Per versus Per A

Both per and per a can correspond to English for, but they organize the relationship differently. Per looks back to a cause, path, means, exchange, or agent; per a looks forward to a destination, intended recipient, intended use, deadline, or purpose. That orientation is the most reliable starting point—then regional standard usage, especially before an infinitive, adds a genuine layer of variation.

For the complete inventory of backward-looking uses before comparing the two forms, see the preposition Per.

The core contrast

This is not simply Catalan copying Spanish por/para. The broad semantic division resembles it, but Catalan has its own contractions, infinitival rules, dialect distribution, and areas where per a is reduced to per in ordinary speech.

Forms with articles

The two prepositions contract differently with masculine definite articles:

The minimal pair pel departament / per al departament distinguishes agent from intended recipient. In speech, Central Catalan may pronounce per al in a reduced way, but careful spelling preserves the full form whenever the chosen standard system requires per a.

Cause and purpose

Use per when a noun or event explains why something happened: motive, cause, or grounds. In varieties that distinguish the two forms before an infinitive, use per a when the infinitive identifies the result someone intends to bring about. Central, Balearic, Northern, Alguerese, and much of Northwestern Catalan normally use per before infinitives for both cause and purpose; the examples with per a below illustrate the full-distinction system.

The second example deliberately places cause and purpose together. Per prudència answers “what motivates the statement?”; per a evitar… answers “toward what desired result?” English for/to does not mark the division as consistently.

With a finite purpose clause, use perquè + subjunctive, written as one word—not per a que:

The same conjunction with the indicative can introduce a cause: No he vingut perquè estic malalt (“I haven’t come because I’m ill”). Mood and context distinguish an intended, not-yet-realized result from an asserted reason. Negation can make the English sentence ambiguous, so Catalan punctuation or a clearer rephrasing may be needed.

Means and route versus destination

Use per for the channel or path traversed: per correu, per la carretera, per Lleida. Use per a when a noun phrase denotes the destination of a service or something assigned to that destination. With ordinary motion, a or cap a is usually more natural than per a.

Thus Sortim cap a Girona is ordinary directional motion, whereas un paquet per a Girona labels a package by its intended endpoint. Do not force per a into every English for + place.

Exchange and agent versus recipient

Price and exchange take per: per vint euros, canviar una cosa per una altra. The person or institution intended to receive or benefit from something takes per a in the full distinction.

This produces an especially useful minimal pair: Ho han fet per tu can mean “They did it because of you/on your behalf,” while Ho han fet per a tu means that you are its intended beneficiary. Some Central speakers use per tu for both in informal speech; context then carries the distinction. In careful cross-regional writing, per a tu keeps the recipient meaning explicit.

Intended use and suitability

After a noun, adjective, or copular expression, per a often states what something is meant or suitable for: una màquina per a tallar, apte per al consum, prou gran per a sis persones. No agent necessarily intends and performs the infinitive; the phrase classifies a use or standard.

English often compresses this into a noun compound (interview room) or uses for + -ing. Catalan makes the intended function overt. Scope matters: una capsa per a fotografies antigues is a box intended to hold old photographs; una capsa de fotografies antigues already contains them.

Deadlines versus spans

In the full per/per a distinction, a deadline takes per a because it is the temporal endpoint by which something is wanted or assigned. A rate uses per, and a continuing duration is usually bare or introduced by durant.

For a fixed future deadline, contemporary standard usage admits both per divendres and per a divendres. Central usage often favors per divendres, while Valencian robustly maintains per a divendres. Within a formal document, adopt one recognized model consistently rather than alternating randomly.

The genuinely difficult part: before an infinitive

There is no single spoken pattern shared equally by all Catalan varieties. Three facts keep the system manageable:

1. Per is uncontroversial for cause: El van sancionar per haver falsificat la signatura.
2. In Valencian, Tortosí, and the westernmost Northwestern varieties, which maintain the distinction before infinitives, per a marks intended use or purpose: una eina per a obrir pots, una sala per a fer-hi reunions. The other major varieties use per in these same examples.
3. With an agentive action performed in order to achieve a result, the same territorial systems apply. Central Catalan uses per: Ha vingut per parlar amb tu. Valencian and the other distinction-maintaining varieties use per a: Ha vingut per a parlar amb tu. Contemporary standard usage recognizes both territorial models; IEC- or AVL-aligned writing should follow the selected model coherently.

These two examples do not differ in truth conditions; they represent accepted regional systems. By contrast, L’han premiat per haver ajudat els veïns is causal (“because she helped”) and should not be mechanically changed to per a.

A natural dialogue

The recipient takes per a, the price takes per, and the finite purpose is perquè + subjunctive. Abans de divendres is a literal “before Friday”; if Friday itself is the delivery deadline, a full-distinction version is per a divendres.

Reordered constituents and scope

Fronting makes the contrast particularly visible and can require a resumptive pronoun elsewhere in the clause.

The whole per a phrase has recipient scope over the reservation. Compare Per la gentada, hem canviat de sala: there per introduces the crowd as the reason for changing rooms. A one-letter difference changes dependency and therefore meaning.

Register and regional systems

• Central Catalan: uses per before infinitives in both formal and informal registers. Informal speech may additionally reduce per a to per before some noun phrases and pronouns; fixed future deadlines independently allow both per and per a in standard usage.
• Valencian: maintains per/per a robustly in speech and writing; AVL-oriented prose normally writes per a for purpose, recipient, intended use, and deadline.
• Northwestern: Tortosí and the westernmost varieties maintain the distinction before infinitives, while much of the rest uses per; Balearic, Northern, and Alguerese likewise normally use per before infinitives.
• Formal IEC usage: recognizes these territorial models before infinitives while maintaining important semantic distinctions elsewhere. Administrative prose sometimes overuses per part de; a direct agent with per or an active clause is usually clearer.

Common Mistakes

Short correction task

Choose and contract the preposition in un manual (per/per a) els tècnics, revisat (per/per a) els tècnics, and comprat (per/per a) quinze euros. The answers are per als tècnics (intended users), pels tècnics (agents), and per quinze euros (price).

Key Takeaways

• Per looks back to cause, route, means, exchange, agent, or rate.
• Per a looks forward to destination, recipient, intended use, deadline, or purpose.
• Keep the contractions distinct: pel/pels versus per al/per als.
• Use perquè + subjunctive for a finite purpose clause, never per a que.
• Before purpose infinitives, accepted regional systems differ; state and follow a coherent Central, Valencian, IEC, or AVL model instead of mixing forms arbitrarily.