Spanish language Q&A Forum

"Lo hago por ti" implies

"I do it for your sake, because of you and for you, altogether".

"Lo hago para ti"

suggests nothing about the true motivation,

which may well lay outside the addressee;

it only designates ti 'you' as the destination of the "doing". 

I have found this in:

"Delbecque - Towards a cognitive account of the use of the prepositions por and para in Spanish 1996".

This, I hope, might explain why 

"sacrificios por sus hijos"

is prefered to

"sacrificios para sus hijos".

In both cases hijos are the recipients, but the attitude toward the recipients seem to matter.

Google search gives 88,500 hits to "sacrificios por sus hijos"

and 39 to "sacrificios para sus hijos",

suggesting that "para" is a very poor (ungramatical?) choice here.

Hi,

I have read elsewhere that at least some, if not all, of these verbs can be conjugated as normal.  Although I am not sure of the circumstances.  Is this correct?

I have also seen a list of 100 verbs 'like' gustar.  Is this correct.

Gracias y saludos,

Colin

I was hoping to learn Mexican pronunciation  but you use the Spanish pronunciation using the th sound instead of c sound.  Are the listening exercises also going to use the vosotros  grammar forms or Mexican grammar?

Thank you Silvia,

In "La vida de Eva (B1)" gapfill test we have:

"Eva siempre ha sido una persona que nunca toma decisiones por dinero o por conveniencia. Su familia la quiere mucho y, para ser sinceros, ha hecho muchos sacrificios ______ sus hijos."

The hint for the gap is:

"she has made many sacrifices for her children."

the accepted answer is "por"; "para" is marked wrong.

The explanation given for this is:

"Lesson: Using por (not para) to express the originating cause or reason"

Could you please help me to see

why "for" is interpreted here as indicating the "cause" and not the "recipient"?

Thank you Silvia,

You write that  "for" in 

"she has made many sacrifices for her children"

implies a cause / an originating reason.

If so, why  "for" in 

"she has made many books for her children"

does not imply a cause?

Also, is the following ungrammatical:

"Ha hecho muchos sacrificios para sus hijos."

On all the other sites that I have read, you conjugate the verb in the correct tense when using desde. Can you please clarify this for me? I read in the comments that the tendency is to use the present tense, but why do none of the other sites say this?

If the interrogative needs cuándo then: ¿Dice la pantalla  cuándo aterriza el avión?

But for a non-question: La pantalla no dice cuando aterriza el avión.

yet the Kwiziq answer is: La pantalla no dice cuándo aterriza el avión. 

HELP? por favor . . .

It seems to indicate that:

bien and mal go with estar

bueno and malo go with ser

but when I follow that as a "rule" I get it wrong. What am I missing please? What is the "reason" either goes with whatever?

consider: 

(1) she has made many sacrifices for her children

(2) she has made many books for her children

why

in (1) "for" --> por

in (2) "for" --> para