Learn about the eight uses of the Spanish preposition para
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Dylan: Hola a todos, soy Dylan. |
| Carlos: What’s going on pod101 world? My name is Carlos. “Learning Spanish prepositions for our own good.” Okay, in this lesson, we are going to learn about the preposition “para”. |
| Dylan: Ah, good one. |
| Carlos: You know, it can be confusing. |
| Dylan: But we are here to explain it. |
| Carlos: Yep. |
| Dylan: It looks like Sofía and Gabriel are moving. So we know that they know each other and we know that the conversation is informal. |
| Carlos: Right. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| GABRIEL: ¡Ay, mi amor! Qué triste pasarse de casa... |
| SOFIA: Es para nuestro bien, Gabriel, no seas vago. |
| GABRIEL: No es vagancia, sino que me he pasado cuarenta veces. |
| SOFIA: Vas a ver, no vamos a durar nada, ¡y esta vez será la última! |
| GABRIEL: Ah...¡Cómo odio pasarme de casa! |
| And now, slowly. |
| Una vez más, esta vez lentamente. |
| GABRIEL: ¡Ay, mi amor! Qué triste pasarse de casa... |
| SOFIA: Es para nuestro bien, Gabriel, no seas vago. |
| GABRIEL: No es vagancia, sino que me he pasado cuarenta veces. |
| SOFIA: Vas a ver, no vamos a durar nada, ¡y esta vez será la última! |
| GABRIEL: Ah...¡Cómo odio pasarme de casa! |
| And now, with the translation. |
| Ahora, incluimos la traducción. |
| GABRIEL: ¡Ay, mi amor! Qué triste pasarse de casa... |
| GABRIEL: Oh baby, moving is so sad... |
| SOFIA: Es para nuestro bien, Gabriel, no seas vago. |
| SOFIA: It's for our own good, Gabriel. Don't be lazy. |
| GABRIEL: No es vagancia, sino que me he pasado cuarenta veces. |
| GABRIEL: It's not laziness; it's just that it's happened to me forty times. |
| SOFIA: Vas a ver, no vamos a durar nada, ¡y esta vez será la última! |
| SOFIA: You'll see, we're not going to take long at all, and this time will be the last! |
| GABRIEL: Ah...¡Cómo odio pasarme de casa! |
| GABRIEL: Oh how I hate moving! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: Dylan, like how long does it take before like couples or like individuals move out of their houses you know, from their parents because I know I’d been out of my house since I was 18. |
| Dylan: Well, you know, most Costa Rican girls are expected to stay home until they get married. They live under their father’s roof and if they want to have a boyfriend, the boyfriend has to ask permission to come visit them to do what’s called “marcar”. |
| Carlos: “Marcar”. |
| Dylan: “Marcar”. Like when you – when you schedule your timetable… |
| Carlos: Yeah. |
| Dylan: “Marcando”. |
| Carlos: So it’s almost like courting like really, really courting. |
| Dylan: Yeah, you have to come to the house, you have to sit in front of the TV with the girl in front of the entire family and everybody has to be able to keep an eye on you. |
| Carlos: So let me ask you this. You said about the girls. What about the guys? |
| Dylan: The guys too. They still live with their mamas and their daddies until they get married. It’s not common for couples to live together before they are married. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: I mean in this country. |
| Carlos: Well, yeah. I am proud to be an American at this point. Okay, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for today’s lesson. First up, we have a masculine noun. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dylan: “Amor”. |
| Carlos: “Love.” |
| Dylan: “A-mor”, “amor”. |
| Carlos: And then we have an adjective. |
| Dylan: “Triste”. |
| Carlos: “Sad”, “gloomy.” |
| Dylan: “Tris-te”, “triste”. |
| Carlos: Then we have a possessive adjective. |
| Dylan: “Nuestro, nuestra”. |
| Carlos: “Our.” |
| Dylan: “Nues-tro, nues-tra”, “nuestro, nuestra”. |
| Carlos: And then we have a feminine noun. |
| Dylan: “Vagancia”. |
| Carlos: “Idleness”, “laziness.” |
| Dylan: “Va-gan-cia”, “vagancia”. |
| Carlos: And then a pronominal verb. |
| Dylan: “Pasarse”. |
| Carlos: “To pass”, “to get carried away.” |
| Dylan: “Pa-sar-se”, “pasarse”. |
| Carlos: And then we have another verb. |
| Dylan: “Durar”. |
| Carlos: “To last”, “to go on for.” |
| Dylan: “Du-rar”, “durar”. |
| Carlos: Okay, let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Dylan: First word we will look at is “amor”. |
| Carlos: “Amor”. |
| Dylan: Yes, that “amor”, that masculine noun, that means... |
| Carlos: “Love.” And I think that our audience probably already knew what “amor” meant. |
| Dylan: Probably, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t go over it anyways. |
| Carlos: True, but in the conversation... |
| Dylan: It was used in what I think is the most common way. |
| Carlos: And what’s that? |
| Dylan: When Gabriel says “¡Ay, mi amor!” |
| Carlos: “Oh baby” or more directly translated as “my love”, right? |
| Dylan: Right. Here “amor” is being used as a term of endearment. Another similar term of endearment that you might hear is “mi vida”. |
| Carlos: “My life.” |
| Dylan: Right, but it really means like “baby” or “honey.” |
| Carlos: “El amor es un sentimiento muy bello”. |
| Dylan: What kind of romantic are you, Carlos? |
| Carlos: Oh, I’d be a hopeless one, Dylan, a hopeless one. |
| Dylan: But you did my job. I am the one that is supposed to do the sample sentences. |
| Carlos: Sorry, I couldn’t help it. You know that sentence just came out of me. You mean, you can give us some related words though if you like. |
| Dylan: Oh can I! Just kidding, okay. We could relate the noun “un amorío” which is “a love affair.” |
| Carlos: Now this is a verb too, no? |
| Dylan: Right, the verb “amar” which means “to love.” |
| Carlos: Okay, I think – I think we could have figured that out. |
| Dylan: Okay, our next word is “triste”. |
| Carlos: Well, talk about going from one extreme to the other. |
| Dylan: Why is that an extreme? |
| Carlos: Well, because “triste” means “sad.” |
| Dylan: Ah, so we know it is. |
| Carlos: An adjective. You know Gabriel was describing his situation when he says “Qué triste pasarse de casa…” |
| Dylan: “Moving is so sad.” Well, he must not want to leave. |
| Carlos: You know, I would think so. I mean personally I am excited when I move. |
| Dylan: But it all depends. I was sad to leave LA. |
| Carlos: You know I can understand that maybe. So we know how “triste” was used in the conversation but now... |
| Dylan: Well, we have a noun that we can associate with this adjective. |
| Carlos: Which is... |
| Dylan: “La tristeza”. |
| Carlos: “La tristeza”. You know, I’ve never heard that before. What does it mean? |
| Dylan: It means “sadness.” Also “tristemente”, an adverb. |
| Carlos: “Sadly”. You know Dylan, this is kind of depressing. Let’s move on. |
| Dylan: Okay, okay, okay. Here is something very plain, a possessive adjective. |
| Carlos: Okay, I am down with that. What is it? |
| Dylan: “Nuestro, nuestra”. |
| Carlos: I remember that from our lesson on possessive adjectives. That means “our.” |
| Dylan: Exactly. Since you’ve done it already, give us a sample sentence if you would be so kind. |
| Carlos: “Nuestra lección es lo mejor”. “Our lesson is the best.” |
| Dylan: I would be humble but I can’t disagree. |
| Carlos: That’s right, Dylan. We have pride in this. |
| Dylan: In this conversation “nuestra” is being used to describe a situation that you would know is never good. |
| Carlos: And what’s that? |
| Dylan: “Es para nuestro bien”, “It’s for our own good.” |
| Carlos: Right, right. You know nothing good ever came for your own good. You know like nothing good like “Oh, this is great. It’s for our own good.” |
| Dylan: Well, it’s like saying if it’s meant to be, it will be. No one ever tells you that when something good is going on. |
| Carlos: I agree but you know what, knowing the related words is both meant “to be” and “for our own good.” |
| Dylan: Well, let’s keep it simple because we can have an entire lesson on possessive adjective. Carlos, what is the plural of “nuestro” or “nuestra”? |
| Carlos: That would be “nuestros” and “nuestras”. |
