Por vs. Durante

Question

Today during class, my Spanish teacher gave us a list of grammar errors that really annoy him. One of the items that really caught my eye was that he said it was wrong to use "por" for a length of time. He said we must say durante instead of por. His example was "estuve en Sevilla durante tres días"(not por tres días). This confused me because I've been studying Spanish for seven years, and all of my teachers told us to use por for a duration of time. Do you all know any more on this subject?

Please don't tell me to use the search bar, I've already done that. The answer was not sufficient for me.

Answer 1

Did you find this one?

That's a good question, but I'm afraid the answer changes depending on the country, from what I've seen, and I am not even sure whether these variations have to do with the fact that English has influenced Spanish in some areas. To me, "por" indicates approximate duration, while "durante" is exact. For example, "Estaré allí por un mes" means that you intend to stay for about a month, more or less, while "Estaré allí durante un mes" means exactly one month.

• that was from Lazarus and a Spanish perspective rather than a Latin American one.

Yes-like I said my teacher said "por" was never right. That answer suggests that both could be right, which fails to explain what my teacher said - kramer12, Jan 9, 2012

perhaps as Lazarus pointed out it's regional - in some places it will give a different meaning in other places it may just seem wrong :) - Kiwi-Girl, Jan 9, 2012