When you say "forever" in Spanish, is there a difference between "por siempre" and "para siempre"?
Hola~

I have studied Spanish for several years and although I no longer actively study it on a daily basis, I still speak and hear it every week day at work with my clients and colleagues so I am more or less familiar with when I should use por vs. para.

However, I'm not so sure about the word "forever"... I think I actually have heard both "por siempre" and "para siempre" but are they exactly the same or are they different? Please explain.

Thank you.

Question

When you say "forever" in Spanish, is there a difference between "por siempre" and "para siempre"?
Hola~

I have studied Spanish for several years and although I no longer actively study it on a daily basis, I still speak and hear it every week day at work with my clients and colleagues so I am more or less familiar with when I should use por vs. para.

However, I'm not so sure about the word "forever"... I think I actually have heard both "por siempre" and "para siempre" but are they exactly the same or are they different? Please explain.

Thank you.

Answer

Hi Taylor!

I am a native Spanish and English speaker and although your question was challenging I have an answer. In English we have forever and always, but in Spanish unfortunately we use the same word for both, which is Siempre. The por and para change its meaning depending on the context. Also, the por and the para situate the siempre at a point in time. Almost like we have a forever that means past, present and future and a forever that has to do with the future only. Let me explain:

Honestly, the difference is slight and i think i truly just takes years of practice to truly be natural using both expressions. however, as Shadia mentioned above, the difference lies in the context, more specifically the time. So first, for Por Siempre, we use it to express something that concerns the past, present and future. For example, "Sera así por siempre".  Whereas Para Siempre involves something for the future, by that I mean that a forever set in the future. For example, "Piensas vivir allí para siempre?".

Let me go back to my two examples. The first one translates to "It will forever be like that" , here the forever is set in the past, present and likely in the future almost like it could be perpetual. The second example translates to "Do you plan on living there forever?", the forever implies a potential future action, so it could be both a definite or indefinite time. This link from the RAE explains it http://dle.rae.es/srv/fetch?id=XpgXJJL.

I hope it wasn't too confusing!

Answer

Ambos suelen usarse de forma indistinta, sin embargo en esto radica la diferencia:
por siempre: en cualquier momento del tiempo a partir del cual se expresa, es decir, abarca desde el pasado, presente y se extiende al futuro. Algo que ha venido pasando hasta el momento y que seguirá pasando. Ejemplo: 'te he querido por siempre' aquí claramente se expresa un sentimiento que viene sintiendo desde antes y que continua en el presente con miras al futuro.
para siempre: desde el momento en que se expresa en adelante, es decir, de aquí en adelante, solo con miras al futuro.  Ejemplo: 'seremos amigas para siempre' ahí se establece el hecho presente de la amistad, pero no denota que lo hayan sido en el pasado, simplemente que lo serán de ahora en adelante.

saludos :)

Answer

"por siempre" is a little bit informal than "para siempre" those are used in different cases.