Learn how to use 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 |
| Dylan: Hola, hola a todos. Habla Dylan, ¿cómo están hoy? |
| Carlos: What’s going on pod101 world? My name is Carlos. |
| Dylan: In this lesson, you will learn about the preposition “por”. |
| Carlos: This conversation takes place in a bookstore. |
| Dylan: The conversation is between Ana, Andrea, and Andrés. |
| Carlos: The speakers are strangers, so they will be speaking formally. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Viejita: Ahhh, ¡estás aprendiendo español! ¡Qué bueno! |
| Andrés: Sí señora, estoy en este país sólo para eso. |
| Ana: Él es mi primo Andrés. Es de Carolina del Norte, en Estados Unidos. |
| Viejita: Mucho gusto, yo soy Andrea. Yo soy profesora de español. |
| Andrés: ¿En serio? ¡Qué casualidad! |
| Viejita: Yo no creo en las casualidades, todo pasa por una razón. |
| Viejita: Ahhh, you're learning Spanish! How great! |
| Andrés: Yes ma'am, I'm in this country only for that reason. |
| Ana: He is my cousin Andrés from North Carolina in the United States. |
| Viejita: Nice to meet you. I am Andrea; I am a Spanish teacher. |
| Andrés: Really? What a coincidence! |
| Viejita: I don't believe in coincidences; everything happens for a reason. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: You know, Dylan, I don’t agree in coincidences either because literally there are so many Spanish teachers in Costa Rica and I am sure it’s the same in other countries in Latin America. |
| Dylan: I do believe in coincidences. I mean they are at the same place at the same time you know and he is learning Spanish, I don’t know. There are a lot but it just seems like it was meant to be to me. |
| Carlos: Okay, then me and Dylan have differing opinions as it is in terms of destiny. Well, she is a teacher and she is in a bookstore. They are trying to learn. They are in a bookstore. It’s like we meet at a cafeteria, I am hungry. I am hungry, oh my god! It’s meant to be. Okay, but… |
| Dylan: Okay Carlos, you think like that. That’s fine. |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dylan: “Aprender”. |
| Carlos: “To learn.” |
| Dylan: “A-pren-der”, “aprender”. “Profesor, profesora”. |
| Carlos: “Teacher”, “professor.” |
| Dylan: “Pro-fe-sor, pro-fe-so-ra”, “profesor, profesora”. “Casualidad”. |
| Carlos: “Coincidence.” |
| Dylan: “Ca-sua-li-dad”, “casualidad”. “Creer”. |
| Carlos: “To believe.” |
| Dylan: “Cre-er”, “creer”. “Pasar”. |
| Carlos: “To pass by”, “to go by”, “to come by.” |
| Dylan: “Pa-sar”, “pasar”. “Todo pasa por una razón”. |
| Carlos: “Everything happens for a reason.” |
| Dylan: “To-do pa-sa por u-na ra-zón”, “todo pasa por una razón”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Dylan: The first word we will look at is “aprender”. |
| Carlos: “Aprender”, “to learn”, but in this case, we say... |
| Dylan: “Aprendiendo”, “learning.” |
| Carlos: As in the example of our conversation. |
| Dylan: “¡Estás aprendiendo español!” |
| Carlos: “You are learning Spanish!” |
| Dylan: Hey, this is funny, Carlos. |
| Carlos: What’s funny? |
| Dylan: Well the fact that you can apply that example to you also. |
| Carlos: That is true, I can. |
| Dylan: So say an example sentence since this applies to you so much. |
| Carlos: “Estoy aprendiendo español”. “I am learning Spanish.” |
| Dylan: And you are doing better and better every day. |
| Carlos: Better and better. That’s how you have to do it using Spanish “cada día”. |
| Dylan: What else are you learning? |
| Carlos: Well, “mi novia está aprendiendo a manejar”. |
| Dylan: She is learning to drive at 30? |
| Carlos: Yeah, 30. What can you say? In some areas of Costa Rica, you just don’t need a car. |
| Dylan: That’s true. I am surprised you needed one being a New Yorker. |
| Carlos: Well, now Dylan, I was in the suburbs and we needed a car. |
| Dylan: Well so she is now “la aprendiz”. |
| Carlos: Okay, “the learner” I guess, but then again so was Andrés. |
| Dylan: Next up. |
| Carlos: An old favorite, “profesor, profesora”. |
| Dylan: Which do you prefer when you are being referred to? |
