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Going places

Depending on the duration / permanence of the journey you have two prepositions available. It is hard to decide when to use each one as the temporaryness and permanence of the journey is subjective.

Preposition - a​

The a preposition is used for temporary journeys.

  • going to your house to pick up a book and then come back later can be considered temporary, but going to your house for the night and coming back to school tomorrow can be considered permanent.
  • going on holiday to Spain for a week can be considered temporary, but going to Spain to live for 3 months can be considered permanent.

Preposition - para​

The para preposition is used for permanent journeys.

tip

I remember the difference because a is a short preposition (one letter) and para is a long preposition (4 letters). a = short journey and para = long journey.