Por or para?
Anyone who has spent even a short time studying Spanish knows that this is one of the hardest things to learn. You can read the "explanations" of how and when they are used, but they don't seem to help much when you're trying to speak or write.
Those explanations are listed in lots of books and lots of pages on the Internet, so I'm not going to repeat them here. What I want to do is give you some very practical advice which I've gleaned from having spent more than twenty years teaching Spanish and watching when and how people have problems with the por / para dilemma. Here it is, condensed into one easy to remember sentence:
When in doubt, use "para".
Let me list some of the reasons for the above recommendation:
1. Almost always, I find myself (as a teacher) saying "para" (as a correction) when the student has just said "por". Rarely does the reverse happen.
2. I've seen and heard students who have taken this advice to heart correct themselves and get the right answer when they are thinking out loud and trying to decide which one to use.
3. "Para" seems to be a more practical term, while "por" is usually in some sort of expression: for example, "por la mañana" or "por última vez".
4. It's not accurate, but you yourself can do a Google search on the two words and you'll see that "para" returns more hits. This sort of confirms my impression that "para" is used more often than "por".
So, when in doubt, use "para". This tip won't guarantee that you'll always be right, but it till tip the scales in your favor. Try it for yourself and see what happens.
Brad