| Carlos: I think I prefer “maestro” just because of the whole master connotation. I think then I get to call my students grasshopper. |
| Dylan: Ay, ay, ay. None of them get that Kung Fu reference, do they? |
| Carlos: Not a one. |
| Dylan: Now how is your professor, your university? |
| Carlos: Mi profesor es muy inteligente y amable. Y lo más importante, paciente. |
| Dylan: I guess he would have to be patient with the student like you. |
| Carlos: I can be a handful. |
| Dylan: So what are you to your professor? |
| Carlos: Yo soy “el estudiante”. |
| Dylan: Next up. A noun that I don’t believe in. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: Well, it looks like the old woman agrees with me. |
| Carlos: Okay, I will buy it. What? |
| Dylan: “Casualidad”. |
| Carlos: “Casualidad”, “coincidence.” |
| Dylan: Do you believe in coincidence? |
| Carlos: Depends of mood you catch me, but today I have to say no. |
| Dylan: Well, here we hear this word twice in our conversation |
| Carlos: Yep, and the first one is “¡qué casualidad!” |
| Dylan: “What a coincidence!” I would think that you don’t believe in coincidences. |
| Carlos: No, you know what, I really don’t considering a leap of faith I took moving to Costa Rica. |
| Dylan: Exactly, like when you met Michelle. |
| Carlos: Okay, yeah, yeah, that was freaky. |
| Dylan: When she said “yo soy de Nueva York”, what did you say? |
| Carlos: “Yo también, ¡qué casualidad!” |
| Dylan: You could have also said “¡qué coincidencia!” |
| Carlos: Ah so “coincidencia” is a related word. |
| Dylan: Yes, “coincidencia” and a little closer of a cognate. |
| Carlos: That helps. |
| Dylan: Now our next word has just been used a couple of times but in English. |
| Carlos: So then, that provided a group frame of reference. |
| Dylan: Yes, it did. The verb “creer”. |
| Carlos: “Creer”, “to believe.” |
| Dylan: Now usually we hear “creer” being used in the sense of believing a thing in everyday speech. |
| Carlos: Right, like in relation to “pensar” which means “to think.” |
| Dylan: A natural relationship to think or to believe. |
| Carlos: Exactly. |
| Dylan: But here in our conversation, we have “believe” as more like a “conviction” when the old woman says... |
| Carlos: “Yo no creo en las casualidades”. |
| Dylan: “I don’t believe in coincidences.” |
| Carlos: So here we have something that you would say when I don’t know talking about religion. |
| Dylan: Exactly, “Yo creo en Dios”. |
| Carlos: “I believe in God.” Well, that helps so this being a catholic country you know. |
| Dylan: And we already just presented a good related word. This word is cousin almost. |
| Carlos: “Pensar”, “to think.” |
| Dylan: But we can think of another one. |
| Carlos: Well, what are we talking about now, “las creencias”. |
| Dylan: “The beliefs.” |
| Carlos: What’s next? |
| Dylan: We have the verb “pasar”. |
| Carlos: Now “pasar” is a miry verb. |
| Dylan: Miry? |
| Carlos: “To pass”, “to go by”, “to come by”, “to come.” With four or more definitions, yes I will say that it is a miry verb. |
| Dylan: Funny because those definitions aren’t in our example but that is translation for you. |
| Carlos: Hit us with the example then. |
| Dylan: “Todo pasa por una razón”. |
| Carlos: “Everything happens for a reason.” I guess you could say “everything comes from a reason” but since we already have that say in English, that made it a lot more easier to translate sufficiently. |
| Dylan: Or you could say that “everything passes for a reason” but that doesn’t just sound right. |
| Carlos: No, no it doesn’t. |
| Dylan: But to associate with another verb or two actually, “ir” or “moverse” we could say “pasó por mi lado”. |
| Carlos: “He” or “she passed by my side.” |
| Dylan: So yeah, “pasar” means quite a bit more than simply “to pass.” |
| Carlos: I will have to keep that in mind. |
| Dylan: Now let’s break out from the norm for a moment. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: I want to discuss the elocution at hand. |
| Carlos: Which? |
| Dylan: “Todo pasa por una razón”. |
| Carlos: “Everything happens for a reason.” Are we trying to get philosophical out here? |
