PARA (destination or purpose): to - for - in order to

  A. PARA (destination or purpose):


fuente :  http://www.bowdoin.edu/~eyepes/newgr/ats/43.htm#

1. Direction toward a destination or goal:

Salgo mañana para Madrid. Vamos para la oficina.

I am leaving tomorrow for Madrid. We're going to the office.

2. Purpose, use, goal or destination toward a recipient:

taza para café coffee cup Había espacio para todos. Estudié medicina para ayudar. Practican para mejorar. Compró estos libros para ti. Trabaja para la OTAN.

llantas para la nieve snowtires There was room for everybody. I studied medicine in order to help. They practice to improve. He bought these books for you. She works for NATO.

3. Time limit or deadline:

Hay que hacerlo para el lunes.

It needs to be done by/for Monday.

4. Comparison against the normal expectation:

Tiene una gran población para un país tan pequeño. It has a large population for such a small country.

Para ser extranjero, habla muy bien el idioma. For a foreigner, he speaks the language very well.

5. Opinion: "To me..."

Para mí, la política es interesante. La vida es valiosa para cualquiera.

To me, politics is interesting. Life is valuable to anyone.

 Use para in Spanish whenever you could use "in order to" in English. For example:

(in order) To improve, people have to do this. I do it (in order) to have fun. I do it to improve. BUT: It's not easy to improve this. (you couldn’t insert “in order to” here)

Para mejorar, hay que hacer esto. Lo hago para divertirme. Lo hago para mejorar. No es fácil mejorar esto.