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Tue 6 Jul, 2021 09:39 pm
The sentence Tengo un libro por ti indicates that I will give you something and giving is exchanging, right? My mom taught me that when you are thanking someone for something you always say gracias por. That makes sense because someone exchanged something to you by giving you something and you are thanking them for exchanging something to you. Por is used for exchanges. Then I said Tengo un libro por ti and my mom corrected me saying para ti. That makes no sense because I have a book for someone which means I am going to exchange this book to them by giving it to them. Por is used for exchanges. Tengo un libro por ti. Gracias por el libro. I need an explanation for why it is Tengo un libro para ti instead of por because para is not used for exchanges. Para actually translates to "in order to". Like this: Necesito un lapiz para hacer mi tarea. Please help.
@Edna2,
This might help you. Google is your best and first friend.
https://blog.busuu.com/por-vs-para/
And by the way, English is worse with prepositions. Can you explain why we would choose to say 'close down' and 'close up' (or 'close to' and 'close by', like 'near to' or 'nearby') are different? Well, they are, sometimes. The only thing you can do is memorize how and when it's said. It's a bugger, it really is.
"Para" and "por" are a bit tricky. They both can mean "for," but they're not interchangeable.
Some Trump supporters got their grammar wrong in their signs saying "Latinos para trump." They should have read, "Latinos por Trump."
@Mame,
"Close down" brings to mind the roll down, storefront security shutters that are used by many stores. "Close up" brings to mind vertical zippers.
@InfraBlue,
Yeah, but if you close up your shop, are you closing it down for good? English is a terrible language to have to navigate for a non-native speaker.
Close by, close to... what's the difference?
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