After "cause," the second great job of por is movement through, along, or around space. Pasamos por Madrid — we passed through Madrid. Andamos por el parque — we walked around the park. Conduzco por la calle Mayor — I'm driving along Calle Mayor. Por doesn't pick out a destination; it traces a path traversed — what's underneath your feet, around you, or in front of you as you move.
This same preposition extends to diffuse, vague location (vive por aquí — he lives somewhere around here), routes (vamos por la autopista), and means of transmission (por teléfono, por correo, por la tele). The unifying thread is the idea of passing along / via. Hold onto that image and the rest of the page falls into place.
Por = path, not destination
The first thing to internalise is the contrast between a and por for movement:
| Sentence | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Voy a Madrid. | I'm going to Madrid. (Madrid = destination) |
| Paso por Madrid. | I'm passing through Madrid. (Madrid = path) |
| Vamos a Valencia por la costa. | We're going to Valencia along the coast. |
Pasamos por Madrid de camino a Bilbao, pero no paramos.
We passed through Madrid on the way to Bilbao, but we didn't stop.
Si vienes desde Valencia, ven por la autopista, es más rápido.
If you're coming from Valencia, take the motorway — it's faster.
The verb tells you which one you want: ir, llegar, viajar with a destination → a; pasar, andar, conducir, viajar with a route → por. Viajar is a great example: viajamos a París (we're travelling to Paris — destination) vs viajamos por Francia (we're travelling around France — path).
Por for "along," "through," "around"
English splits this idea across three prepositions; Spanish uses por for all three. The shared semantics: a path of movement, not an endpoint.
Andamos toda la tarde por el parque del Retiro.
We walked around the Retiro park all afternoon.
El río pasa por el centro de la ciudad.
The river flows through the centre of the city.
Conducimos por una carretera comarcal preciosa.
We drove along a beautiful country road.
El gato se subió por la pared hasta llegar al tejado.
The cat climbed up the wall until it reached the roof.
That last example is worth pausing on: subir por la pared doesn't mean "go up to the wall" (that would be subir a la pared) — it means "use the wall as a path going up." The wall is the surface you traverse. This por + surface = "via the surface" usage is everywhere once you start looking for it.
Diffuse, vague location: "around here"
A natural extension of "path" is "general area" — when you don't pin down an exact spot, just a fuzzy region. Por handles this perfectly.
Mi primo vive por aquí cerca, en una calle paralela.
My cousin lives around here, on a parallel street.
¿Hay alguna farmacia por la zona?
Is there a pharmacy around here?
Las llaves tienen que estar por algún sitio, las acabo de dejar.
The keys have to be somewhere around — I just put them down.
Compare with en, which pins down a specific location:
| Specific (en) | Vague (por) |
|---|---|
| Vive en esta calle. (on this street) | Vive por aquí. (around here) |
| Está en el norte. (in the north) | Está por el norte. (somewhere up north) |
| Pone las llaves en la mesa. | Las llaves estarán por la mesa. |
Anduve por la ciudad sin rumbo fijo durante toda la mañana.
I wandered around the city aimlessly all morning.
This por of vague movement and vague location is one of the most peninsular-flavoured uses of the preposition — Spaniards lean on it heavily in conversation.
Por for means of transmission
A natural metaphorical extension of "path / via" gives us the medium of communication use of por: telephone, email, post, TV.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| por teléfono | by phone |
| por correo | by post / mail |
| por correo electrónico / por email | by email |
| por mensajería | by courier |
| por la tele | on the TV (peninsular preference) |
| por la radio | on the radio |
| por internet | online / over the internet |
| por WhatsApp | by WhatsApp |
Te lo mando por correo electrónico esta misma tarde.
I'll send it to you by email this very afternoon.
Lo vimos por la tele anoche, salía en las noticias.
We saw it on the TV last night — it was on the news.
Hablamos por WhatsApp casi todos los días.
We chat on WhatsApp almost every day.
Two notes on regional preference:
- Peninsular por la tele, por la radio are the standard. Latin America often says en la tele, en la radio. Both are understood across the Spanish-speaking world, but in Spain por dominates.
