Introducing a causal clause with "por eso/aquello de..." (causal subordinate clause)
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Learn how to use por eso de/por aquello de in Spanish
In Spanish we sometimes introduce a clause that is explaining the cause of an action with "por eso/aquello de...". This is quite colloquial and the equivalent in English could be: "seeing that..." , "as..." "because of..." , "for...", "so that..."
Eso and aquello are interchangeable - there is no change in meaning. Let's see some examples:
Mis hijos no fueron al colegio el lunes por eso de la fumigación.My sons didn't go to school on Monday seeing as they were fumigating.
Yo nunca interferí en sus discusiones por aquello de no salir a peleas con uno de ellos.I never interfered in their arguments so that I wouldn't end up upset with one of them.
Por aquello de la amistad entre nosotros, tomemos un par de copas más.For our friendship, let's have a couple more drinks.
Por aquello de que hacen unos super descuentos voy a ir a ese supermercado.Because they do some great discounts I'm going to go to that supermarket.
After "de" there can be:
- a noun: por aquello de la amistad..., por aquello de la fumigación
- an infinitive: por aquello de no salir...
- que + clause: por aquello de que hacen unos super descuentos...
You could easily omit "eso/aquello de" and just leave "Por..." and the meaning would be the same as a causal clause introduced by "por". However, with eso/aquello de... it's more colloquial:
Por [eso/aquello de] ser más diplomático no usé esa palabra tan negativa.Because I wanted to be more diplomatic I didn't use that negative word.
Por [eso/aquello de] no tener que pelar las gambas con las manos decidió pedir mejor calamares fritos.So that he wouldn't have to peel the prawns with his hands he decided to order fried calamari.
Sometimes, when using this construction, we understand that there isn't a lot of detail in the causal clause because somehow it is already known by the listener. The speaker is simply referring to it briefly without much detail.
No me dieron el trabajo a mí por aquello de la falta de documentación. ¿Recuerdas que te lo comenté entonces?They didn't give me the job because of that thing about missing documents. Do you remember that I told you back then?
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