Not por and para again!
I came across the following 2 sentences in a grammer book and I can't see why one is por and the other para. "Sé que lo harías por mí" ("I know that you would do it for me") and "organicé una fiesta para mi amigo" ("I organised a party for my friend").
While I'm writing, is there any book devoted solely to por and para with, preferably, hundreds of Practice exercises?
Gracias por su ayuda
3 Answers
"Sé que lo harías por mí" ("I know that you would do it for me") and "organicé una fiesta para mi amigo" ("I organised a party for my friend").
To address only the example given, which I think illustrates a nice point and is worth discussing for everyone to see:
Para- do something for the purpose of someone
Por- do something in someone’s stead.
Compré un regalo por mi esposa- I bought a present that my wife was supposed to buy- maybe it was for her niece but she couldn’t make it to the store, so I went. I bought a present for her.
Compré un regalo para mi esposa- I bought a present to give to my wife. It is for her. I bought a present for her.
Canté por él- I sang for him. He was sick, couldn’t do the performance, I sang in his place. He wasn't even there.
Canté para él. I sang for him. He was my audience, I sang for his listening pleasure.
If you analyze these examples, you should understand the choices above. Simple choice of preposition changes the meaning in a way that in English can only be done with further clarification.
I'm going to post some links. If you will do some research, you will find a lot about this on the internet. Especially the one that Kiwi gives this link:
I believe these will be very helpful.
This type of problems always comes up, because either, you are trying to write in Spanish with a limited knowledge of it or you are translating from Spanish to English without context.
That's why I advise to transcribe and translate a novel from Spanish to English. Lots of context.
