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Por y Para: Learning through Love

One way to make a TV theme song irresistibly catchy is through repetition. In Chayanne's theme song for Provócame, it works. Take these two lines:

Por amor. Por amar.

For love. For loving.

Captions 9-10, Provócame - Piloto

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BANNER PLACEHOLDER

The straightforward translation is: "For love / For loving." Amor is a noun meaning "love." Meanwhile, change one letter and amar is the infinitive "to love." In Spanish, the infinitive is often used the way we in English use the gerund (with the -ing ending). For example, "I like singing" is translated as Me gusta cantar in proper Spanish.

Ok. You probably figured out quickly that the repeated por here means "for" in English. But it's a little more complicated than that. You see, there are two words that both mean "for" in Spanish: Por and para. Por can mean "for the sake of, in the cause of, or, by means of," while para can mean "with the destination of, or, in order to." In Chayenne's lyrics, por amor can be translated as "for love" in the sense of "for the sake of love" [like we saw in last week's newsletter, with por amor, usa forro ("for the sake of love, use a condom")]. That's straightforward. But some might argue Chayenne is taking a little bit of poetic license when he says por amar ("for the sake of loving") in instead of para amar, ("in order to love"), which is a more common construction with the infinitive of a verb. But, really, it works both ways - and it certainly sounds catchier with the repeated por.

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Hablar por hablar.
To talk for the sake of talking.

Aprender español para hablarlo.
To learn Spanish in order to speak it.

You want more? See Por y Para at https://www.thoughtco.com/taking-confusion-out-of-por-para-3078140

 

Grammar

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