| Dylan: And when does it change? |
| Carlos: When what we possess is plural like “nuestras lecciones son las mejores”, “our lessons are the best.” |
| Dylan: Yeah, let’s keep that rep up. What we don’t want to be is our next word, “vagancia”. |
| Carlos: “Vagancia”, feminine noun that means “laziness.” |
| Dylan: “La vagancia no es buena para la compañía”. |
| Carlos: “Laziness is not good for the company.” |
| Dylan: Well, Gabriel is obviously denying his when he says “No es vagancia”. |
| Carlos: “It’s not laziness.” Yeah, you know, people are really accused of laziness if they aren’t. |
| Dylan: And we know that this conversation wasn’t lazy. |
| Carlos: Why is that? |
| Dylan: Because a related phrase is being used here also. |
| Carlos: Really? |
| Dylan: Yeah, and it was the actual accusation “Gabriel, no seas vago”. “Gabriel, don’t be lazy.” |
| Carlos: So the related phrase here is “ser vago”, “to be lazy.” |
| Dylan: Exactly. Let’s pass on to the next word. |
| Carlos: From that I think I have a feeling of what the word is. |
| Dylan: The pronominal verb. |
| Carlos: Right, “pasarse”. |
| Dylan: “To move”, “to cross the pass.” |
| Carlos: But wait, how was it used in the conversation? |
| Dylan: In the conversation Gabriel says “¡Cómo odio pasarme de casa!” |
| Carlos: Oh, “how I hate moving.” Man, Gabriel sounds kind of dramatic, don’t you think? |
| Dylan: Yeah, he whines more than my son. |
| Carlos: Yeah, but how else can we use this? |
| Dylan: Well, “tu amigo se pasó de casa ayer”, “your friend moved yesterday.” |
| Carlos: And aren’t there other verbs that mean “to move”? |
| Dylan: Yep, we have “cambiarse” which can mean “to move” and also “moverse a”. |
| Carlos: Which I guess also means “to move.” Yeah, that one’s pretty obvious. |
| Dylan: Well, next up we have a verb. |
| Carlos: And what is that? |
| Dylan: “Durar”, “to last”, “to take.” |
| Carlos: “Durar”, “duration.” You know, I could see how that will be translated in that way. |
| Dylan: So it does make sense when Sofía says “Vas a ver, no vamos a durar nada, ¡y esta vez será la última!” |
| Carlos: “You will see, we are not going to take long at all and this time will be the last.” Won’t take long, won’t have a long duration. |
| Dylan: So try this one. If we said “¿Cuánto dura la película?”, how would that translate to? |
| Carlos: Well, that would say “how long is the movie?” or “how long is the duration of the movie?” |
| Dylan: That’s right, Carlos. |
| Carlos: Ah, thank you. I am getting it, I am getting it. |
| Dylan: You got it. |
| Carlos: So does this verb have an adjective that is similar? |
| Dylan: You are thinking of “duradero” which means “lasting” but one you may also find interesting. |
| Carlos: And what’s that? |
| Dylan: “La durabilidad”. |
| Carlos: “The durability.” I could see the link. It does go together. |
| Dylan: Carlos... |
| Carlos: Yes. |
| Dylan: Today we are revisiting a small but very important part of Spanish. |
| Carlos: And what’s that? |
| Dylan: Prepositions, but this time the preposition “para”. |
| Carlos: You know I seem to remember going over that once. |
| Dylan: You and Natalia tackled it already. |
| Carlos: So then I am not going to have a problem. |
| Dylan: What do you remember about the prepositions? |
| Carlos: Okay. Prepositions in Spanish are invariable words that introduce nouns, noun phrases or subordinate clauses. |
| Dylan: And they depend on something? |
| Carlos: Well, it depends on the verb that is previously given. |
| Dylan: And keep in mind audience. In Spanish, there are many prepositions and even more prepositional phrases. |
| Carlos: Right and we have expressed that the most common prepositions are... |
| Dylan: “Por”, “para”, “de”, “a”, “en”. |
| Carlos: “Por”, “para”, “de”, “a”, “en”. So we pick one preposition per lesson. Which are we focusing on today again, Dylan? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dylan: In today’s grammar point, we are focusing on the preposition “para”. |
| Carlos: And if I remember correctly, “para” had a number of uses. |
