Por vs Para: Sort Each One by What It Does in the Sentence

What jobs does para do?

¡Chévere!, an open university Spanish course, lists four jobs for para, and its contrast pairs add the person you work for. FSI's Spanish course from the 1950s adds a few more, such as "what for?" and "as for."

If you're a woman, say Estaré lista para el lunes. Built by this site to show the contrast for the first row; Wiktionary lists lista as the feminine form. If the people you'll talk to use vos, say para vos where the table has para ti, as in Esta canción es para vos further down.

Read the table out loud once. Then cover the middle column and say each sentence from the English.

Para plus a plain verb means "in order to," as in para aprender, "to learn." English usually says just "to" there, so listen for it.

What jobs does por do?

¡Chévere! gives por four jobs: a length of time, an exchange, a motive, and a way of traveling or getting a message across. Its examples include going through a door and along a hallway, and its contrast pairs use por for the route. FSI adds a part of the day and the person who did something.

Look at how many English words por takes: for, by, down, in. FSI lists still more, like "along" and "on behalf of." That's why matching the English word won't help you choose.

Both courses put a length of time with por, as in the first row. Neither says how often people leave the por out, so listen for what the people you talk to say.

What changes when you swap them?

Some sentences work with either word, but the meaning changes. ¡Chévere! warns that the two aren't interchangeable, and these pairs from its page show why.

Say each pair out loud. After each one, say in English what changed.

More pairs of this kind turn up in FSI's course. A dress made para Luisa was made for her. One made por Luisa was made by her. ¿Por qué? asks why, looking back to a cause. ¿Para qué? asks what for, looking ahead to a purpose.

Is there one idea behind both?

FSI's course offers one. It ties almost all the uses where the two contrast to "motion through" for por and "motion to" for para. It calls this nearly always helpful, which isn't the same as always. ¡Chévere! takes the other path: it says a single rule would have too many exceptions, so it teaches the jobs one by one.

Use the hint only to sort a sentence you're unsure about, and check it against the two tables. It won't help with set phrases. FSI itself says those mostly contain por and are best learned whole, without trying to analyze them. It also can't explain a pair from FSI's own drills: estar por and estar para can both mean "about to," as the next section shows.

Which phrases should you learn whole?

These come straight from ¡Chévere!'s list. Learn each one as a single chunk, the way you'd learn a word.

If you're a woman, say profesora in the por eso sentence. Wiktionary lists it as the feminine form.

One pair needs care. ¡Chévere! gives estar para plus a verb as "to be about to." FSI agrees, but it says estar por plus a verb can mean "about to" too, or "in favor of." Tatoeba has Estoy por irme. for "I'm about to go." Neither book says which regions prefer which. Ask a tutor what the people you'll talk to say.

What comes after por and para?

After either word, use the same pronouns as for the subject, except for "me" and the familiar "you" of tú. ¡Chévere! marks the accent on mí and warns that spelling counts.

With con, and only with con, "me" and familiar "you" join the word: conmigo, contigo. There's one more "you" to know. Trayectos, an open course from COERLL, uses vos for familiar "you" in Argentina and Uruguay. People who use it say Esta canción es para vos. (This song is for you.) Contigo is the form for tú. If the people you'll talk to use vos, copy how they say "for you" and "with you."

How do you train the choice out loud?

FSI's review drill keeps one sentence and moves it between the two words: going para Chile, then por two years, working para the government, then por money. Do the same with your own life.

Pick one plan, such as a trip to see your sister. Out loud, give it one short sentence for each job in this table, changing the verb as each row needs. Then pick another plan, like a course, a gift or a move, and start again. When you run out of plans, go back to the first one and change the details.

Keep the reason row to things, like your health or money. The mi in por mi salud means "my," so it has no accent. After a verb of going, por plus a person can mean something else: FSI glosses Paso por ti a las ocho. as calling for someone: I'll come by for you at eight. If you aren't sure a sentence is right, use a sentence from the tables above instead. Change only a name, a place, a time or an amount, and leave por or para as it is.

Count it in Spoken Minutes. On a 5-minute day, spend 1 minute on yesterday's Cold Say-Back and 4 on the plan drill. On a 10-minute day, it's 2 and 8. On a 20-minute day, it's 3 on the Cold Say-Back, 10 on the drill and 7 on the self-test below, run twice. Skip the self-test on shorter days. On your first day there's nothing to say back yet, so those 1, 2 or 3 minutes go to the drill. The self-test still runs on a 20-minute day. This split and the drill are this site's House routine, untested with learners. Add the minutes to your Mile Log.

On a 20-minute day, say each line in Spanish before you read the note after it.

1. This is for you! (para, the person who gets it; with vos, para vos)
2. I'll be ready by Monday. (para, a deadline; a woman says lista)
3. I'm here to learn. (para, a goal)
4. She waited for him for two hours. (por, how long)
5. I bought the book for ten dollars. (por, a price)
6. Send it by mail. (por, how it travels)
7. Thanks for the explanation. (por, after gracias)
8. Tom works for a large company. (para, an employer)

If you miss one, don't reread the rule. Find the sentence in the tables and say it three times.

The same habit of sorting by job helps with other choices English hides, like ser and estar and the two past tenses. Verbs with se have their own page, Spanish reflexive verbs. If you're just starting, the Spanish starting plan shows where this fits.

Tomorrow, before you look at anything, run a Cold Say-Back: say that you work for a company, that you waited two hours, and that a gift is for someone you know.