What's the difference between porque, por qué, and por que?
Last updated: October 9, 2025
If you’ve ever stared at porque, por qué, porqué, and por que, wondering if Spanish is gaslighting you: welcome to the club. These near-identical word combos look like a Spanish copy-paste mistake, but they each mean something different.
Let’s clear up the chaos once and for all.
- Porque – The Spanish word for "because"
- Por qué – asking “why?”
- Por que – less common, but important
- Porqué – the noun form to give reasons in Spanish
- [Cheatsheet] Quick tips to remember which porque is which
- [Test yourself] Porque vs porqué vs por qué vs por que
- [Video example] One por qué you should never forget
Porque – The Spanish word for "because"
Porque is the easiest one of the bunch. It simply means “because.” You use it when you want to explain why something happens—exactly as you do with English's "because". It's your go-to word for giving reasons. Don't overthink it.
Examples:
- No fui a la escuela porque estaba enferma.
I didn’t go to school because I was sick. - Ella estudia mucho porque quiere sacar buenas notas.
She studies a lot because she wants to get good grades. - Compré este libro porque me lo recomendó mi amigo.
I bought this book because my friend recommended it to me.
💡 Insight 💡
If you’re ever answering a “why” question in Spanish, porque is almost always what you need.
Por qué – asking “why?”
Por qué is what you use when you want to ask a question about a reason. It's Spanish's word for "why". Whenever you want someone to explain something, this is the world you'll use.
While por qué and porque look similar, they sound different:
- Porque
- Por qué
Examples:
- ¿Por qué no viniste a la fiesta?
Why didn’t you come to the party? - ¿Por qué estudias español?
Why do you study Spanish? - Me pregunto por qué ella está triste.
I wonder why she is sad.
Use por qué whenever you’re asking a question (direct or indirect) about the reason something happens. Don’t mix it up with porque: one asks, the other answers.
📝 Quick note 📝
In Spanish, questions always start with an inverted question mark (¿).
Por que – less common, but important
Por que is the trickiest of the bunch. It’s written as two separate words, like por qué but without the accent. While it doesn’t appear as often as the previous two words, it’s still important.
It might be helpful to separate "por que" from the rest of the porkies and instead think of it as existing in contrast to "para que".
Por vs para is a big topic in Spanish, but whereas both of these expressions could reasonably be translated to "so that":
- "Por que" is used to show the motivation behind an action—if you look at the three examples in usage 1, you'll notice that each "por que" is followed by whatever it is that is motivating the subjects of the sentence to take the actions they took
- "Para que" is used to show the purpose or goal of an action—the point is not what inspired you to do something, but what you will accomplish by doing something
Usage 1
You’ll see por que after verbs that (a) express wanting, fighting, or a question, (b) when the second clause describes something people want to happen.
Examples:
- Luchó por que sus ideas fueran escuchadas.
He fought so that his ideas would be heard. - Trabajamos por que el proyecto salga bien.
We’re working so that the project turns out well. - Se esforzó por que todos se sintieran incluidos.
She made an effort for everyone to feel included.
Usage 2
Then, you'll also see it used to introduce relative clauses (descriptions that add information to nouns, such as "that was very interesting" in (I read a book that was very interesting").
Here, por que means something like “for which / that”, and in modern standard Spanish,you'll usually see an article between por and que: la razón por la que / el motivo por el que / por lo que.
Examples:
- No entiendo la razón por la que cancelaron la reunión.
I don’t understand the reason why they canceled the meeting. - No sabemos el motivo por el que se retrasó el tren.
We don’t know the reason for which the train was delayed.
⚠️ Notice ⚠️
Por que (for which) is not interchangeable with porque (because) . They look very similar, but mean very different things.
Porqué – the noun form to give reasons in Spanish
This one’s sneaky. Porqué (written together, with an accent) is actually a noun that means “the reason.”
This one's also somewhat unique. Whereas the other "pour kays" are all intangible grammatical constructs, this one is a thing you can point at and talk about. You can basically see this as being a slightly emphatic way to say "the reason".
- No entiendo el porqué de su decisión.
I don’t understand the reason for his decision. - Nadie sabe el porqué de su enojo.
No one knows the reason for his anger. - Explícame el porqué de este cambio.
Explain to me the reason for this change.
