Module 10 goals: the small words that decide the sentence

By the end of this module

I can handle the everyday transactions of a Spanish day - a shift swap, an appointment, a beer, a favour - and choose the small word that makes each of them mean what I meant.

• Use por for what is behind an action - the cause, the exchange, the route, the person I do it for: vuelvo por los discos, lo cambié por el turno de mañana, paso por la calle de Toledo.
• Use para for what is ahead of it - the purpose, the destination, the deadline, the recipient: salgo para el Rastro, para el jueves, es para mi madre.
• Say the fixed phrases whole, without analysing them: por fin, por si acaso, por cierto, para colmo, para nada.
• Attach the right preposition to a verb: acordarse de, pensar en, tardar en, contar con, quedar con somebody but quedar en something.
• Split saber from conocer by what follows the verb, and know what changes when they go into the preterite: supe is finding out, conocí is meeting.
• Ask for a thing with pedir and for information with preguntar: te pido las lentejas, te pregunto si hay menú, and preguntar por somebody at the door.