A partir de...

Hi everyone,

It seems like we use a lot of strange phrasings in Spanish, those ones you need to memorize to get the idea, because translating each word separately simply won't work. Well, this is one of those, in fact, this one is not that bad, and it belongs to the list of 1000 top used Spanish words of modern times. So let's start checking out what's in the center of  "a partir de..." and see what can we understand from it.

The verb "partir"

Despite the several meanings that a normal dictionary would come up with, it's possible to separate them in two groups, each group expressing a different idea. Only one of this general ideas is needed to understand what "a partir de..." means, but we'll briefly explain both of them anyway :D

Partir - To separate, divide and break stuff apart.

This "partir" is the one you'll find the most similar to English because of its common origin in the Latin word partire which means "to divide". This idea of division, separation or being a part of a whole is noticeable in words like apartment, part, participate, particle, pair, participle, etc. Almost all of this words share the same meaning with their correspondent Spanish translation, which isn't very different either.

Now, to recognize when is this "partir" being used, look if it's causing any effect on something else directly. Like in the following example:

- El niño no quiso partir el pan.
- The boy didn't want to cut/break the bread (in half).

The interesting thing about this particular example, is that using "partir" in this peculiar context, implies splitting the bread in half with your hands. It's hard to explain why, but that's how it is :)
You can see how the boy "partir" the bread, he is inflicting "partir" into the bread, so the bread would be what in grammar jargon is called a Direct Object.
Every time you see the verb "partir" being inflicted directly onto something or someone, it means something like cutting, splitting or dividing in parts.

- Si no te callas te voy a partir la cara.
- If you don't shut up, I'll hit you in the face.

So this is a bit of an exaggeration, but it's something you'll hear quite often in a bar after 3:00am. There are way worse expressions of this kind, but you don't need to know them. Don't worry, you eventually will if you get drunk enough, everything is possible when you're drunk enough :)

Partir - To start, to begin, to originate from.

Let's have a look now to the partir we are actually trying to explain here, the one being part of "a partir de". This construction is easy to recognize and it's sort of translatable to something like "from ...  on", I'm not very sure about this comparison, some feedback would be appreciated here!  A very popular one is when people say:

- A partir de ahora, no volveré a comer comida chatarra.
- From now on, I won't eat junk food again.

There's a post where I explain this "now" idea a bit further, here's the link if you want to give it a read. The thing with "a partir de" is that you can use it to indicate an starting point on whatever you want, not only time.

- A partir del segundo piso hay sólo oficinas.
- Starting from the second floor up there are only offices.

- Sigue derecho y verás que a partir de la tercera calle, los jardines se ven distintos.
- Keep going straight and you'll see that from the third street on, the gardens look different.

I hope my english sentences are phrased correctly, they might sound a bit strange since I've tried to translate them as literal as possible so you can get the "a partir de" idea.
The phrase gives the idea of a starting point of something like an event in time or stories of a building; but it also conveys the idea of continuity, without making clear a point of ending, for instance, we would assume that every floor from the second one up is occupied by offices, all the way up to the top.

This partir can be used alone too, but you won't confuse it with the one that means break stuff apart, because that one is being inflicted directly on the object, while this one is the indirect one, where you partir from/to something.

- ¡Es hora de partir hacia tierra firme!
- It's time to start our journey towards solid ground!

I might have put just "It's time to go towards solid ground", but partir conveys the idea of starting off something.

- Todas sus ideas parten de la misma fuente.
- All of his ideas come from the same source.

Parten is the "they" form of partir (third-person plural), and the "come from" in that sentence tells us where the ideas are being originated, where are they "starting", just like "partir" does, although, there's a bit of emphasis on the fact that the ideas have an origin in such mentioned source, whereas that idea it's not as clear in English.

Well, seems like I started out thinking that this was going to be more difficult to explain than what it actually was, so a partir de this moment, you will recognize and understand this little phrase wherever you read or hear it :)
It's sort of a fixed phrase you'll hear everyday if you visit any place where Spanish is spoken, and it always means the same, or at least, the idea is always the same. You can also now tell what is that  "partir" doing all alone by himself, whether breaking stuff apart, or starting off stuff.

How about translating this sentence?

Debes partir en la mañana, porque a partir del mediodía vendrán los guardias a partir cabezas.

Thanks for reading and sharing!