, 2010

qfreed: how did you learn how to use English? Your parents gave you a 3000 pages long grammar book when you were 9 months old? Grammars are not necessary when you have a lot of correct input to imitate. - lazarus1907, Sep 28, 2010

point taken - 0074b507, Sep 28, 2010

Answer 4

To answer your original question about the meaning of para, I'd recommend watching this video from the Learn Spanish section: Por vs. Para