When do you use por versus para? And why is it so complicated?
Let’s make it super simple.
Yes, Spanish grammar can be complex. But there’s a way to oversimplify concepts like this, without messing up your Spanish — if you do it right!
In this guide and video, I’ll show you how. By the end, you’ll be using por and para correctly, and it will be easier than ever.
This video will show you how oversimplifying Spanish grammar can be effective. It’s much easier than using long lists — and you can still speak Spanish accurately! — if you oversimplify the right way. (For por vs para, you can fast-forward to 3:31.)
Here’s the trick to simplifying things like Spanish grammar: Drop concepts into “buckets”.
A great example of this is Ser vs Estar. English speakers have tons of trouble with this, because long lists like “DOCTOR” and “PLACE” can be really hard to use. But native Spanish speakers never use lists! They never, ever confuse these two verbs, because they understand Ser and Estar as two completely different entities. It’s the same thing with por versus para, subjunctive versus indicative, and so on.
So theoretically, if you throw out the lists and instead get the “buckets” right, you’ll use these concepts like a native Spanish speaker.
But there’s a catch. If you’ve spoken Spanish your whole life, you already have the buckets, and they seem simple and natural to you. But native English speakers don’t have those buckets yet — and unfortunately, when they try to create the buckets, they use the wrong buckets.
Here’s a great example: Many English speakers create buckets for Ser and Estar, and they label the Ser bucket as “permanent” and the Estar bucket as “temporary”. This is wrong! If you label you buckets this way, you’ll speak with inaccurate Spanish and be misunderstood and frustrated a lot of the time.
I’ll show you the correct buckets for Ser and Estar in a minute. But first, let’s get a quick win with por versus para.
Let’s solve por vs para once and for all, specifically when you want to say “for” (which can translate as either word).
Step 1 is to find a simple rule that applies at least most of the time. This can be super tricky, but we’ve landed on a rule that applies most of the for por vs para.
Here are two basic buckets to translate “for” into Spanish:
Let’s look at some simple examples:
As you can see, these buckets work really well. Most of the time, if you can replace "for" with "intended for," it’s para. If you can replace it with "because of," it’s por.
Try it yourself in a few examples. By using these buckets (“because of” versus “intended for”), I bet you can get por versus para right in all of these!
Answers:
Now let’s get into some trickier cases. Sometimes it isn’t so straightforward. For example, what should we do with this sentence?
Hmmm… When we say “for” here, are we talking about the love that I feel “intended for” my dog, or the love that I feel “because of" my dog?
It turns out that the correct translation is:
This may be surprising, but it’s how Spanish works: When you feel something “for” someone, you feel it por that person.
To remember this, try thinking of this phrase:
This will help you remember to use por in sentences like this. We’re dropping this into the “because of” bucket!
Now how about this one:
Is this “I did it intended for her”, “or “I did it because of her”?
Believe it or not, both versions work! You can use either por or para here. However, it changes the meaning.
If you are doing something on someone’s behalf, then you use por. For example, let’s say that you’re doing somebody else’s work for her. In that case, you would always use por. For example:
So in these cases, we have to drop it into the “because of” bucket.
However, if you did something, or made something, that is intended for someone else — as in, she is going to receive it from you — then you’ll use para. For example:
We’ll drop this into the “intended for” bucket.
Try to get into the habit of dropping things into buckets like this! It will help you speak Spanish more naturally, because instead of trying to use long lists, you’ll form a general, coherent concept — a unifying mental model — of words like por and para.
Before we go, I have to warn you: Too many Spanish speakers choose the WRONG buckets to try to simplify things.
Remember, you have to choose a rule that truly works most of the time. Otherwise, you’ll get into some bad Spanish habits that are hard to fix.
To show how this can go wrong, let’s discuss Ser versus Estar.
Ser vs. Estar: The WRONG Oversimplification
A common mistake is oversimplifying ser vs. estar as "permanent" vs. "temporary." This is misleading. There are countless examples that prove this doesn’t work:
Ser vs. Estar: The RIGHT Oversimplification
A better way to think about Ser vs. Estar is:
For example:
If you just fix these labels on your Ser/Estar buckets, it will help you get Ser vs. Estar right 90% of the time!
To recap, here’s is a simplified way to remember por vs. para. When you translate “for” from English into Spanish:
You use para when something is meant for a person, place, or purpose:
Use por when something happens because of some reason or cause:
Some cases require more nuance, but this simple mental model will help you get por vs. para right most of the time. From here, you can keep refining this as you encounter more and more real-life Spanish!
If you like the idea of simplifying Spanish grammar, in a way that really works, you’ll love the LearnCraft Spanish Podcast.
This is a full guide to the top 1000 words in Spanish, created by me and my team of native-Spanish-speaking coaches. We’ve done all the work for you!
LearnCraft Spanish provides all the oversimplified rules you need to master 90% of Spanish grammar, and it’s available online for free. It thoroughly covers Ser vs. Estar, por vs. para, Terminar vs Acabar, and subjunctive sentence templates, and hundreds of examples to help you practice.
Listen for free at LCSPodcast.com, or search for “LearnCraft Spanish” wherever you get your podcasts.
