Learn about prepositions with the Spanish preposition por
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Buenos días, me llamo Natalia. |
| Carlos: What’s going on? My name is Carlos. |
| Natalia: “Is this a very urgent matter?” |
| Carlos: What’s going on Pod101World? My name is Carlos and, as always, I'm joined by… |
| Natalia: Natalia. |
| Carlos: That’s right. What’s going on, Natalia? How are you doing today? |
| Natalia: ¡Ayy! Me siento muy bien, muy tranquila, Carlos. ¿Y tú? |
| Carlos: Well, I know you too are alright right now, Naty, you just told me that, but listen, Alejandro is not cause he has still not found out his results. |
| Natalia: No? |
| Carlos: No. Now he has to leave his contact information. |
| Natalia: Oh, that has to be stressful. |
| Carlos: Definitely. You know how it is. |
| Natalia: Yeah, but Carina’s keeping it cool and formal. |
| Carlos: She has to, that’s her job. |
| Natalia: Well, and my job today is to explain prepositions, focusing on the seven main uses of “por”. |
| Carlos: That was very smooth, Nati, very suave. |
| Natalia: Very what? |
| Carlos: You know what? Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| KARINA: ¿Me puede decir sus datos por favor? |
| ALEJANDRO: Mi Nombre es Alejandro Alfaro. |
| KARINA: ¿Su número de teléfono? |
| ALEJANDRO : Ocho, ocho, dos, tres, cinco, cuatro, dos, cero. |
| KARINA : ¿Podemos contactarlo a cualquier hora? |
| ALEJANDRO: Sólo estoy disponible hasta las ocho de la noche. |
| KARINA : Perdón, Don Alejandro, ¿es muy urgente el asunto? |
| ALEJANDRO: Sí, realmente necesito los resultados lo más pronto posible. |
| KARINA: Can you give me your contact information please? |
| ALEJANDRO: My name is Alexander Alfaro. |
| KARINA: Your phone number? |
| ALEJANDRO : Eight, eight, two, five, four, two, zero. |
| KARINA : Can we contact you at any time? |
| ALEJANDRO: I am only available until eight o'clock at night. |
| KARINA : Excuse me, Mr. Alfaro, but is this a very urgent matter? |
| ALEJANDRO: Yes, I actually need the results as soon as possible. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Natalia: Carlos, you know what I’d do in this kind of situations? |
| Carlos: What do you do, Nati? |
| Natalia: Just go to the place, knock on the door and be like, “I need my results right now” cause they never call you back. |
| Carlos: I know. Well, I don't know about you but I don’t want to call about my results. I just remember like I’ll be stressing out next to the phone, like waiting for it to ring. |
| Natalia: Not only that, is it a very urgent matter… it’s medical thing. Yes, I need to know what’s going on, you know. |
| Carlos: Unless it’s test, those get you calmed down. |
| Natalia: I don't know, I think it’s better to go there and get the papers in your hand. |
| Carlos: Well, you hear that? Nati says go down there and get the papers in your hand. I don't know, I might need a partner to go down with me. You know what, Nati, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. First up we have a masculine noun. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natalia: “Dato”. |
| Carlos: “Piece of information”,” personal details”, “data.” |
| Natalia: “Da-to”, “dato”. Por ejemplo, “necesito sus datos personales, señor”. |
| Carlos: “I need your personal information, sir.” And another masculine noun? |
| Natalia: “Número”. |
| Carlos: “Number.” |
| Natalia: “Nú-me-ro”, “número”. Por ejemplo, “el número del verbo puede ser singular o plural”. |
| Carlos: And then we have an indefinite adjective. |
| Natalia: “Cualquier, cualquiera”. |
| Carlos: “Any.” |
| Natalia: “Cual-quier, cual-quiera”. “Cualquier, cualquiera”. Por ejemplo, “busco cualquier hotel para hospedarme”. |
