Every Spanish learner drills por vs para — the two words English “for” splits into. Here’s the twist nobody warns you about: sometimes it splits into zero. Some English “for”s simply don’t exist in Spanish, and forcing one in is one of the most common — and most fixable — English-speaker mistakes.
“Ask for,” “look for,” “wait for” — pedir, buscar, and esperar already contain the “for.” The thing you’re asking for, looking for, or waiting for follows the verb directly, with no preposition at all.
1. The big three: pedir, buscar, esperar
This isn’t a rule to compute on the fly — it’s a short list to know, and three verbs cover almost all of it. In each one, the English “for” isn’t really a preposition; it’s part of the verb. You can hear it: “ask for” = request, “look for” = seek, “wait for” = await. The Spanish verb swallows the “for” whole, and the object comes out bare:
2. Forcing it in changes the meaning
Notice what happens if you force a para in anyway — you don’t get a wrong sentence, you get a different one:
3. The duration “for”
“For two hours,” “for years” — this “for” does have Spanish translations, but por isn’t most natives’ first choice. Usually the duration goes bare, with no preposition at all, or takes durante. Por works too — you’ll hear it constantly in Latin America — just don’t stamp it onto every time phrase. All three of these are right, and the first is the most natural:
Use these steps to decide:
1. Ask for, look for, or wait for? → No preposition: pedir, buscar, esperar.
2. A length of time? → Usually bare or durante.
3. Neither? → Choose por or para normally.