Is this right? Por vs para

Question

1. Para dar un paseo por las montañas, necesitas botas.
2. Muchas personas viajan al Amazonas para barco.
3. El autobús es un medio de transporte para muchas personas.
4. Por lo general, la gente de las zonas rurales de Colombia viaja en chivas .
5. Viaja de noche si quieres llegar a Buenos Aires por la mañana.
6. Tienes que pasar para la aduana si viajas a otro país.

Could you please add your language level to your profile. - rac1, Feb 13, 2015

Answer 1

Muchas personas viajan al Amazonas por barco.

Tienes que pasar por la aduana si viajas a otro país.

The rest are OK.

Are my thoughts on number 5 not correct? - bosquederoble, Feb 13, 2015

You are a native speaker so I am interested in Bosque's question, too. See my comment on his answer. - Jubilado, Feb 13, 2015

Answer 2

For # 5, it is "por la mañana" which means "in the morning" some people say "en la mañana but that's incorrect. Here the speaker is talking about arriving in Buenos Aires In the morning. To say "by tomorrow morning"(as a deadline) it would be "para mañana por la mañana" This expression in not used that much, but if you need it, there it is.

"by tomorrow afternoon" would be "para mañana por la tarde" and so on. I teach this in my classes and after several attempts the students get it. It does sound sort of funny to an English speaker.

Remember "mañana" all by itself is "tomorrow" "la mañana" is "the morning."

2 "por barco" means "by boat."

6 "por la aduana" It means "pass through customs"

Gracias. :) - bosquederoble, Feb 13, 2015

Igualmente. :-) - Jubilado, Feb 14, 2015

¡Gracias Daniela! - Motema15, Mar 5, 2015

Answer 3

1. Para dar un paseo por las montañas, necesitas botas.
2. Muchas personas viajan al Amazonas para barco.
3. El autobús es un medio de transporte para muchas personas.
4. Por lo general, la gente de las zonas rurales de Colombia viaja en chivas .
5. Viaja de noche si quieres llegar a Buenos Aires por la mañana.
6. Tienes que pasar para la aduana si viajas a otro país.

My thoughts, I am not a native, and still make por/para errors from time to time, so you may want to wait for confirmation/other thoughts.

1. Seems okay

2. By means of boat: por (unless you are trying to say they travel there for an end purpose of buying a boat or something)

3. Seems okay

4. Seems okay

5. By a deadline: para--- you want to arrive by the morning, not through the morning

6. Through customs- por

I think "por la mañana" is used to mean "in the morning" always, and I don't really know if there is a distinction for "by morning" vs "in the morning" in Spanish. Unless Julian did not see the subtlety which you did. - Jubilado, Feb 13, 2015

http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/porpara.htm Rule: to express a deadline or specific time Model: Necesito el vestido para el lunes. - bosquederoble, Feb 13, 2015

http://www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/10 - Deadlines • Necesito la presentation para el viernes. - bosquederoble, Feb 13, 2015

It might be in this case you could use either though- whether you were trying to say by the morning or sometime in/during the morning. I am very interested in Julian's, or any native speakers, opinion on this. - bosquederoble, Feb 13, 2015

I agree that both could be used depending on context, so I have guessed that the implication is "sometime in the morning". For deadlines confusion can be avoided by saying ie: "ya para la mañana" since "mañana" isn´t an exact time, such as "... si quieres - 005faa61, Feb 13, 2015

llegar a BA para las ocho y media" although I would prefer to use "ya" in this case as well just because it creates better understanding - 005faa61, Feb 13, 2015

Gracias, Julian. :) - bosquederoble, Feb 13, 2015