| Carlos: “I look for any hotel to stay at”. And an adjective next? |
| Natalia: “Disponible”. |
| Carlos: “Available.” |
| Natalia: “Dis-po-ni-ble”, “disponible”. Por ejemplo, “acabo de darme cuenta que no estaré disponible a esa hora”. |
| Carlos: “I’ve just realized that I won’t be available at that time”. And then a feminine noun. |
| Natalia: “Hora”. |
| Carlos: “Hour.” |
| Natalia: “Ho-ra”, “hora”. Por ejemplo, “hemos llegado en buena hora”. |
| Carlos: “We’ve arrived at a good time.” And finally a masculine noun. |
| Natalia: “Asunto”. |
| Carlos: “Issue”, “matter”, “affair.” |
| Natalia: “A-sun-to”, “asunto”. Por ejemplo, “no es grave el asunto”. |
| Carlos: “It’s not a serious matter.” Alright, Nati, let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Natalia: The first word we'll look at is “dato”. |
| Carlos: “Dato” I like the sound of that “dato, dato”. |
| Natalia: Yeah, ok. Get it out of your system or you could call a pet like that. |
| Carlos: “Dato, dato, dato”. |
| Natalia: Hey, “dato”. Well, anyways. Carlos, go on. |
| Carlos: Ok. You know, “dato” means a piece of information, personal details and data. I mean this is a lot of meaning for a little word. |
| Natalia: Well, not only that, also “documento”, “testimonio”, “fundamento”. They all kind of mean the same thing. |
| Carlos: I think I would be able to get the meaning if someone asked me “¿me puede decir sus datos, por favor?”. |
| Natalia: I sure hope so. |
| Carlos: Well, now that I think about it, it makes me think of the slang digits, like, “Hey, yo, can I get your digits?” |
| Natalia: Isn’t that from the 90s? |
| Carlos: Well, yeah, I'm a child from the 90s, what do you want to add? |
| Natalia: “El dato que recibí de la corte era el incorrecto”. |
| Carlos: “The data I got from the court was incorrect.” Nati, were you in court recently? |
| Natalia: No, Carlos, of course not. I was just saying, you know. It would stink if you got data from the court and it was incorrect. I'm not speaking from experience, believe me. |
| Carlos: Sure, ok, moving on then. |
| Natalia: Moving on. “Número: expresión de una cantidad con relación a su unidad”. |
| Carlos: “Número”. “Number”. I'm beginning to see a pattern here. And the classic example “su número de teléfono”. |
| Natalia: Your phone number? |
| Carlos: I have a friend that only knows how to say that in Spanish, and he says it’s all he needs. |
| Natalia: Well, I'm sure it’s even the more classic “¿cuál es tu número de teléfono?”. |
| Carlos: “What is your telephone number?” Yeah, you know what, I think that is the classic. That is the actual best way he knows how to use this masculine noun. |
| Natalia: I wonder what happens when they give him the phone number and then they call. Then what does he do? |
| Carlos: “¿Cuál es su número de teléfono? De su casa”. |
| Natalia: Oh well, ok, Carlos. Now we have an important indefinite adjective. |
| Carlos: Which? |
| Natalia: “Cualquier y cualquiera”. |
| Carlos: Right, “cualquier y cualquiera”. “Any”, right? |
| Natalia: Yeah. That’s one of those words that is very commonly used and once you learn it, you’ll hear it all over the place where Spanish is spoken. For example, “cualquier significa como una variedad de cosas”. |
| Carlos: Alright, you know what, “a variety of things”? Once I learned it I heard it a lot. It’s one of those things that you just hear bumping up all the time. You’re like, “Hey, what’s up, ‘cualquiera’?” |
| Natalia: Again, it could get you out of trouble. If you’re not sure of something you could say “any”, “cualquiera”. |
| Carlos: Ok. |
| Natalia: “¿Qué quiere comer? Cualquier cosa”. |
| Carlos: Oh, that could be dangerous. But how did it come up in our conversation today, Nati? |
