To indicate that you used the door to leave or that you flew by plane, you would use por. Por: When talking about traveling or movement, por can be used to express how you traveled.
In contrast, if you were baking a pie “for” your mother, you would use por, because your mother is the cause of your baking. If you are studying “for” a Spanish test, as an example, you would use para, because the English test is the recipient or your action (studying). Para: Whereas por indicates the reason the subject is doing something, para indicates the effect of what the subject is doing. For example, if you are doing something on behalf of someone, you would use por. Por: In many instances, por indicates the cause or the reason why the subject is doing the action of the sentence. Language learners can often get confused on the different uses of para and por, but para can be differentiated as a preposition that shows the “effect” of the statement in question.ĭifferences 1) Cause and Effect for Por and Para Para is another Spanish preposition that is usually translated as for or sometimes as in order to. While memorizing all the rules and cases in which to use por can be tricky, we can simplify por as a preposition that shows the “cause” of the statement we’re looking at. Understanding the purpose of por can be difficult, especially when considering para as well.
Por is a common preposition in Spanish that most easily translates to for in English.