Thank you for contacting me...por or para?

Question

Hi, I would like to know how to translate "Thank you for contacting me" in to Spanish. in particular whether to use para or por for 'for' in this case. i have read the article on this site but that didn't seen to cover anything similar. Please help...

Answer 1

"Para" indicates final destination, recipient, the end of the line... “Gracias para…” would be used to indicate the person who will receive your thanks. A bit like “(Give my) thanks to…”. A sentence like "Gracias para ayudarme" would mean "Give my thanks to helping me", where one would have to assume that there is someone called "Don Ayudarme" (Mr. "Helping Me")

“Por” indicates the reason why you do things. “Gracias por…” indicates the reason why you are saying thanks. It would be like "Thanks because..." (although in English you just say "for", of course). "Gracias por tu ayuda" uses the noun "ayuda", so if you want to use a verb, you use an infinitive, which is the equivalent of a noun in Spanish.

These are the two most basic meanings of these prepositions. I wonder how do people learn them, because everyone asks the same question... and most people guess it should be "para", for some reason. Can anyone tell me why do people guess "para" over "por" here?

A much better explanation than mine. - Eddy, Jan 17, 2011

Just a guess, but the fact that por can mean by is really disconcerting (since it looks so similar to our own for). It takes a lot of effort to not automatically assume por is for. Para on the other hand seems to equal our for quite frequently. But that's - webdunce, Jan 17, 2011

just a guess. I also wanted para to be the for in this case and, honestly, don't really know why...not even now that I am thinking about it. It just felt "righter." - webdunce, Jan 17, 2011

Thanks for your responses. That helped and really clarified it for me. - ashers, Mar 3, 2011

Answer 2

Also, in addition to what Eddy said, Spanish would use the infinitive there and not the gerund/present participle like English.

Gracias por contactarme.

Thanks for your answer! - ashers, Mar 3, 2011

Answer 3

Thank you is "gracias".

You always use "por" after gracias.

Answer 4

Can anyone tell me why do people guess "para" over "por" here?

It is because of an incorrect understanding of using para for the recipient--your thanks are being received by somebody, an Spanish allows all kinds of reordering of sentences that seem strange to English speakers. A related misunderstanding is that you use por because your thanks are in exchange for the help (or whatever else) provided.

Since I still make a lot of errors, it is easy for me to see the reasoning of some native English speakers.