Todo - part 1

Hi everyone,

I haven't written anything in weeks, which is terrible since I can actually feel my brain getting rusty... Many ideas came up to my mind while doing the everyday chores, although they'd fall apart as soon as I'd think through them.

We talked about stuff falling apart, or more precisely, breaking stuff apart in a previous post. Let's now look into a word with quite the opposite idea... Not precisely putting stuff back together, but what you get when you do it: a whole, el todo.

Todo means all, but it can also mean every, whole, entire, and even each. That shouldn't be a surprise since todo sounds similar to total, both words having the same origin in the Latin totus, meaning "all, all at once, the whole, entire, altogether". I'll explain the different -but related- meanings of this word, and some common phrases we use in everyday spanish as well.


Todo - The spanish superlative

So... What does "superlative" means? Well, we use superlatives all the time when  we want to express that something is greater than any other possible thing. They're particularly easy to form in the English language since you only have to add the suffix -est to the word being used to describe something (adjective or adverb).

- Mi primo Arturo siempre fue el niño más alto de todos en su colegio.
- My cousin Arturo had been always the tallest of all children in his school.

See how it's much easier for you english speakers to say the tallest, healthiest, dirtiest, nearest, etc. In spanish you have to add the más in front of the characteristic you're describing. It's definitely a bit clunky but that's how we do it. Literally translated would be something like "the most tall", if that makes sense...

The difference here between English and Spanish would be that, you don't really need to say "the tallest of all" don't you? It's more than enough with saying "the tallest", we get the idea. Whereas in Spanish, you kind of need to put the "todos" to emphasize that same fact.

- Pancho come más lento que Bruno, pero Jhonny es el más lento de todos.
- Pancho eats slower than Bruno, but Jhonny is the slowest.

You can see it better here. In spoken Spanish, people would normally say as you see in the example, since we've already said "más lento" once, we have to add the "de todos" to make sure we're talking about the slowest at the end of the sentence.



Todo - The whole, the entire

The way we use this todo is probably the most simmilar to the English version of it. Although is probably more related to "entire" since they both come from Latin... Well, actually from Old French, product of the french domination in england around the XI century.

- Asegúrate de que todo el pollo esté descongelado antes de sazonarlo.
- Make sure the whole chicken is thawed before seasoning it.

- ¿Sabes cómo cocinar un pollo entero en el horno?
- Do you know how to cook a whole chicken in the oven?

The idea is pretty much the same, although I'm not too surentire sound in this context, maybe not very good. And yeah, I could have used the verb bake instead of cook, or even hornear instead of cocinar, but let's not get too fancy about that.
e about how good would the word

- Pasamos el día entero/todo el día tratando de broncearnos en la azotea.
- We spent the entire day trying to get a tan on the roof.

- Este libro debería ser leído por el mundo entero/todo el mundo.
- This book should be read by the entire world.

Both versions are inerchangeable almost every time. You should be able to play with those "el/la ... entero/entera" and "todo/toda el/la ..." constructions by now. It's not that hard as it seems and people repeat them todo el tiempo. Just be careful! You can't say "el tiempo entero"... Why? Well, I don't know, it just doesn't sound right, must be an idiomatic thing. Same with the chicken examples above. You can say both todo el pollo and el pollo entero, but there's a different connotation between them... Let's say you go to the market and you want to buy... ehmm... chicken:

- Un pollo entero por favor. - Un todo el pollo por favor.
- A whole chicken please. - A chicken in its totallity please.  (?)

   GOOD                         WRONG


I hope you can get the feel of it. Definitely a matter of practice and specially, listening a lot to native speakers, specially chicken lovers.

Check the second part of this post here!

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!

Acaso

After trying for hours to come up with a word to write about, I said to myself:

 - ¿Acaso no se me puede ocurrir nada?"

which is a way of translating the following:

 - How is that I can't think of anything?

Of course, you can translate that into a more obvious sentence like: "¿Cómo es que no se me ocurre nada?" But the "acaso" gives the phrase quite a different flavor, it adds something else, and that might be because of its varying (but related) possible meanings. Let's dig into that, shall we?

This is another one of those words with no translation whatsoever, so please bear with me because it may be a little bit hard to grasp the idea at the beginning, I'll do my best here...

Acaso - The sort of disbelief particle.

