We have a short but interesting blog today. Four different forms, all of them perfectly correct, provided that you know when to use one or the other. Actually, many native speakers are totally confused and commit mistakes all the time. It is very frequent to see videos on the YouTube made by people who say that they “teach” Spanish and misspell these words. In the first place, we have the two basic forms for “why” and “because”:
Why is this so complicated? ¿Por qué esto es tan complicado?
Because languages are complicated. Porque las lenguas son complicadas.
The first form is made up of two words and carries an accent, and the second form is only one word without a written accent. Notice that the pronunciation is different, because in “porque”, the stress is on the “o”.
Now, let’s see “porque” and “por que”. We know that the first one is “because”. Let’s compare:
Me preocupo porque veo que estás muy cansada. I am worried because I see that you are very tired.
Me preocupo por que todo salga bien. I worry that everything goes well. In this case, you cannot translate using “because”, since you are emphasising your goal.
The last form is a Noun. Remember, Nouns are words which generally refer to things, persons, places, animals, but also abstract concepts. “Casa, María, Madrid, perro, sociedad” are examples. But the most accurate definition is the grammatical one. Nouns can be the subject of a sentence. You will recognise them because they can be preceded by an article: “la casa, el perro, la sociedad”, except when they are proper Nouns, like María or Madrid. Well, here we are with our last form, “el porqué”, a Noun meaning “the cause or the reason”. Actually, “el porqué, la causa, la razón” are synonyms.
I don’t understand the reason of your behaviour. No entiendo el porqué de tu conducta.
Done for the day!
