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THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
The 4 Porqués
Por qué, Porque, Porqué, Por que: they look similar but they're used in different situations and have different meanings. So how do we tell them apart and know when to use which one? That's what we're going to learn today!
Video Lesson
TRANSCRIPTION
Philly: Hey guys! Welcome back to another lesson with idioma PRO .com. I'm Philly, your Spanish teacher and today we're going to be talking about the- Karin. Can you turn that off?
Karin: Why? Philly: Because we're recording. Karin: Why? Philly: Because we're doing a lesson. Karin: Okay. And? Philly: Why can't you just listen to me? Okay guys, as I was saying earlier, today we're going to learn about the four different "porques". We're going to talk about the difference between "por qué" "porque" "porqué" and "por que". You guys confused yet? Don't worry because we're going to go through some quick examples and explanations and you guys are going to be experts between four different types. (1.) The first one we're going to talk about is "por qué". This is a very common phrase you guys might already know that's frequently used to ask questions to people. In English basically it means "why". We use this version of "por qué" to ask for a type of explanation or reason why something has happened. Let's see a couple examples.
So when you guys saw me ask "Por qué estás enojada?", I was asking for an explanation or a reason for why Karin looked so mad. It's the same as we said earlier. It's the same as saying something like "Why are you mad?" Later on when I asked, "Por qué no tomamos las escaleras?" this would translate into English as "Why don't we take the stairs?" In that example, it's a little bit more of a rhetorical question. We're not necessarily asking for a specific reason. We can also use this version of "por qué" without a question mark. Let's look at these following examples.
(2.) So here's where it gets a little bit confusing. If somebody asks you a question with the word "por qué", you can answer by saying "porque". The version that we just saw (por que) that has two words with an accent mark on the end that means "Why".
But when we have the two words smooshed together without an accent, this translates as "because". So somebody can ask you a question with "por qué" and you can answer by saying "porque". Meaning in English, they would ask you "why" and you would answer by saying "because" and then give the reason. Let's see a couple examples of this to help make it a little bit more clear.
(3.) Okay so moving on to the third version of "porqué". When we have the version of porqué as one word but this time with an accent mark at the end, it's a noun that translates into English as something like "the reason". We commonly use this version of "porqué" in a short little phrase "el porqué de". This means "the reason for". Let's see a couple examples to show you what I mean here.
(4.) And finally our fourth and final version of "por que" is two separate words without an accent mark (or without the tilde). In this version "por" is a preposition and "que" is a relative pronoun.
To help avoid confusion with the other types of "porque", instead of saying "por que" it's more common to say something like "por el que" or "por la que". We use these more extensive versions of the relative pronoun to help avoid confusion. Let's see a couple examples here:
Okay so to finish up the lesson for today we're going to do a quick little quiz. You guys are going to see an example sentence with a blank space and you guys have to guess the correct form of "porque". You get one point if you get it right and you get two points if you guess before you see the clue appear on your screen. So one point for any type of correct answer. You get two points if you can guess it early on without any help. So let's get started.
Okay guys leave us a comment down below telling us how you did on the quiz. What your final score was from zero (hopefully not zero) up to eight possible points if you got all four correct without having to even need the clue. And let us know if you have any other questions about the four "porques". Other than that guys, I'll be seeing you in the next lesson. Chao! Quick Summary
(1.) POR QUÉ - means "why" in English - used to ask questions
(2.) PORQUE - means "because" in English - used to give an explanation
(3.) PORQUÉ - is a noun means "the reason" or "the cause" - frequently used in the phrase "el porqué de"
(4.) POR QUE - means roughly "for which" or "for that which" - includes a preposition (por) and relative pronoun (que) - the "que" is frequently replaced with a version of "el que"
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