This "acaso" works specially great for those kind of questions where you are implying the opposite of what's being stated to be true.... ok that gave me a bit of a headache, let's see some examples:

 - "¿Qué vas a cocinar hoy?"
 - "¿Acaso seré tu sirviente?"

- "What are you cooking today?"
- Am I actually your maid?

"Acaso" is perfect for those situations where you would answer with another question, those "Do you actually believe that...?" or "How would I...?" questions. Here's another one:

- "Entonces... ¿Como se llamaba tu hermana?"
- "¿Acaso te lo tengo que repetir?

- "So... What was your sister's name?"
- "Do I actually have to repeat it to you?

People normally say this when they're getting a bit pissed off, just like in English I'd say.
Another common one is when something goes wrong at the workplace, and someone is trying to blame you for it. This would be kind of like:

- Se ha perdido mi reloj, apenas me lo compré hace una semana...
- ¿Acaso yo voy a saber donde dejas tus cosas?

- My new watch is lost, I just bought it a week ago...
- How can I/do I actually know where do you put your stuff?

This is in fact a bit of a rude answer... I would say it just if this person is implying that I took his watch, but there are ways of saying it... a playful voice tonality would make it a casual reply to a friend. I believe is pretty much like a very well emphasized "actually" in English.

- ¿Te lo tengo que repetir?
- Do I have to repeat it (to you)?

- ¿Acaso te lo tengo que repetir?
- Do I ACTUALLY have to repeat it (to you)?

So we could say that "actually" shares a lot of with "acaso" in this particular case. But we know that both words are much broader in meaning, depending a lot on context and stuff... I hope you can see the whole "disbelief" idea in it, a "I can't believe you're saying/thinking/implying that" message.

Another super common usage of  "acaso" comes part of a everyday phrase, and guess what, you have it in English too!

Por si acaso - Just in case

I can't think of a situation where this two couldn't be translated into one another. It's plain and simple, they're perfectly interchangeable. You can even use them both as part of a sentence, or as a single phrase.

- Te guardé algo de comida por si acaso querrías probar lo que cociné.

- I saved you some food just in case you wanted to try what I cooked.


- Siempre pongo el freno de mano, tú sabes, por si acaso.

- I always put on the handbrake on, you know, just in case.

-¿Por qué te pusiste botas de goma?
- Por si acaso llueve.

- Why did you put gumboots on?
- Just in case it rains.

Is that easy, believe me :D

I think this word would definitely help your Spanish to be more fluent, specially because of the way it resumes the whole disbelief idea in a sentence. In terms of word economy, Spanish wins this time, which is, in fact quite surprising.

Now, according to Wordreference, there's a couple more definitions for "acaso", but honestly, I've never heard them in my life, not even from other Latin Americans, so whether they are very formal usages for this word, or that's how they speak in Spain, or I just have no idea of what I'm talking about :D If you speak Spanish and this is how you talk in everyday life, please let me know in a comment. At least be sure that if you ever go to Peru, you won't need this.

So, to wrap up, "acaso" has a couple of very common definitions. One of them is used only in rhetoric questions, which are those kind of questions where you actually don't expect any answer. The other one is part of the super ultra common "por si acaso" phrase, which we use almost everyday. That was it for today, thanks for reading!

Ahora

Hello everyone, today we'll see a very useful word used every day in spoken spanish. And I'll start to explain it RIGHT NOW, IN THIS MOMENT, or AHORA..

So that's "ahora"'s meaning, pretty straight foward, but if you go to South America, or Mexico you'll be more likely to hear ahora's little sisters: "ahorita" and "ahoritita". Let's see how these words fit in context and understand the conveyed idea, instead of getting stuck with one-word translations.

- "¿Tienes tiempo mañana en la tarde?"
  "No, pero tengo tiempo ahora."

- "Have you got time tomorrow afternoon?"
- "No, but I've got time now."

Another way of using "ahora" that is very common, involves the idea of "from now on...", which can be translated to "A partir de ahora..." but people like to use just "ahora" since it's way shorter and everyone gets the idea.


- La nueva ley hace ilegal el uso de ropa interior; ahora quien use sostén o calzoncillos irá a la cárcel.
- The new law makes wearing underwear illegal; from now on, whoever uses brassiere or briefs will go to jail.

Can you imagine for a second how would the police enforce this law?, well, I suspect that a good emphasized "now" would be enough to express the same idea, but I'm not too sure about it, native speakers enlight me. Either way, this is another way of using "ahora", and if its english equivalent is the same word, it's all good.