| Natalia: Well, it came up like this. “¿Podemos contactarlo a cualquier hora?”. |
| Carlos: “Can we contact you at any time?” |
| Natalia: Yeah, and the thing is you wouldn’t think “cualquier” is “any” just by inferring. |
| Carlos: Not at all. Like if I heard “no tengo ninguna preferencia con el color de la camisa, escojo cualquiera”. “I do not have any color preference for the blouse, I choose any of them”. If I had no idea what “cualquiera” means, I wouldn’t be able to decipher that. |
| Natalia: And where did that example come from? |
| Carlos: I don't know, I just got inspired while shopping out here. |
| Natalia: I'm suspicious, Carlos. Is that why you’re wearing that… Never mind. |
| Carlos: Admire my shirt, it’s black. No, just learning. Ok, next up. |
| Natalia: “Disponible”. |
| Carlos: Adjetivo, right? |
| Natalia: It means “available” or “dicho de una cosa”. |
| Carlos: Like? |
| Natalia: Por ejemplo, “el apartamento para rentar ya no está disponible”. |
| Carlos: “The apartment for rent is not available anymore.” A shame, Nati, it was a really nice apartment. |
| Natalia: Carlos, in our conversation, “disponible” was put to use like this “sólo estoy disponible hasta las 8 de la noche”. |
| Carlos: “I'm only available after 8 o’clock at night.” So “disponible”, “available”, “disponible”, “available”. I get the connection. |
| Natalia: I think they got it, you know? The next word is even easier, “hora”. |
| Carlos: “Hora”. Man, even if you’re not learning Spanish “hora” is definitely part of your lexicon. |
| Natalia: Never heard that in my life, lexi-what? |
| Carlos: Nothing, nothing. “Hora”, “hour”, feminine noun, right? |
| Natalia: Exactly. |
| Carlos: And the definition? |
| Natalia: “Es el tiempo que equivale a 60 minutos; es decir, 3600 segundos, dos periodos consecutivos de 12 horas o uno de 24, contadas desde las 12 del día, constituyen un día solar”. |
| Carlos: Exactly. And so 60 minutes. Nati, did I ever tell you that one of my goals in life was to be on 60 minutes of something good? |
| Natalia: Oh, you’ve said that every time we turn on the TV and 60 minutes is on. |
| Carlos: So then every Sunday at 7 o’clock. Well, now our audience knows and Andy Rooney, if you’re out there trying to learn Spanish, or maybe Anderson Cooper, yo, give me shout out. |
| Natalia: Ok, well, Carlos, how is this used in the conversation? |
| Carlos: Well, when Carina says, “¿podemos contactarlo a cualquiera hora?”. |
| Natalia: “A cualquier hora”. |
| Carlos: “A cualquier hora”. “Can we contact you at any hour”, right? |
| Natalia: Right. |
| Carlos: Now, the next word I have heard before but was never able to make the mental connection. |
| Natalia: What? “¿Asunto?” |
| Carlos: Yeah, maybe I’ll get it now. I mean, I know it is a masculine noun. |
| Natalia: Right. And what does it mean? |
| Carlos: Well, I remember just hearing it. It means “issue” or “matter” or “affair”. |
| Natalia: Right, in Spanish it can be defined as “negocio, ocupación, quehacer”. Let’s see if we can build that mental connection, you know? How was it used in the conversation? |
| Carlos: “Perdón, don Alejandro, ¿es muy urgente el asunto?”. |
| Natalia: “Excuse me, Mr. Alfaro, but is it a very urgent matter?” |
| Carlos: Ok, I got that. |
| Natalia: Well, here’s another example. “¿Cuál es el asunto de la reunión?”. |
| Carlos: “What’s the meeting about?” |
| Natalia: Yes, I think you got it. |
| Carlos: And I hope you do too, audience. Drop us a comment and let us know. |
| Natalia: Today is the day for prepositions. |
| Carlos: Oh not the [inaudible 00:08:13] preposition day. Ok, but you know what the reason why? It’s cause it’s a topic that I need a little bit of help on. |
| Natalia: A little? |