💡 Insight 💡
Whereas the other words can stand alone in sentences, this one never appears alone. It will always be "el porqué", never just "porqué"
[Cheatsheet] Quick tips to remember which porque is which
All these ‘porkies’ making your head spin? Let’s simplify things a bit:
Word |
Key Features / Tip |
Example Sentence |
Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
Por qué |
Yes space, yes accent. It asks a question. |
¿Por qué estás triste? |
Why are you sad? |
Porque |
No space, no accent. It answers a question. |
Estoy triste porque llueve. |
I’m sad because it’s raining. |
Porqué |
No space, yes accent. It’s a noun meaning “the reason.” |
No entiendo el porqué. |
I don’t understand the reason. |
Por que |
Yes space, no accent. Rare combo. Can mean “for which” or appear in "fighting for" sentences. |
Luchó por que lo escucharan. |
He fought for them to listen to him. |
Quick check list:
- If asking, say por qué.
- If answering, say porque.
- If literally stating the reason, use el porqué.
- When you've got the other ones down, learn to use por que.
[Test yourself] Porque vs porqué vs por qué vs por que
Now it’s time to test yourself! Fill in the blanks with the correct word: porque, por qué, por que, or porqué. Once you're done, click "explanation of answer" to see both the answer and why the answer is right.
- No fui a la playa ______ estaba lloviendo.
I didn’t go to the beach because it was raining.
Porque is the right choice because the sentence provides a reason. It explains why something happened.
Note that you could also remove porque and turn this into two separate sentences:
- No fui a la playa. Estaba lloviendo.
I didn't go to the beach. It was raining.
Just as we do in English, porque enables us to connect these two sentences in Spanish and show that there is a causal relationship between them.
↓ ↓ ↓
- ¿______ llegaste tarde a clase?
Why did you arrive late to class?
Por qué is the correct choice because the sentence asks a question. If you remove "por qué" and the question mark, this would simply be a statement: you arrived late to class. However, our goal here is not to state that you were late to class, but to ask why you were late—and that's the job of por qué.
Remember the space and accent!
↓ ↓ ↓
- No entiendo el ______ de su enojo.
I don’t understand the reason for his anger.
Porqué is the correct choice because the sentence names a reason. You can replace it with “the reason” in English.
Note that we could also phrase this idea in two ways in English:
- I don't understand the reason behind his anger
- I don't understand why he's angry.
Both work in Spanish, too. The nuance is just slightly different, and the sentence structure called for is slightly different. Here, because we see an article (el/la/los/las) before the blank and a noun (not a verb!) after it, we know it's looking for porqué.
↓ ↓ ↓
- Luchamos ______ nuestras ideas fueran escuchadas.
We fought so that our ideas would be heard.
It might be easier to approach this one by process of elimination.
- We aren't saying "because", so it isn't porque
- This isn't a question, so it isn't por qué
- Given there the blank is in the sentence, it doesn't work to insert "the reason", so it isn't el porqué
- That leaves por que, and it makes sense with what we talked about above: the words that come after "por que" show the motivation behind why we're fighting
[Video example] One por qué you should never forget
Imagine:
You’re head first into a telenovela drama (the kind Netflix wishes it had), and someone cries out:
- ¿Por qué esos hombres estaban en mi casa?
Why were those men in my house?
... but because they're furious, their voice isn't clear, and you can't make it out. Not to mention the fact that they're speaking about a million miles per hour.
With Migaku, that's not a problem:
You see the subtitles on the screen in two languages—and we'll generate them, if there none exist—and you can click on words you don't know to see what they mean or to get help breaking down difficult sentences.
And in about half a second you're back to your guilty pleasure, spared of the embarrassment of having to make a post on Reddit about so my friend is watching this telenovela, but they don't understand why they said "por que" in this sentence.. they asked me, but I don't know, either..."
Your secret is safe with us. We won't tell anyone you are a telenovela appreciater. We will just quietly applaud you, because it's precisely due to real-world interactions with Spanish that you're actually going to learn something.
Now you know el porqué behind porque vs. por qué
Now that you’ve untangled these tricky little words, you can finally stop hesitating every time you write or speak in Spanish.
In parting, on the off chance you haven't heard it yet, here's The Golden Rule of Language Learning™:
If you consume media you enjoy in Spanish, and you understand some of the messages and sentences within that media, you will make progress. Period.
Good luck putting all this into practice! May your porques, por qués, porqués, and por ques always fall into the right place.
¡Hasta pronto!