Now let's talk about "ahorita"... The only thing my dictionary says about it is: Diminutive of ahora. So, what the heck is a diminutive?
Putting it simple, is a word form that expresses smallness, youth, unimportance or endearment. The only english examples I can think about right now would be "doggy", expressing some sort of affection for a dog, or "booklet", expressing the smallness of a book.
The big difference is that diminutives are used much much more in spanish than in english, I guess that it's because modifying a word into a diminutive is way easier, and there's a simple rule for that, also, almost every word can be turned into a diminutive. But make sure not to use them too often, or you'll sound silly...

How do we make up diminutives in spanish? As easy as adding a couple of endings to any word: "-ito" for male and "-ita" for female. The tricky part might be in remembering what thing is male and what thing is female, but try to memorize as you learn new words.

- La mesa   :  La mesita
- The table :  The little tiny wee table

- El carro  :  El carrito
- The car   :  The tiny car

There you see that a male noun take the -ito ending and a female one takes the -ita one. It's also obvious that we're not just adding the ending to the word, but to the stem, which would be "mes-" for "mesa" and "carr-" for "carro", but let's not get too deep into this issue, seems broader than I thought, anyway...

It's not that "ahora" is femenine, is not even a noun, but an adverb, but since it ends with an "a", we say "ahorita". The funny thing here is that "ahorita" is not the diminutive form of "ahora", I mean, it is, but it expresses a totally different idea, and is used in other kind of situations where a plain "ahora" would sound just weird... And that idea "ahorita" conveys is of a short period of time.

- "¿Cuanto más te vas a demorar?"
  "Espérame que ahorita llego."

- "How much more are you going to take?"
  "Just wait I'll be right there."

Ahorita is the perfect translation for "just a second", "right away", "very soon", "in a minute", "shortly", blah blah blah... But let's see another common usage of the word.

- "¿Ya se fue el bus?"
- "Ahortita se acaba de ir."

- "Is the bus gone?"
- "It just left."

This is very coloquial spanish and you won't hear it from snobbish high status people, but hey, I use it all the time, and you'll hear it every day in this kind of situations. I could have used "ahorita" instead of "ahoritita" in this last example, but the idea is the same. The only diference is that "ahoritita" implies a period of time shorter than the one "ahorita" does. Some people even say "ahoritititititita" but it's more of a funny exaggeration. So what the example sentence above tells is that you just missed your bus by an insignificant amount of time, and you should be really pissed off.

That was my explanation for "ahora", "ahorita" and "ahoritititi......ta"... Just to sum this up, "ahora" means "in this moment" or "now", and it can be used as "from now on" as well. It's diminutive "ahorita" doesn't mean a tiny little "now", but a short period of time, which is not too far fetched actually... Stacking diminutive endings or "-ita"s at the end of "ahorita" will sound like you're talking about a very little short amount of time, and you'll sound a bit more like a native speaker, but don't use it too often! It's more like a silly word, but it's up to you.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, see you soon.

Así

Hi again,

I don't know why is that I keep thinking about explaining short words... Maybe because at first they seem easy to translate and get an idea of them, but after analyzing them a bit deeper, you realize how many different ways of using them can exist, as well as idioms and coloquialisms.

That's the case of "así".

Even though is not a monster of a word, it's a very common one and you'll hear it every day if you ever go to Spain or Latin America.

Así - Like this or that.

I honestly can not think about a direct translation for "así", but there certainly is a core idea within it, and that is: "like this/that", "in this or that way", "in certain way/manner".

Let's see some examples:

 - Quiero que lo hagas así.
 - I want you yo do it like this/that.

 - Deja de jugar así y ponte serio.
 - Stop playing like that and put yourself seriously. (lit.)
 - Stop fooling around and be serious.

 - ¿Así piensas vestirte para la fiesta?
 - Are you going to dress like that for the party?

So you get the idea, "así" always answers to the question "how?", meaning "in what way?". Using "así" at the beginning of a question of an exclamation indicates surprise or amusement. You can easily imagine the entonation used in the last example if it were said by your dad looking at your 16-year-old sister going to a party with very little clothes.

Así - As well as...

For "así" to work this way it needs the help of an old friend "como", which could be translated as "how" and you will find that in the dictionaries, but its uses are much broader and well... It would take a whole new article to explain it, so let's just look at how it works together with "así" for now.


