Como and Porque

Question

El texto es

El día 6 de mayo llegó a la facultad un grupo de profesores hispanohablantes a dictarnos conferencias sobre diversos temas. Desde entonces tuvimos unas semanas muy intensas. Asistieron al cursillo todos los compañeros del tercer y cuarto curso, además de los del posgrado. Yo, junto con una veintena del primer y segundo curso también quise ir a asistir. Como tengo un vocabulario todavía muy limitado,encontré muchas dificultades y confundí las palabras. Apenas entendí las explicaciones, pero preferí ir. Por lo menos fue un buen ejercicio para el oído.

I am confused with Come and porque. Here in this paragraph , como tengo un vocabulario, can I change como into porque?

When to use como in one sentence? Can porque and como interchange in sentences?

Good question! :-) - webdunce, Jan 29, 2011

Answer 1

yes, that's right: cause first and effect latter->use "como" in front. Effect first and cause latter -> use "porque" in the middle

Answer 2

no, not at all...you'll see "como" has different meanings: and in that case "como"="like" ..."like every women" so it's correct, another meaning is the later when you have a dependent and independent clause, and the other way is "cómo" which is used in a question OR to convey a doubt like: "no sé cómo pudo hacerlo"

Answer 3

I actually did not know that porque could not be used to start a sentence or that como should be used to start sentences in places where English would normally start the sentence with because. So, Melissa, your question helped me! Thanks!

De nada.:) - zhmelissa, Jan 29, 2011

Answer 4

But, will people get confused if I say como........ in one sentence?

Because Como also have a meaning of ¨¨.... is like.....¨¨.

Lucía y Ana les gusta pasear por la calle como todas las mujeres.

See, here, Como not mean "Because" anymore.

So, I am thinking, if we say Como, will people get confused of it's meaning?

People who know that como has more than one meaning will not get confused. - webdunce, Jan 29, 2011

Answer 5

Como has many uses, because is not one, although in your sentence it means AS which is like because, it means "As, like, how, what, many things". No one will get confused.

Answer 6

Does it mean, Como must put in front of a sentence,but porque put in the middle?

Answer 7

In that case "Como tengo un vocabulario todavía muy limitado,encontré muchas dificultades y confundí las palabras" is not interchangeable, because as you probably know the first part is a dependent clause of the second clause, right? so "como" is always used as a "prelude".

The only clause I am certain exists is Santa Clause, all the others are just ideas to me. - jeezzle, Jan 29, 2011

if you say the independent clause first then you can use porque "encontré muchas dificultades y confundì las palabras PORQUE tengo un vocabulario todavía muy limitado" - dubsf, Jan 29, 2011

Answer 8

Como means "as" here, can you change it to porque, I don't know, but you can still think of the fact that they are similar. "Because" is incorrect in English to start a sentence with.....even though it makes sense. In Spanish I don't know if porque works there as well as como. Not native.