Do you put "para" between a conjugated verb and an infinitive?

Question

Do you put the word "para" between a conjugated verb and an infinitive? For example, if the question was Are you ready to talk to me? would that be ¿Está listo para hablarme? or ¿Está listo hablarme?

Welcome to SD - please complete your profile. I helps us answer. - ian-hill, Mar 9, 2013

It helps us answer - oops - ian-hill, Mar 10, 2013

Answer 1

I am not sure if it happens a lot in Spanish but in English think of this.

I am saving to buy a car = I am saving in order to buy a car.

= Estoy ahorrando para comprar un coche.

Answer 2

In this case it would be para hablarme. Whether you need para or not depends on the verb and what you are trying to say though. I can't think of an easy rule at the moment, though, sorry.

Yes, I completely agree. But it must always be infinitive after para, as BigMike stated. - randomguy123, Mar 10, 2013

Answer 3

¿Está (if you are talking in the usted form) listo para hablarme?

¿Estás listo para ir?

¿Estás preparado para salir de viaje?

Answer 4

Ian's example is really good. If you could, in English, substitute in "in order to" the para is very likely correct. The trick is, we English speakers often shorten "in order to" to simply "to" , so then we sometimes start putting para in, in Spanish, where the infinitive, or after some verbs, a plus infinitive, would be right.

The Ian theorem (I'm assuming we're all calling it that now) will serve you very well very often.

cheers.