1.100530 · Section 1: Grammar

Prepositions, por vs para, and the personal a

Key learnings

Prepositions + the al / del contractions
High-frequency prepositions: a (to), de (of/from), en (in/on), con (with), sin (without), entre (between), desde (since), hasta (until), sobre (on/about), hacia (towards) — full table in the note.

Two contractions are OBLIGATORY: a + el -> al, de + el -> del: Voy al cine (never a el cine), Vengo del colegio. This happens ONLY with masculine singular el; a la, de la, a los, a las never contract.
por vs para: choose by meaning
Por and para both mean "for" but are not interchangeable — the choice is meaning-bound.

Use por for: cause (por el tráfico), price (por diez euros), duration (por ocho horas), movement through (por el parque), by means of (por correo).

Use para for: purpose (para aprobar), destination (para Barcelona), deadline (para el lunes), recipient (para ti), opinion (para mí).

Full contrast in the note.

Common mistakes

Drawn from real examiner reports.

Writing a el or de el, not al / del

The contractions al and del are compulsory — a el and de el as two words are always wrong: Voy al cine (never a el cine), Vengo del colegio (never de el colegio). This applies ONLY to the masculine singular el; feminine and plural articles never contract, so a la playa, de los niños and a las seis stay as two words.

(general FL trap)

Using para for duration of time

Duration of time takes por, not para. Asked how long they sleep, candidates wrote duermo para ocho horas; it must be duermo por ocho horas (I sleep for eight hours). Para would wrongly signal a deadline or purpose. The trap runs the other way too: purpose needs para — Estudio para aprender (in order to learn), never por.

Cambridge 0530 digest: por/para on the Q3 Range checklist and common-errors list every sitting; Writing Q2 duermo por 8 horas — most wrongly used para (s23 P42 Task 4).

Omitting the personal a before a person

Spanish needs the personal a immediately before a direct object that is a specific person, though English never translates it: Veo a mi madre (I see my mother), not Veo mi madre; likewise Conoció a Pedro. A thing takes no personal a: Veo el coche de Pedro. The digest flags this omission every sitting — not penalised in Reading, but an Accuracy error in Writing.

Cambridge 0530 digest, Personal a section: on the common-errors list every sitting; omission not penalised in Reading (s23 P21 Q6c conoció a Pedro) but counts under Accuracy in Writing.

Dropping en from en el extranjero

When ¿Dónde...? asks "where?", the answer needs the preposition as well as the place — a bare noun is rejected. Asked about living abroad, candidates answered bare extranjero instead of the fixed phrase en el extranjero; en is not optional ("abroad" is "in the foreign land" in Spanish). Note al extranjero (movement TO) differs from en el extranjero (location).

Cambridge 0530 digest: en el extranjero is a fixed phrase, must keep en (s23 P22 Q4k); ¿Dónde? needs a preposition, bare extranjero rejected (w23 P21 Key Messages).

Adding personal a before a thing

The personal a belongs ONLY before a specific person (or named pet), so do not add it before a thing or a direct-object pronoun: Veo el jardín (I see the garden — no a), and La vi en el centro (I saw her — the pronoun la is already the object). Contrast Vi a mi hermana (a full noun for a specific person -> a required).

(general FL trap)

por and para are not interchangeable

Students often think por and para are two spellings of "for" that can be swapped freely. In fact they encode different relationships, so swapping them changes the meaning:

Trabajo para mi padre = I work for my father (he employs me).
Trabajo por mi padre = I work on my father's behalf.

That is why examiners list por/para as a persistent Accuracy error.

Cambridge 0530 digest: por/para is an explicit Q3 Range/Accuracy checklist item and a common error every sitting (s22-w23).

Exam tips

The por/para question test
Before writing por or para, ask which question the phrase answers. "Because of what? For how long? Through what? In exchange for what?" -> por. "For what purpose? To where? By when? For whom?" -> para. If neither fits, use a learned fixed phrase such as por eso.
Check for the personal a
Before finishing a sentence with a direct object, ask "is this a specific, known person?" If yes, put a directly before it: Veo a mi profesora. If the object is a thing, an indefinite person ("a teacher", not "my teacher"), or already a pronoun, leave the personal a out.
Answer ¿Dónde? with a preposition
An answer to ¿Dónde...? must include a preposition (en, a, cerca de, lejos de...), never a bare place name. Check that fixed phrases keep their preposition: en el extranjero (abroad), en casa (at home). A place noun alone is treated as incomplete and loses the mark.
Always contract a el and de el
Whenever a or de comes before masculine singular el, it MUST contract: a + el = al, de + el = del. Writing a el cine as two words is always wrong. No contraction happens with la, los, las, or with the accented pronoun él (a él le gusta stays separate).

Revision notes