 - La comida peruana Utiliza muchas especias asi como la Mexicana.
 - Peruvian food uses lots of spices as well as Mexican.

 - No olvides tomar las pastillas o te enfermarás así como esa vez.
 - Don't forget to take the pills or you'll get sick like that time.

In this last example "as well as" wouldn't make much sense, although the idea of repetition is there: "You'll get sick again as well as that time" doesn't sound so good and we would say it different in english, but the idea conveyed there is the same as "así como" for spanish.


Así - though, although, even if, even though...

Again I can't think of a straight foward translation for así in these situation, but let's work with the core idea again... Personally I think that's the best way of learning a new language... If you know in your mind what you want to say you'll eventually find the correct words to express yourself in a more natural way, just keep mind and ears open. So, let's carry on with "así" as a conjunction for these case:

 - Iré a Perú en dos semanas, así no entienda nada de español.
 - I'll go to Peru in two weeks, even if I don't understand any spanish.

 - Carlos sigue fumando una cajetilla diaria, así el doctor le haya dicho que debe parar.
 - Carlos keeps smoking a pack of cigarretes a day, even when the doctor had told him to stop.

So it kinda works like a "in despite of the fact that" thing. You can also start the whole phrasing with "asi", the comma in the middle of both examples means that there are two sentences there, so you could also say.

 - Así lo prohíbas, me iré de todos modos.
 - Even if you prohibit it, I'll leave (anyways).

It works the same if you say it the other way around, just like in english I guess. Now let us see to a quite uncommon use for this word:

Así - The adjective

An adjective is a word that modifies a noun, like in this simple sentence:

 - My cat is fat and lazy.
 - Mi gato es gordo y flojo.

Fat and lazy are adjectives in this sentence because they are modifying or describing the noun, in this case, my cat. Now let's see how "así" works as an adjective.

 - Teniendo un cuerpo así sería tonto pensar que nadie se te va a acercar.
 - Having a body like that, it'd be foolish to think that no one's going to approach you.

It's clear what we're talking about... she (or he if you wish), has got a hot body and that's what the "like that" implies, and just like we said earlier, that's the core idea of "así". With the difference that in this case, it's playing an adjective role, let's see how it fits:

 - Teniendo un cuerpo atractivo, sería tonto...
 - Having an attractive body, it'd be foolish...

We've made obvious the context of the original example placing the adjective "attractive" instead of "así", so we can see clearly what was its role in the sentence.


You'll hear "así" in many idiomatic expressions, they're so many that it'd be overwhelming to elaborate on them all here in this article, but if you want me to explain any specific one please make a comment and I'll reply as soon as posible. Thanks again for reading!

Dar

Hi again, it's my day off and Lusi the Cyclone, is hitting us with gusts and non-stop rain, so what's better than staying at home and relax? Doing so trying to explain a short but useful spanish word:

 - Dar = To give

It may look as a simple one syllabe verb but it's got lots of different usages, and is part of numerous fixed expressions. But don't  worry, since the core of its meaning remains the same in almost every context.
And the gist of "dar" is to offer, produce or give certain things,services, situations or information.

Let's refresh our minds with the conjugated forms of "dar, since it's quite irregular. Please don't try to memorize this, just use it as a reference if you can't find the meaning in any example. Sometimes you won't even need to look at these horrible tables, but just in case here they are:


Present:

 Yo doy                =    I give
 Tu das                =    You give
 Él/Ella/Eso da        =    He/She/It gives
 Nosotros damos        =    We give
 Ellos/Ellas/Esos dan  =    They give
 Ustedes dan           =    You (plural) give

Simple Past:

 Yo dí                    =    I gave
 Tu diste                 =    You gave
 Él/Ella/Eso dió          =    He/She/It gave
 Nosotros dimos           =    We gave
 Ellos/Ellas/Esos dieron  =    They gave
 Ustedes dieron           =    You (plural) gave

Future:

 Yo daré                 =    I will give
 Tu darás                =    You will give
 Él/Ella/Eso dará        =    He/She/It will give
 Nosotros daremos        =    We will give
 Ellos/Ellas/Esos darán  =    They will give
 Ustedes darán           =    You (plural) will give


It's much easier in english isn't it? Again, don't try to memorize it, it'll come over time with practice.


Dar - To give something (away).

Dar could easily mean to handle something to someone, but it can also mean to give away something for free, again, depending on context:

 - Rafael me dará su antigua computadora.
 - Rafael will give me his old computer.

