I am realizing more and more that native Spanish speakers use the verb SER to express location. At least among Argentinians.

Mi casa es en la calle 71.

That’s a sentence I hear a lot. For a Spanish teacher like me, that would be a huge mistake (actually, for anyone). I heard this from professionals and educated people too. But I obviously don’t correct a native speaker.

Every time I hear this, it makes me think of the language. Is this what we call the dynamism of the language? I don’t think so. I think this is related with poor Spanish teaching at school. And it looks like a small detail. They become extended and to some extent, a regionalism.

Spanish learners: there are many native speakers whose Spanish is far from perfect. Don’t let a mistake or your imperfect language skills obstruct your speaking skills. Believe me, you probably are a better speaker than what you think.

We said a few things about por and para a few days ago. Most of the times, explanations about these prepositions look nice and clear but it all becomes confusing when you start using them in conversation.
Out of all of the uses these prepositions have, there are two that probably are the most confusing ones:
Para expresses a purpose, while por a cause, a reason.
Let’s see a two examples:

• Llamaré por teléfono a Carlos ______ pedirle mis cosas.
• ______ levantarte tarde, perdiste el tren.

Which sentence expresses a purpose? Which one a cause? “pedirle mis cosas” is the purpose of the call. Getting up late made me (caused) lose the train.
Now, let´s think of them logically, in terms of time: Temporally, the purpose (not the enunciation of the purpose but its actual fulfillment) comes always after the main action. First, I call Carlos, after that, I will ask for my things. Here, we will always use PARA.
The cause always precedes the main action. I woke up late and only then, for that reason, I lost my train. In this case we will use POR.
Voy a Chile para estudiar español. I go to Chile to learn Spanish. I first go there then, I will study Spanish. The purpose will actually take place after I arrive in Chile.
Estoy triste por lo que le pasó a Miguel. I feel sad for what happened to Miguel. Temporally, something happened to him first and then I feel bad. But the cause takes place first.

No introduction needed. This is a big problem for any Spanish learner. When do I use por? When do I use para? And if you already know the “uses” of these prepositions, how can I use them correctly and spontaneously in conversation without making a 5 minute pause to think which one goes in my sentence (and end up picking the wrong one)?
Without going into a lot of detail, here’s what para expreses:

• Scope or recipient of the action. Estos zapatos son para tí.
• Opinion. Para mí, eso no es importante.
• With verbs that express movement, it indicates direction or destination. El tren para Veracruz sale a las 4.
• With a time value, it expresses the term or limit for an action to take place. It can also mean hasta. El trabajo debe estar terminado para el jueves que viene.

And por indicates:

• The cause or reason of an action. Lo han condenado por homicidio.
• The agent of the passive voice. El fenómeno será estudiado por especialistas.
• Approximate location, when talking about space. Tus libros están por allí.
• With verbs that express movement, indicates transit. Llegaré tarde pues de regreso pasaré por el supermercado.
• With a time value, it can indicate approximate time, periodicity or part of the day. Por las noches saco a pasear a mi perro.
• The means or instrument with which something is done. Te enviaré el documento por fax.
• Price. Este libro lo he comprado por cuarenta pesos.

This is not a complete list of the uses of these prepositions. It only covers the most frequent uses of them.
Perfect, but you know you mastered your exercises, and you still make mistakes when you speak. Well… there’s no final solution for that. Or, maybe there’s something you can try: practice. Not mere repetition, authentic practice. This is valid not only for this, but for everything. Without real practice there is no language learning.
Speaking of por vs para, regardless of the specific uses we just mentioned, I would think of them in terms of two general ideas: Para, generally speaking, will normally express a direction, an intention, while por is clearly more focused on the idea of cause and means.

I know, this is not very clear nor easy to incorporate, but once you start getting the ideas behind these to words, once you hear others use them correctly (and paying attention to how people who speaks well is a great strategy for learning a foreign language) everything will become more natural.

Every time I start working with my students on the uses of these two verbs I hear the same thing from those who had studied the topic in the past:

“We use ser to talk about things that are definitive, that cannot change and estar to talk about those things that can change”

Unfortunately this is incomplete and not true on many cases:

Mi padre está muerto (will this situation change?).

Y mi hermano es estudiante (and he will not be one forever).

The uses of these two verbs are much more complex than that. The first thing you should remember is that this discussion is only valid when talking about ser and estar with adjectives. For instance, when talking about nouns, only the verb ser is used. The verb estar cannot be used with a noun.

María es empleada en un banco.

Lo que yo necesito es un vestido que sea rojo y largo.

With adjectives, we will use ser to talk about what defines the person or thing. Those essential characteristics are normally expressed with ser. This verb tells what my nature of being is. It works like an equal sign.

With adjectives, the verb estar expresses a condition, a situation, regardless of the duration of the action. That is why the example above (Mi padre está muerto) is correct. We use estar to mention the state of the subject.

A tip I usually give my students when they are hesitating about which verb to use with an adjective is to try first the verb encontrarse. It means “Hallarse en cierto estado”(e.g. Encontrarse enfermo). In English, to find oneself on a certain state. With adjectives it has a meaning very close to that of estar. As a result, if the sentence makes sense when using the verb encontrarse, that means we will need the verb estar. If the statement looses all of its meaning when using that verb, then the verb will be ser.

Let´s see two examples: if you are thinking of a way of saying that you are happy at your job, you can say:

Yo me encuentro muy contento en mi trabajo.

That sentence makes perfect sense. Therefore, we can also say: Yo estoy muy contento en mi trabajo.

Now, let´s try that verb again to express that your trip was perfect.

El viaje se encontró perfecto.

This doesn´t make any sense (or at least, we can say that the sentence is not expressing the idea we have in mind). Then the verb is not estar, but ser (El viaje fue perfecto).

With practice you will get used to this technique that works well when deciding which of these verbs to use with an adjective.

But remember, this is just one of the aspects of these two verbs. The picture is much larger.

The verb “doler” means to feel pain, when speaking of a part of the body. It is irregular because it is a stem changing verb. The letter o in the infinitive form changes in ue when conjugated in some tenses:

D O LER – D UE LE.

Note that by definition, this verb is strictly linked to a part of the body. The part that hurts is the subject of a sentence with the verb doler. And because what hurts is la cabeza or los pies (and not yo, tú, or ella,), the right thing to do is to conjugate it in the third person: singular (me duele la cabeza) or plural (me duelen los pies).

Then we must specify the person who is feeling the pain which is the recipient of that action; that is why we refer to that person (or people) with an Indirect Object Pronoun (me, te, le, nos, os or les).

These pronouns will be placed before the conjugated verb:

¿Te duele la espalda?

If the verb is in the infinitive or gerund form it can be placed before the verbal construction or right after it:

- Doctor, a la paciente continúa doliéndole la mano.

- Enfermera, ¿me va a doler la inyección?

Finally, if we add the Indirect Object to the sentece (i.e. the name of the person who feels the pain or a pronoun that refers to that person) then the preposition a introducing the receiver must be included:

- A ella le duelen los oídos.

- A los niños les duele el estómago