Learn Spanish (Latin America): Termina la venta para el mediodía, por favor.

Termina la venta para el mediodía, por favor.

Finish the sale by noon, please.

Breakdown of Termina la venta para el mediodía, por favor.

Questions & Answers about Termina la venta para el mediodía, por favor.

Why is para used here to mean "by"?

In Spanish, para is used to indicate a deadline or a specific target time in the future. When used this way, it usually translates to "by" or "for" in English. If you used por instead, it would change the meaning to finishing the sale "around" noon rather than setting it as a strict deadline.

Is termina in the present tense here?

It looks exactly like the present tense for he/she/it, but here it is an informal command telling someone directly to do something. For most verbs, the informal tú command is identical to the regular él/ella present tense form. The phrase por favor is a big hint that this is a direct request!

Why do we need the article el in para el mediodía?

While English just says "by noon", Spanish almost always requires a definite article (like el or la) with times of day and days of the week. Mediodía literally means "mid day" and is a masculine noun, so it takes el.

How would I say "finish selling" instead of "finish the sale"?

To tell someone to finish doing an action, you use termina de followed by the infinitive of the verb. So, "finish selling" would be termina de vender. In our sentence, la venta is a noun (the sale), so we don't need the preposition de.