 - Ayer le dí un par de libros a mi primo.
 - Yesterday I gave my cousin a couple books.

It's not very clear whether Rafael is giving me his old computer for free or he's just letting me use it for a few hours, or if I gave my cousin a couple books as a gift or just until he finishes reading them. Here we rely on the context of the situation.


Dar - To give... ?

I'll try to explain more abstract meanings of dar; they could not always be translated to "to give" but the idea of offering or giving is still there:

 - Todos estos años llenos de sacrificios por fin dieron frutos.
 - All these years filled with sacrifices finally gave fruits. (lit.)
 - All these years of sacrifices are finally worth it.

"Dar frutos" is kind of a common fixed expression which means "to obtain the results you want".

 - Ser disciplinado te dará frutos a corto y largo plazo.
 - To be disciplined will give you the results you want in short and long term.



Dar can also have the idea of making public some information, or giving a public service.

 - El rector dió un inspirador discurso a los alumnos de último año.
 - The dean gave an inspiring speech to the last year students.

 - El nuevo restaurante dará una gran fiesta de inauguración.
 - The new restaurant will give a big inauguration party.

I'm not too sure if that's how a native speaker would phrase my second example but I hope the idea is clear. As you can see, "dar" can be used to give tangible and untangible things.


Dar - To consider in a determined way.

This meaning may not be as obvious as the previous ones, but the idea is still there, in a very abstract way. It's normally followed by the particle "por" and it can be translated as "to consider". You'll see it clearly with the examples.

 - Llevaba tantos días desaparecido que lo dieron por mierto.
 - He had been lost for so many days that they gave him up for dead.

 - Doy el asunto por concluído.
 - I consider the matter settled / I regard the matter as settled.

Doing a bit of thinking, we could interpret this meaning of "dar" as giving consideration on something or someone. In a forced way, we could say that "Me doy por vencido" could be literally translated into "I consider myself defeated" or "I give up"... Unexpected eh?


I hope my explanation was clear enough, if you have any questions or suggestions for another article please make a comment, I'd be glad of answering. Thanks for reading!

Para

Today I'll try to explain a word that I believe could be pretty confusing to most foreigners trying to learn spanish, because of its many diferent meanings. I'm talking about "para".

If you know some spanish, some translations for para could come to your mind, like "for" or "to", and you're right. Just like these words are prepositions in the english language, "para" is one in spanish as well.

But if you ever go to Spain or any other spanish speaking country you'll hear "para" in many different contexts, here I'll try to explain another meanings of this word, very common in everyday speech. First we'll see a few examples in order to seize the idea that para conveys:


Para - Indicating purpose or intention


 - Hago esto para tu propio bien.
 - I do this for your own good.

Here para can be translated into for because it's expressing an intention, and answering to the question "What for?" - "For your own good."; "¿Para qué? - "Para tu propio bien." I'd even dare to say that every time you can ask the question "What for?" and answer it starting with "for", be sure that the spanish translation will use "para".

 - Enciende el microondas para calentar la comida.
 - Turn on the microwave to warm up the food.

Para can't be translated to for in this example but the idea is very clear, I'm telling you to turn on the microwave for a reason, there's a purpose in that action so the question "what for?" fits pefectly there.

 - Mañana iré a la piscina, necesitaré mis lentes para nadar.
 - I'm going to the pool tomorrow, I'll need my swimming googles.

There's not a precise translation for "para" in this example, but what it expresses is the purpose of the googles, because they're not any kind of googles, they're swimming googles, and that's what "para" indicates. Here the question "what for?" kinda doesn't work, because you're not talking about an action and a purpose for that action. An example with that case would be the following:

 - "What are you going to the pool for?"
   "(for) swimming."

 - "¿Para qué vas a la piscina?
   "Para nadar."

Again, para here expresses the intention of something or someone to do something, it has nothing to do with the swimming googles :). More examples:

 - Zapatos para correr
 - Running shoes

 - Tijeras para podar
 - Pruning scissors

 - Arnés para escalar
 - Climbing harness

As you can see, "para" explain the purpose of these objects. Although sometimes you'll need some context to understand the whole idea, for example, imagine that you're late again for work and you have to run to bus stop as fast as possible or you'll miss the next bus, but you don't like to run with your nice shiny black leather shoes, so you say:

 - Tendré que usar estos zapatos para correr.
 - I would have to run with these shoes.

