Para qué vs. Por qué – The difference explained and when to use each
I was just watching one of my favorite Spanish-language movies, Maria Full of Grace, which is fantastic for learning Spanish, by the way (because you can turn on English or Spanish subtitles and the script is available online), and I noticed they would use the expression “para qué” about as often as “por qué”. I knew they were nearly the same, and the context seemed to indicate so, but I thought “well, there has to be a difference, otherwise why would they bother using one instead of the other?” So I did a bit of research and here’s what I found out.
The difference
They can both mean “why”, as in when translated into English they will both tend to be translated into that specific word, however…a good translator won’t do that, because “para qué” doesn’t really exactly mean “why”, or just “why”, at least. What it more accurately translates to is “for what?”, that is you’re asking what the purpose of doing something is, you’re asking what the objective is, what the person intends to accomplish by doing it, in other words you’re asking for what purpose they’re doing it, hence the translation for it really being “for what?”, or perhaps “what for?”. See how that does sort of fall under the definition of “why”, but a better, more precise way of putting it would be “for what”? It’s sort of like translating “de qué parte?”, which means “from what part”, as “where”–yes, you could, it’s not incorrect, but there’s a more accurate translation.
“Por qué”, on the other hand, is typically used when you simply want to know what someone’s motivation is or what the cause is of something happening. Maybe they didn’t have an objective, maybe they just did it because they were angry or happy or sad or whatever, or maybe there was an objective, in which case you can still use “por qué” though perhaps “para qué” may have been a better choice if you wanted to make it clear that you wanted to know what their objective was, not just their motivation for doing it (sometimes those are the same thing, sometimes not).
I like translating things literally because it helps you understand where the actual meaning came from. Here, it really helps: “para” means “for” in the sense of “in order to”, whereas “por” is more frequently used to mean “by” or “because of”, and of course “qué” means “what”, so let’s take that and look at these two phrases and see if this makes sense. “Por qué” literally means “because of what”, as in “what caused this to occur?”, whereas “para qué” literally means “in order to what?”, as in “you’re doing this in order to…what?”. Does this make sense now? Hopefully this also helps you to remember when to use “por” and when to use “para”, as well, since I know a lot of people have trouble with that.
Cheers,
Andrew
The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources
I run a newsletter entirely about how to learn Spanish online for free where I send out every cool new tip and technique that I learn to my subscribers and not only do they get it before anyone else but frequently they get things that no one else ever does. Additionally, I've spent a great deal of time putting together a 3-part series of articles for you on the internet's best free resources for the Spanish-learner that you'll get when you sign up for my newsletter--in addition to all of what you get below, I'll be sure to send you any updates about cool new sites, resources, and learning tips and techniques that I come up with:Part 1: An article called “Spanish Learning Systems: Should you bother?” about whether or not you should even bother with a pre-packaged Spanish-learning system (e.g. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur) and, if you do decide you want to, where you can go online to find programs that are literally 1/10th the price of older, more common systems like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but actually work even better. Also, at the same time, you’ll get a separate e-mail with a very long list of my favorite Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources (tools, references, sites with free lessons, articles, blogs, forums, etc.) that's far to long to include here, especially with all the other stuff I've got below that's just on this site alone, and I'd like to offer it to you (completely free, you don't have to do anything other than sign up) right now.
Part 2: I explain what language exchanges are (essentially they allow you free access to an unlimited number of native speakers to practice your Spanish with), why they're absolutely essential if you're teaching yourself (I'm serious when I say this: it's impossible to get fluent without them if you're learning a foreign language on your own), how to use them, and which ones are the best.
Part 3: I cover chat rooms which are specifically devoted to connecting you with native Spanish speakers who want to learn English so you can chat with them in Spanish (and they'll help and correct you) and then you do the same for them with their English (these are completely free to use, but rather hard to find, but I'll tell you where the best ones are!). Sign up below!
Also, if you like what you see here PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Twitter feed and/or RSS feed so you can be updated any time there’s a new post.
Cheers,
Andrew
Subscribe to My Feed
