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Los 3 Amigos: Por qué, porque, porqué

Por qué, porque, porqué. Three sets of words that contain the same exact letters in the same exact order but the meaning changes depending on whether they’re together, apart, have an accent, without an accent. How to keep their meanings straight? The first two (por qué and porque) are probably already familiar to you if you’ve been studying Spanish, while the third one (porqué) may be less so.

Here’s your cheat sheet to keeping this threesome straight in your mind:

por qué: Two words, with an accent; is the question word “why?” in Spanish.

porque: One word, no accent; means “because” in Spanish.

porqué: One word, with an accent; is a noun that means “reason” or “cause” in Spanish. It can be singular or plural.

For example:

Isabel: ¿Por qué estás tan triste? (Why are you so sad?)

Juan: Porque mi perro ha muerto. (Because my dog has died.)

Isabel: Lo siento mucho. Me preguntaba el porqué de tu tristeza. (I’m very sorry. I was wondering about the reason for your sadness.)

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20/09/08

8 Comments

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8 Responses to “Los 3 Amigos: Por qué, porque, porqué”

  1. 1
    costarossa Says:
    September 22nd, 2008 at 11:02 am

    Muy útil. :) A veces cosas parecen tan sencillas pero en realidad no las sabemos bien.

  2. 2
    Gollerkeri Says:
    September 26th, 2008 at 1:50 pm

    Muchas Gracias! Ahora entiendo los tres amigos!

  3. 3
    Voices en Español » Why accent marks are important in Spanish Says:
    September 30th, 2008 at 9:10 pm

    [...] Their meanings change depending on whether the have an accent mark. (Consider this a follow-up to a previous post I wrote last week about por qué, porque and porqué.) The first column takes a written accent while the second [...]

  4. 4
    jmcejuela Says:
    October 12th, 2008 at 4:59 pm

    And there is a fourth, though almost not used at all:

    “Fueron varios los delitos por que fue juzgado…”

    That “por que” is usually replaced by “el cual” or “la cual”.

    A complication comes with the indirect questions: “no sé por qué me contestó de esa manera…”

    Anyway, English learners should know most Spanish have problems with these words too.

    //I am Spanish

  5. 5
    eleena Says:
    October 12th, 2008 at 5:04 pm

    Thanks, Juan Miguel. Always appreciate getting additional insight from native Spanish speakers. :)

  6. 6
    Irene Says:
    November 22nd, 2008 at 5:03 pm

    Te faltó el por que separado y sin acento :)

  7. 7
    eleena Says:
    November 22nd, 2008 at 5:18 pm

    Hola Irene,
    Gracias por comentar. Me das un ejemplo de una frase por favor porque no se me ocurre.

  8. 8
    eleena Says:
    November 22nd, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    Oops! Never mind, Irene. Veo que Juan Miguel ya lo escribió. Un saludo. :)

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