See the difference here? Here you're talking about using your nice shoes for running, because there's no choice. But now imagine that it's a sunny sunday morning and you feel like jogging around the park, you may say:

 - Usaré mis nuevos zapatos para correr.
 - I'll use my new running shoes.

Now we're talking about running shoes, it's all about context in these two examples. I hope I make it clear enough.




Para - The straight foward "for".

This is the para you'd read in a chirstmas present tag. I think it can be easily translated to "for" in every context, here some examples:

 - Las camisas verdes son para Pedro.
 - The green shirts are for Pedro.

 - Compré una nueva cocina para ti.
 - I bought a new stove for you.

 - Las sobras son para el perro.
 - The leftovers are for the dog.


Para - Expressing time.

There are three not so different circumstances in spoken spanish where para is used when talking about time, they're more like fixed expressions, so there's not much to analyze, but they're really common. The main idea of purpose that para conveys is not so obvious but it's still there.

 - Podríamos vernos para la próxima semana si es que no tienes tiempo mañana.
 - We could see each other the next week if you don'thave any time tomorrow.

 - Tendré el dinero listo para el 15 de Enero.
 - I'll have the money ready for the 15th of January.

Asking "What for?" doesn't work here because there's not a purpose being expressed, but a date in the future, and that's exactly what para does in these examples.

There's this sort of fixed expression which expresses how long is an action or event going to take:

 - "¿Cuánto tiempo demorarás con eso?"
   "Tengo para rato"

 - "How long are you gonna take with that?"
   " It's gonna be a while"


Finally, para is used very often when people tell the time , so this is very important.

 - Un cuarto para las cinco.
 - Quarter to five.

 - Veinte para el mediodía.
 - Twenty to noon.

Here para works as if it would be trying to say: "There's 15 minutes left to reach 5pm", that's the whole idea of para in this situation, which is pretty much the gist of the word. Consequently, you could say:

 - Faltan treinta kilómetros para el pueblo.
 - There's thirty kilometers left to get to town.

I'm not 100% sure about if my english translation is correct, but I hope you get the idea. There's many more  examples and fixed expressions with "para" but I'll try to cover them in the second part of this article. I didn't realize that the word was gonna be so broad, anyway.


Para - To stop.

I almost forget about the para that comes from the verb "parar" which means "to stop", but not in he broad aspect of the english word.
Parar has the idea of stopping an ongoing process, or the moving of an object.

 - Debes parar el auto antes de la siguiente calle.
 - You have to stop the car before the next street.

 - ¿Can you stop being such an idiot?
 - ¿Puedes parar de ser un idiota?  THIS IS WRONG.
 - ¿Puedes dejar de ser un idiota?

In the second example, parar doesn't work because being an idiot (at least in this context) is not an ongoing process or a movement, saying that sentence would sound just too weird. Instead, you say "dejar" which means "to leave", and that's the correct word for this case, and every time you talk about behaviour, so to speak.

So "para" would be the imperative of "parar", or the order "Stop!" = "Para!" which is almost exclusively used when you want something or someone to stop a movement...

 - Stop the car!
 - Para el auto!

 - Stop talking please.
 - Para de hablar por favor.

But para is also the conjugated form of parar in third person:

 - Buscaré la dirección mientras él para el auto.
 - I'll look for the address while he stops the car.

 - Entonces... ¿Simplemente para de funcionar?
 - So... It just stops working?

This one is pretty straight foward so I think it doesn't need further explanation... Aaaand the last one:


Para - To stand up.

This is the para that means to stand on your feet. I'd say it comes from the verb "parar"  as explained above, but it has a total different use.
If you've ever seen these -me, -te, -lo, etc. endings on a verb, what they're indicating is, who is being affected by the verb. And this is very important because they are used in everyday speech when people talk about standing up in the future.

 - (Yo) Voy a pararme.
 - I'm going to stand up.

The -me ending is telling you who is the action being inflicted on. In this case, the person who's speaking.

 - (Él) Va a pararse.
 - He's going to stand up.

Here, the -se tells you about a third person, so the action will affect "him". Which brings us to this other way of saying it:

 - Él se para.
 - He stands/is standing up.

People don't say this as often as they'd say it in future, because it would be just weird to say "I stand up" before getting up the chair, we talk more like in future for small actions like this, but now you won't be surprised if someone says it otherwise.

If you have any questions please leave me a comment, I'd be glad to answer them all. See ya!