| Dylan: No, no, no, no….not at all. I just want to use another situation in which this is applicable. |
| Carlos: Like what. |
| Dylan: Well, let’s say that you like playing the lottery. |
| Carlos: Ah, let’s say I do. |
| Dylan: And you don’t win, what would you say? |
| Carlos: “¿Por qué no me gané la lotería?” |
| Dylan: And then I would say, “tranquilo, todo pasa por una razón”. |
| Carlos: Well, that’s very confident. |
| Dylan: I am sure it is. Okay, prepositions. |
| Carlos: Okay, prepositions. That was a little fast of a transition. Prepositions are invariable words that introduce nouns, noun phrases or subordinate clauses making them depend on a verb that we state previously. |
| Dylan: In Spanish, there are many prepositions and even more prepositional phrases. However the most common prepositions are “por”, “para”, “de”, “a” and “en”. |
| Carlos: And if you have already guessed in this grammar point, we will focus on the preposition “por” and look at these seven counting seven principal ways that we can use this preposition. Dylan, how about formation? |
| Dylan: Well, since all prepositions are invariable for example, they never change forms, we are focusing here on the usage instead of the formation. |
| Carlos: So the seven usages of the preposition “por” are as follows. Cause: To express the cause of an action. |
| Dylan: For example, “Por haber llovido mucho, el partido fue cancelado”. |
| Carlos: “Because of it having rained so much, the game was canceled.” |
| Dylan: The second usage is time and place. It vaguely expresses local and temporal relationships. For example, “Entrar por la puerta”. |
| Carlos: “To enter through the door.” And then the third use agent of the passive introduces the agent of a passive action. |
| Dylan: “Él ha sido arrestado por la policía”. |
| Carlos: “He has been arrested by the police.” |
| Dylan: The fourth one is medium. It expresses the medium through which an action is carried out. |
| Carlos: For example... |
| Dylan: For example, “Hablar por teléfono”. |
| Carlos: “To talk by phone” or five, mode forms adverbial and conjunctive phrases. For example... |
| Dylan: “¡Por fin!” |
| Carlos: “At last!” |
| Dylan: Number six is substitution equivalents. It expresses that an action is carried out by a subject on behalf of someone else. For example, “Trabaja por tu padre hoy día”. |
| Carlos: “Work in place of your father today.” And finally number 7 used in formulas of judgment or an exclamation. For example... |
| Dylan: “¡Por el amor de Dios!” |
| Carlos: “For the love of God!” or our example from the conversation... |
| Dylan: “Todo pasa por una razón”. |
| Carlos: “Everything happens for a reason.” Now here are the similar examples in which we use “por” to express the cause of an action. |
| Dylan: “Trabajo por mi familia”. |
| Carlos: “I work for” or “on behalf of my family.” |
| Dylan: Keep in mind that this literally means I am working to support my family. Contrast the preposition “por” with the preposition “para” in the following context, “Trabajo para mi familia”. |
| Carlos: So what we are saying here is “I work for” as in “I am employed by my family.” |
| Dylan: “Para” has a different meaning. It is as if I were employed by my family rather than working to support them. |
| Carlos: And the use of “por” versus “para” is a very common mistake among English speakers learning Spanish. |
| Dylan: Prepositions are important because they allow us to form complex expressions and help describe the verbal action. What’s carrying out and receiving the action. |
| Carlos: Since there are a few hard rules for when to use a given preposition, it’s important to learn to recognize these in speech. |
| Dylan: It is much easier to learn prepositions by listening to native speakers using them than it is to memorize the usages which in a word means that you’ve got to apply what you learned. |
Outro |
| Carlos: Okay guys, that just about does it for today. |
| Dylan: ¡Hasta luego! |
| Carlos: Nos vemos, ¡chao! |
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