- Books, films, articles flip: you'd say lo leí en un libro (I read it in a book), vi una película en Netflix (I saw a film on Netflix) — these are containers, not media of transmission, so en wins.
Por for routes and via-points
When you specify how you're getting somewhere — which road, which route, which connection — por is the preposition.
Vamos por la autopista para evitar el tráfico del centro.
We're going via the motorway to avoid the city centre traffic.
El tren a Sevilla pasa por Córdoba.
The train to Seville goes via Córdoba.
Hemos venido por la sierra, hay vistas espectaculares.
We came via the mountains — there are spectacular views.
The route-marking por often replaces English via, through, or by way of.
Pasar por / a / de: three different verbs
The verb pasar has different meanings depending on the preposition that follows it, and pasar por is a particularly common construction worth singling out.
| Construction | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| pasar por | pass through / drop by / be considered as | Pasé por tu casa esta mañana. |
| pasar a | move on to / proceed to | Pasamos a otro tema. |
| pasar de | not care about (colloquial) / exceed | Paso de política. |
Pasé por tu casa esta mañana, pero no había nadie.
I dropped by your place this morning, but no one was in.
Mi hermano pasa olímpicamente de los estudios.
My brother couldn't care less about his studies. (colloquial)
Pasar de in its colloquial sense is very peninsular — paso de ti (I don't care about you / I'm done with you), paso de salir esta noche (I don't feel like going out tonight). You'll hear it constantly in Spain.
Surface motion: going along / up / via a surface
A subtle but useful use: por + a surface or boundary indicates motion along or via that surface.
El gato sube por la pared como si fuera una escalera.
The cat climbs up the wall as if it were a ladder.
La sangre corre por las venas.
Blood runs through the veins.
La luz entra por la ventana de la cocina.
The light comes in through the kitchen window.
The window in that last example is the opening through which the light passes — the path, not the destination. Por la ventana is the standard way to say "through the window" in Spanish.
A quick visual: a vs por vs en
It can help to picture the three side by side, because at A2 you'll be choosing between them constantly for any movement-or-location sentence.
| Preposition | Role | Mental image |
|---|---|---|
| a | destination | an arrow pointing at the endpoint |
| por | path / through / via | a line traced across the middle |
| en | static location | a dot inside a circle |
Voy a Madrid por la N-IV; estaré en Madrid esta tarde.
I'm going to Madrid via the N-IV; I'll be in Madrid this afternoon.
All three in one sentence. A marks the destination, por marks the path, en marks the location. If you can produce sentences like this naturally, you've got the core preposition system down.
Common Mistakes
❌ Voy por Madrid esta tarde.
Wrong if you mean 'going to'. Por means 'through' — for destination use a.
✅ Voy a Madrid esta tarde.
I'm going to Madrid this afternoon.
❌ Te llamo en teléfono luego.
Wrong — means of transmission take por, not en.
✅ Te llamo por teléfono luego.
I'll call you on the phone later.
❌ Lo vimos en la tele anoche.
Latin American — in peninsular Spanish, the natural choice is por la tele.
✅ Lo vimos por la tele anoche.
We saw it on the TV last night.
❌ La luz entra a la ventana.
Wrong — through an opening takes por (path), not a (destination).
✅ La luz entra por la ventana.
The light comes in through the window.
❌ Mi primo vive en aquí cerca.
Wrong — for diffuse, vague location, use por aquí; en aquí is ungrammatical.
✅ Mi primo vive por aquí cerca.
My cousin lives around here.
Key takeaways
- Por marks the path of movement — through, along, around, via. It is not about destination; that's a's job.
- It extends naturally to diffuse location: por aquí, por la zona, por algún sitio.
- It marks means of transmission: por teléfono, por correo, por la tele (peninsular).
- It marks routes and via-points: vamos por la autopista, pasa por Córdoba.
- Pasar por (drop by / pass through), pasar a (move on to), and pasar de (not care about — colloquial peninsular) are three different verbs depending on the preposition.
- The three-way mental image — a = endpoint, por = line through, en = dot inside — handles most A2 movement-and-location decisions.
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Start learning Spanish→Related Topics
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