| Dylan: Well, there is a specific number. |
| Carlos: Which is... |
| Dylan: Eight. |
| Carlos: Right, eight ways to use the preposition “para”. |
| Dylan: But before we get into that, let’s remind everyone that prepositions are invariable. |
| Carlos: So their forms will not change. |
| Dylan: Right. First, we have... |
| Carlos: Utility. |
| Dylan: “Utilidad”. For example, “Si estudio tanto es para tener un mejor futuro”. |
| Carlos: “If I study so much it is that I have a better future.” Okay, the next used is motive. |
| Dylan: “Voy a comprar este florero para poner flores en la mesa”. |
| Carlos: “I will buy that vase to put flowers on the table.” And then we have destination. |
| Dylan: “Destinatario”. “Compré chocolates para Carla”. |
| Carlos: “I bought chocolates for Carlos” – I mean Carla. “I bought chocolates for Carla.” Carla is lucky. |
| Dylan: Yeah. |
| Carlos: Because we all love chocolate and that happens to be my opinion. |
| Dylan: Good because the next use is... |
| Carlos: Opinion. |
| Dylan: “Opinión”. “Para mi, él es una buena persona”. |
| Carlos: “For me, he is a good person.” |
| Dylan: That’s right and then we’ve got... |
| Carlos: Comparisons. |
| Dylan: “Comparaciones”. “Para ser tan viejo corre muy rápido”. |
| Carlos: “Being so old, he runs fast.” |
| Dylan: Comparison. That’s right. All right, solamente cinco. |
| Carlos: Only five. Okay, three more. Next is time. |
| Dylan: “Tiempo”. “La tarea es para mañana”. |
| Carlos: “The homework is for tomorrow.” The next one is hard to get you know, but the examples should clarify, imminence. |
| Dylan: “Inminencia”. “Está para salir”. |
| Carlos: “It’s ready to go.” |
| Dylan: Yeah, now do you get that from the translation? |
| Carlos: Yeah, it’s creeping into my understanding. |
| Dylan: Now we are on our last one. |
| Carlos: Right numero ocho #8, direction. |
| Dylan: “Dirección”. “Mañana mi familia y yo vamos para la playa”. |
| Carlos: “Tomorrow my family and I are going to the beach.” Are you really? Wait, can I come? I really want to get out of San José. |
| Dylan: How many times do I have to tell you, Carloa? Not to take those examples so seriously, but I would like to go to the beach. |
| Carlos: Yeah, probably a lot more than you have. |
| Dylan: Yeah. Listen there is something that you have to remember about the preposition “para”. |
| Carlos: And what’s that? |
| Dylan: Because of the inherent indeterminacy associated with “para”, it cannot be used with verbs that imply the end of a movement like final destination. |
| Carlos: Dylan, I was just about to mention that and you beat me to the punch. |
| Dylan: Yeah, okay, I am sure. Now for example, we say “Llegaremos a Jacó”. |
| Carlos: “We will arrive in Jacó.” |
| Dylan: You see we are using “a” rather than “para”. |
| Carlos: Why? |
| Dylan: Because this preposition is also employed in relation to time. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: “Para” denotes approximate time rather than exact time. |
| Carlos: Approximate time rather than exact time. Check. |
| Dylan: For example, “La fiesta ha sido seteada para el jueves”. |
| Carlos: “The party has been set for Thursday.” Wait, let me try one. “Para Navidad nos reuniremos”. |
| Dylan: “We will get together for Christmas.” What do you notice about these examples, Carlos? |
| Carlos: Well, the times expressed in these examples are general days rather than precise moments. |
| Dylan: Good, you got that one. |
| Carlos: Thank you, thank you. |
| Dylan: Finally we can use “para” to express the final purpose of a thing. “Trajeron una carta para Vanesa”. |
| Carlos: “They brought a card for Vanessa” or how about “El regalo es para ti”, “this present is for you.” |
| Dylan: Or most importantly, “La vida es para vivir”. |
| Carlos: Couldn’t agree more, Dylan. “Life is for living.” |
Outro |
| Carlos: Well, you know what guys, that just about does it for today. Okay, ¡nos vemos! |
| Dylan: ¡Chao! |
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