| Carlos: Ok, a lot. Prepositions are one of those little things that need a lot of explaining. |
| Natalia: Well, you know what they are in English. |
| Carlos: Of course I do and I'm going to beat you to the punch and just explain them. |
| Natalia: Oh, thank you. |
| Carlos: Prepositions are invariable words that introduce nouns, noun phrases or subordinate clause making them dependent on a verb that is previous given. |
| Natalia: Good, ok. In Spanish there are a lot of prepositions and even more prepositional phrases. |
| Carlos: Ok, but you know what? For argument’s sake, Nati, let’s focus on the most common. |
| Natalia: The most common prepositions are “por, para, de, a, en”. |
| Carlos: “Por, para, de, a, en”. |
| Natalia: Right. Let’s check out “por” first. |
| Carlos: Sounds good to me. So how many ways can the preposition “por” be used? |
| Natalia: Well, first it’s “cause”. |
| Carlos: For example? |
| Natalia: “Por haber llovido mucho el partido fue cancelado”. |
| Carlos: “Because of it having rained so much, the game was canceled.” |
| Natalia: The second is time and place. |
| Carlos: What? |
| Natalia: “Entrar por la puerta”. |
| Carlos: “To enter through the door.” Ok, I got that one. |
| Natalia: We got the third one that is an agent of the passive. “Él fue arrestado por la policía”. |
| Carlos: “He has been arrested by the police.” |
| Natalia: We got fourth, medium. “Hablar por teléfono”. |
| Carlos: “To talk by phone.” |
| Natalia: We got the fifth, mode. “Por fin”. |
| Carlos: “At last.” |
| Natalia: We got the sixth, substitution and equivalence. For example, “trabaja por tu padre hoy”. |
| Carlos: “Work in place of your father today.” |
| Natalia: And last but not least we got the seventh, used in formal as of judgement or as exclamation. “¡Por el amor de Dios!” |
| Carlos: “For the love of God!” |
| Natalia: Get it. Good. You got it? |
| Carlos: Good. Yes, I do. |
| Natalia: Carlos, just take notes or hear all this [inaudible 00:09:56]. |
| Carlos: I got it, I got the lesson notes all over the place on PDF though. Well, you know what, I get it now and I'm sure our audience does as well. But a quick shoot over to the grammar bank in the Learning Center will help on top of that. They can always look at the lesson PDF. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Natalia: True, but while I'm here there’s another example in which “por” is used to express cause of an action. |
| Carlos: It’s good of you to come with another one. |
| Natalia: “Trabajo por mi familia”. |
| Carlos: “I work for/on behalf of my family.” |
| Natalia: But there is something to keep in mind. |
| Carlos: What’s that? |
| Natalia: Keep in mind that this literally means “I'm working to support my family”. |
| Carlos: Well, I think I can remember this. |
| Natalia: Good, contrast the preposition “por” with the preposition “para” in this context. |
| Carlos: Good, you know what, I always get those confused. |
| Natalia: “Trabajo para mi familia”. |
| Carlos: So that’ll be I work for and employed by my family. |
| Natalia: See the difference? Here “para” has a different meaning. |
| Carlos: Yeah, I do. But I love to practice more. |
| Natalia: That’s it. We don’t speak in English anymore, Carlos. |
| Carlos: Oh, the pressure’s on now. |
| Natalia: Last thing in English you can have to explain me after we’re done is that “lex one” because I don’t have a clue what that is. |
| Carlos: “Lexicon.” |
| Natalia: Don’t call me that. Anyways, go on, Carlos. |
Outro |
| Carlos: You know what, I'm not going to go on cause that just about does it for today. |
| Natalia: We’re done?! |
| Carlos: Yes. Chao, later, hasta luego and all that good stuff. |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide