"Por" and "Para" in Portuguese

Moderator:Luís

User avatar
Luís
Forum Administrator
Posts:7874
Joined:2002-07-12, 22:44
Location:Lisboa
Country:PTPortugal (Portugal)
"Por" and "Para" in Portuguese

Postby Luís » 2006-01-20, 14:39

v 1.0

POR (from Latin pro)

- to indicate a reason or cause
Faço isto por ti (I do this for [because of, due to] you)
Luto pela independência do meu país (I fight for the independence of my country)

- to identify an agent
A maçã foi comida por mim (The apple was eaten by me)

- to indicate the idea of going through
A estrada passa pela cidade (The road goes through the city)

- to indicate duration of an action
Estudei italiano por três anos (I studied Italian for three years)

- units of measurement
100 quilómetros por hora, 200 metros por segundo (100km/h, 200m/s)

- frequency
Viajo duas vezes por ano (I travel twice a year)

- incompleteness
Tenho a cozinha por limpar (I have the kitchen to clean)

- Substitution
Dou-te uma maçã por esse livro (I give you an apple for [in exchange for] that book)

- an indefinite place, vague direction
Viajou um ano pela América (He travelled one year in America)

PARA (from Latin per ad)

- to indicate a destination or end
Vou para a Alemanha (I'm going to Germany)
Este livro é para ti (This book is for you)

- to indicate perspective/opinion
Para um estudante como eu, a vida não é fácil (For/to a student like me, life isn't easy)

- to indicate a purpose
Vou à Sérvia para aprender sérvio (I'm going to Serbia to [in order to] learn Serbian)

- to indicate a function
Este casaco é para me proteger do frio (This coat is to protect me from the cold)

- to indicate a comparison
Fala bem português, para um russo (He speaks well Portuguese, for a Russian)

- to be employed by someone
Trabalho para o governo (I work for the government)

And of course, there are idioms/expressions/verbs that ask for a certain preposition/etc. that you simply need to know.

Pay attention to the differences (some of these nuances are not very obvious to native speakers of some languages):

Fiz isto para ti (I did this is for you [to give you, for you to enjoy])
Fiz isto por ti (I did this for you [because of you])
Quot linguas calles, tot homines vales

User avatar
LSLS
Posts:3
Joined:2011-06-01, 22:24
Real Name:Theodore Santos
Gender:male
Location:Sao Paulo
Country:BRBrazil (Brasil)

Re: "Por" and "Para" in Portuguese

Postby LSLS » 2011-06-02, 17:51

Muito boa explicação, Luís. Talvez ela pudesse ser melhor aproveitada estando fixa em um recurso sobre preposições?

User avatar
Partisan
Posts:790
Joined:2007-12-22, 4:32
Gender:male
Location:Aracaju
Country:BRBrazil (Brasil)
Contact:

Re: "Por" and "Para" in Portuguese

Postby Partisan » 2012-09-22, 3:06

Prepositions in portuguese in some case are very problematic for foreigner students because of diverse usings of some prepositions like Por, Para, Em and De.

User avatar
OldBoring
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:6152
Joined:2012-12-08, 7:19
Real Name:Francesco
Gender:male
Location:Milan
Country:ITItaly (Italia)
Contact:

Re: "Por" and "Para" in Portuguese

Postby OldBoring » 2013-11-18, 12:12

Luís wrote:
hāozigǎnr wrote:
Obrigado Luís para ter aberto esse tópico.


Acho que deves também dar uma vista de olhos neste tópico ;)

Aff'z... depois todos esses anos que tenho estudado espanhol e português, ainda confundo "por" e "para"... eu sei a diferencia, só que esqueço...

User avatar
Luís
Forum Administrator
Posts:7874
Joined:2002-07-12, 22:44
Location:Lisboa
Country:PTPortugal (Portugal)

Re: "Por" and "Para" in Portuguese

Postby Luís » 2013-12-03, 23:03

hāozigǎnr wrote:eu sei a diferencia, só que esqueço...


Diferença ;)
Quot linguas calles, tot homines vales

User avatar
OldBoring
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:6152
Joined:2012-12-08, 7:19
Real Name:Francesco
Gender:male
Location:Milan
Country:ITItaly (Italia)
Contact:

Re: "Por" and "Para" in Portuguese

Postby OldBoring » 2013-12-04, 7:23

Yo falo portunhol :mrgreen:

simoziko
Posts:2
Joined:2015-09-09, 10:47
Real Name:Sami Zaki
Gender:male
Location:Egypt
Contact:

Re: "Por" and "Para" in Portuguese

Postby simoziko » 2015-09-11, 12:31


obrigado pela lição. foi muito útil.
Simo

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: "Por" and "Para" in Portuguese

Postby vijayjohn » 2022-03-05, 22:58

I think I found an example where Spanish differs from Portuguese regarding whether to use por or para, but I forgot what it was. Or maybe I'm just thinking of the fact that Portuguese has the expression por enquanto, which Spanish apparently doesn't really share (i.e. *por en cuanto is not grammatical in Spanish AFAIK). I guess the same is true of por ora (but not por agora). Meanwhile, Spanish also has expressions that Portuguese apparently doesn't like a mil por hora.

User avatar
Osias
Posts:9754
Joined:2007-09-09, 17:38
Real Name:Osias Junior
Gender:male
Location:Vitória
Country:BRBrazil (Brasil)
Contact:

Re: "Por" and "Para" in Portuguese

Postby Osias » 2022-03-05, 23:39

Você quer dizer que espanhol não tem "a mil por hora" que o português tem?
2017 est l'année du (fr) et de l'(de) pour moi. Parle avec moi en eux, s'il te plait.

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: "Por" and "Para" in Portuguese

Postby vijayjohn » 2022-03-06, 17:48

Ah, o português tem esta expressão também? Eu não sabia! (O espanhol também).

User avatar
Osias
Posts:9754
Joined:2007-09-09, 17:38
Real Name:Osias Junior
Gender:male
Location:Vitória
Country:BRBrazil (Brasil)
Contact:

Re: "Por" and "Para" in Portuguese

Postby Osias » 2022-03-07, 1:08

Bônus: temos hoje o meme 'os dois a 80 por hora': https://www.tenhomaisdiscosqueamigos.co ... elta-2012/
2017 est l'année du (fr) et de l'(de) pour moi. Parle avec moi en eux, s'il te plait.

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: "Por" and "Para" in Portuguese

Postby vijayjohn » 2022-03-11, 21:32

Obrigado!


Return to “Portuguese (Português)”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests