How to differentiate between ownership of something and something by someone

Question

If I'm trying to find my friends book, I would say "Intento busco un libro de mi amigo" right?

But then when saying, "I'm trying to find the book by Chuck Palahniuk," would it be "Intento buscar el libro de Chuck Palahniuk?"

So what I'm trying to find out is how do you know if "de" is being used in the context that the book is by this author or just a belonging to someone.

Gracias en avance.

Answer 1

I'm pretty sure you could say it either way, but similar to English, there's a little imprecision in using "de", whereas there's no such problem with "por."

• Busco el primero libro de Mark Twain/I'm looking for Mark Twain's first book.
• Busco el primero libro escrito por Mark Twain/I'm looking for the first book written by Mark Twain.

In the first example, technically you could be looking for a book belonging to Mark Twain, but I suppose that's what context is for...

In general, however, "de" is used to show possession, and "por" is used to show attribution.

Thanks, that explained it well - trqkkr, Feb 16, 2013

"el primero" gets shortened to "el primer" if it goes before a masculine noun - comunacho, Feb 16, 2013

Answer 2

If it's really an issue, you could say "el libro que fue escrito por (tal autor)" or "que pertenece a (mi amigo)" Otherwise you're right, you can't really tell.

nice :) - Kiwi-Girl, Feb 16, 2013

Answer 3

how do you know if "de" is being used in the context that the book is by this author or just a belonging to someone.

You said it perfectly: it's all about context.

Scene 1:

You're having a conversation about a book and you're friend says, "Oh, es un libro de Mark Twain." You're not going to think that the book belongs to Mr. Twain but that it was written by him.

Scene 2:

You ask your friend, "¿De quién es este libro?" He replies, "Es de Juan." You're going to assume that it belongs to Juan and not that he actually wrote the book.