Explanation of the Spanish prepositions CON y PARA
con
Con, derives from the Latin CVM (“with”), is an idiosyncratic preposition that combines with the personal pronouns mí, ti, and sí as the forms: conmigo (“with me”), contigo (“with you”), and consigo (“with her-, himself”). Linguistically, the denotation of the -go suffix originally was inherent to con, that is — in Latin, CVM was often placed after its pronoun, thus the MECVM, TECVM, SECVM, et cetera, usages. This popular Latin usage gave Spanish the migo, tigo, and sigo, and the nosco and vosco forms, their usages now lost; like-wise the denotations of the -go and -co suffixes, in the event, speakers redundantly prefixed con- to these words, hence this Spanish prepositional usage.
Ven conmigo y con él ahora = "Come with me and him now."
- Iré a la fiesta con vosotras = "I will go to the party with you."
- Es raro llevar un billete de 200€ consigo = "It is unusual to carry a €200 note on oneself."
This syntactical reversion also occurs in the Italian language, wherein one can say con me, con te, and con sé, or, in the archaic style, meco, teco, and seco.
de
De, derives from the Latin DE (“of" and "from"):
- Es la más famosa de todas = "She is the most famous [one] of all [of them]."
- Soy de Madrid = "I am from Madrid."
The preposition de is equivalent to the English apostrophe-“s” ( ’s) possessive construction; for example:
- El clima frío del norte de España = "Cold North Spanish weather"
- La hermana de David = "David's sister."
- Ese libro es del professor = "That book is the teacher's."
Prepositional contractions: When de is followed by the masculine definite article el (“the”), they form the contraction del (“of the”), however, de does not contract to del when followed by the homophonous personal pronoun él (“he”) or a proper noun, thus:
- Soy pariente de él, del alcalde de El Escorial, "I am a relative of he, of the mayor of El Escorial."
Prepositional typography: the upper-case form DE was configured as the siglum Đ — a typographic ligature adopted as a concise written and printed word-character, that originated as a lapidary scribal abbreviation
Moreover, the preposition de is part of many compound prepositions, such as dentro de (“within”, “inside of”) and en contra de (“against . . .”); see section 2, below, for fuller description.
por and para
Por is a Latinate composite of PER and PRO, whereas para is a corruption (bastardisation) of por a; each is variously translated to English with, and as, permutations of "for", thus, to Anglophone learners of Spanish as a foreign language, determining the appropriate preposition might (initially) prove confusing. In the event, Cassell's Contemporary Spanish dictionary generally indicates that por denotes “cause” and “reason” (retrospective), while para denotes “purpose” and “destination” (prospective); the following are common usages of these prepositions:
por
- Denotes a general sense of time and place:
Lo perdí por ahí. = "I lost it thereabout."
- In exchange for, in place of
Cambié mis euros por dólares. = "I exchanged my euros for dollars."
- Per (day, hour, mile, etc.)
Pagan un euro por hora. = "They pay one euro per hour."
- By means of
Es más rápido por la autopista. = "It is faster by the motorway."
- Cause (por = "because of", porque = "because")
Me multaron por exceso de velocidad. = "They fined me for speeding."
Mi jefe está enfermo y por él tengo que trabajar = "My boss is sick, and because of him, I have to work."
- For the sake, or benefit of
Todo lo que hago, lo hago por ti. = "Everything I do, I do [it] for you."
- In favour of
Yo voto por el partido de derecha. = "I vote for the right-wing party."
- By (passive forms)
La nueva ley fue mal redactada por el partido gobernante = "The new law was badly written by the governing party."
- For a period of time (not in Spanish from Spain)
Vivieron en Nueva York por tres meses. = "They lived in New York for three months."
para
- Purpose (intended for)
Estas flores son para ti. = "These flowers are for you."
Lo lavé para que lo guardaras. = "I washed it so you could keep it."
- Destination (towards) (informal, replaces a and hacia)
Voy para el sur. = "I am going [to the] south."
- Until, by (a certain time)
Para esta época del año siempre llueve. = "By this time of the year, it always rains."
- In order to
Fuimos a la tienda para comprar tortillas. = "We went to the store to buy tortillas."
- To express a comparison and a contrasting
Para una persona tan joven, se queja demasiado. = "For such a young person, he complains too much."
- In the expression estar para meaning ". . . to be about to [do something]."
Yo estaba para salir, cuando sonó el teléfono = "I was about to leave, when the telephone rang."
In quotidian usage, the preposition para often is clipped to pa, as in the colloquial rustic usage: Amos p'alante. (“Let’s go forward.”), rather than the standard Vamos para adelante. (“Let us go forward.")