Por ayudarme - google disagrees!

Question

First off many thanks for your "Word of the day" emails. They are fantastic, and a really good way of keeping me thinking of at least a little Spanish every day!

In the 2nd example for the word "el santo" (27/07/14) you translate "Muchas gracias por ayudarme..." as "Thanks a lot for helping me..."

I checked on the grammar section of your website "Advanced por vs para" and indeed it would appear that this is correct as the closest match I could work out was "Exchange (for)", but I thought I would check with a google search in quotes for the two expressions and I was suprised to see that 'para' won!

"para ayudarme" got 1,300,000 results

and

"por ayudarme" got 538,000 results

Am I missing something here, please help?

Many thanks,

Rob

Answer 1

Por indicates a reason so it's always gracias por.

As you found out more often than not you'll find ayudar preceded by para which indicates a purpose. But for the example sentence it's the gracias that is the key which must be followed by por when stating the reason why you're expressing thanks

Answer 2

I wouldn´t always expect a correct answer, especially of a phrase, from google. Computers can very stupid at times when they translate more than just single words. The phrase in question could be correct with either por or para but in the right context.

Gracias por ayudarme ..... Thank you for helping me.

Para ayudarme, necesitas hacer un gran esfuerzo..... To help me, need to make a great effort.

Answer 3

Great answer, many thanks!

Yes, indeed when I redid the google search including 'Gracias' por does win the day!

"gracias para ayudarme" got 188,000 results

but

"gracias por ayudarme" got 412,000 results

Hurrah! Order is restored, justice has prevailed!

Thanks again Kiwi-Girl!

All the best,

Rob

De nada :) - Kiwi-Girl, Jul 27, 2014

Answer 4

I wholeheartedly concur /agree with Kiwigirl! I recently went through a number of grammatical topics in the Spanish Dict grammar section (and tested myself on them) Por is used to express gratitude/thanks in Spanish. I have also seen many Spanish native people use por in this way.

Some examples:

1.Hola Paul,

Muchísimas gracias por su reseña (I wrote a review of my Spanish classes/my native Spanish teacher's teaching style. The school wrote back and this sentence is a short extract/excerpt)

2 Muchas gracias por su interés. Espero su respuesta. (An early e-mail/letter from my Spanish teacher)

3 Un millón/un mil gracias por tu ayuda = I can't thank you enough for your help/Thank you very much for your help. (Source: Oxford English /Spanish Dictionary)

Por is used for showing gratitude and for giving a reason for doing something whereas para is used to indicate the recipient of an action:

ex: Este regalo es para María = This present (gift) is for Maria

I have only just read Julian's wise response. He is of course correct when he says that por or para could be used, but in different ways according to the context! My intention for writing this post was simply to show that por is more appropriate when expressing gratitude or when giving a reason for doing something. Para is also used to mean for , of course, but in different ways!

I hope this helps