por tí or para tí

Question

one of my favourite spanish cd's is named "por tí" (patricia vela, copla). can anyone explain why it doesn't carry the name para tí?

wkmbe

Welcome to the Q&A forum! - --Mariana--, Jun 27, 2012

Answer 1

To put it simply, it means something different.

First of all, tí, with an accent, doesn´t exist in the Spanish language. It´s ti, without an accent.

To get more in depth...

"Para ti" means "you" is the recipient of the object. If I were to say "This present is for you," meaning that you are the one it belongs to, then it would be "este regalo es para ti."

"por" means for, also. But it means it in a different way. It means it as an exchange, or "through" or something like that. You could use "por ti," for example, if you were to say "I left my husband for you." "Dejé mi esposo por ti." In this case, "por ti" makes sense since it is an exchange. I am exchanging my ex-husband for someone else.

If I used para in this case and said "Dejé mi esposo para ti," it would have a completely different meaning. It would mean I left my husband for you, so you could have him. I left him there for you. Like, "Here you go, here´s my husband for you."

Make sense?

So the CD is titled "por ti" since it must mean something was exchanged "for you," as opposed to meaning that "you" were the recipient of something.

Really great explanation missy and really nice example - croberts, Mar 12, 2012

Thanks! For some odd reason I have used leaving boyfriends/husbands as my examples today. Haha! - missy8888, Mar 12, 2012

i checked it in the lessons, but in the lesson 2.3 about direct and indirect objects paralee shows us clearly that it is written as tí (with accent) - wkmbe, Jul 1, 2012

Great, Missy! - --Mariana--, Jul 1, 2012

Answer 2

Estoy de acuerdo con lo que ha dicho missy888, pero "por ti", también tiene otro sentido. Quiere decir que "Tú" eres la razón de algo, por ejemplo:

"Por ti, he aprendido inglés" es decir, tú eres la razón de que yo haya aprendido inglés. "Por ti, iría al fin del mundo" tú eres la razón de que yo vaya al fin del mundo. "Fue al parque a por nosotros" nosotros somos la razón de que él fuese al parque.

Yo entiendo el significado del disco "Por ti", de que tú eres la razón por la que Patricia Vela ha hecho el disco.

Answer 3

I assume you´re asking if mi-mí gets the accent mark. Yes and no.

Mí (with accent mark) is like ME in English.
The present is for me? El regalo es para mí?

Mi, (without accent mark) is like MY in English. That is my present. Ese es mi regalo.

And while we´re at it;

Mío (I think always with accent). That present is mine. Ese regalo es mío.

Answer 4

i checked it in the lessons, but in the lesson 2.3 about direct and indirect objects paralee shows us clearly that it is written as tí (with accent) - wkmbe

You are correct: that is an error because "ti" never has an accent mark

Gracias. El español es un poco difícil para mí, pero suena mejor.

Answer 5

Y mi?

Esta respuesta va a ser interesante. Gracias. - 0095ca4c, Jul 1, 2012

Answer 6

Gracias. En español es un poco más difícil para mí, pero suene mejor. Tu explicación es muy clara.

Answer 7

imuchas gracias!