The four spellings in one chart
Two of the four do almost all the work. Por qué is the question word qué after the preposition por, so it asks why — and keeps its accent whether the question stands alone or sits inside a longer sentence. Porque is one unstressed word that means because. The other two are rarer: porqué, one word with an accent, is a noun — the reason — and normally comes with el or los; por que, two words with no accent, is por followed by the relative que (for which) or by que after a verb, noun or adjective that takes por.
Say them aloud and the main pair is already apart: in por qué the qué is stressed, the way every question word is; porque carries no such stress.
| Spelling | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| por qué | why — a question, direct or inside a sentence | ¿Por qué estudias español? No sé por qué. |
| porque | because — gives the cause | Porque quiero vivir en México. |
| porqué | the reason — a noun, with el or los | Nadie entiende el porqué. |
| por que | for which — or por + that, after a word that takes por | La razón por que te llamé. |
Por qué: asking why
Por qué opens a question about the cause — ¿Por qué no me llamaste? — and it does the same inside a longer sentence: no sé por qué, dime por qué, nunca supe por qué no vino. The accent stays, because a reported question is still a question.
In the negative it often stops asking and starts suggesting: ¿por qué no bajamos a cenar? means why don't we go down to dinner. And por qué is not always why: before a noun, qué means which, so ¿por qué puerta sale? asks which door he goes out by. One thing to avoid is el in front of a reported question — no tengo idea del por qué está enfadado. The academies prefer de por qué está enfadado, or the noun with a complement: del porqué de su enfado.
Porque: because
Porque — one word, no accent — introduces the cause of what the rest of the sentence says: me quedé en casa porque llovía; se fue porque ya no se sentía en casa. It answers a por qué, and it can open the answer on its own: ¿Por qué estudias español? — Porque quiero vivir en México.
With the subjunctive it can set a cause aside instead of giving one: no podemos dejar de vivir porque haya guerra — we cannot stop living just because there is a war. An older use, porque with the subjunctive meaning para que (so that), is fading, and a learner can leave it to old novels.
Porqué: the reason, as a noun
Porqué is a masculine noun meaning cause or reason, written as one word with an accent, and it nearly always has el, los, un or another determiner in front: no vas a salir sin explicarme el porqué de esos insultos. It has a plural, porqués — seguía buscando un porqué, pero esos porqués no me devolvieron nada — and it can also name a why-question itself: eran porqués sin respuesta. The quick test: if el motivo or la razón would fit in its place, it is porqué.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| el porqué de su decisión | the reason for her decision |
| sin saber el porqué | without knowing why |
| buscar un porqué | to look for a reason |
| los porqués de la historia | the whys and wherefores of the story |
Por que: the rare fourth
Por que — two words, no accent — is por followed by que, and it turns up in two places. The first is por plus the relative que, where you could also say por el que, por la que or por el cual: la razón por que te llamé is la razón por la que te llamé. Everyday Spanish usually says por la que, and that is the safer one to use.
The second is a verb, noun or adjective that takes por — apostar por, preocuparse por, el interés por — followed by a clause with que: apostaría por que ganan ellos, I would bet on them winning. When that clause has its verb in the subjunctive and a sense of purpose — rogar por que cambie de opinión, to pray that she changes her mind — the academies accept porque as well, so either spelling is right there.
Four quick tests
Ask them in that order and the first yes wins. Most sentences stop at the first or second question: a learner who writes por qué in every question and porque in every answer is right nearly all the time.
| Ask yourself | If yes |
|---|---|
| Is it a question, even one reported inside a sentence? | por qué |
| Could you say because? | porque |
| Is there el, los or un in front — could la razón go there? | porqué |
| Could you say por el que or por la que instead? | por que |
Why do English speakers mix them up?
Because English keeps why and because apart with different words and Spanish keeps them apart with a space and an accent. The slips run both ways: ¿porque? in a question, porque in a reported question (no sé porque), and — once the accent is learned — por qué in an answer that only meant because. The quiz on this page is built from those three, plus the noun and the rare por que.
There is no first-party error rate on this page yet: our mistake tagger counts ser vs estar, por vs para, the tenses and the object pronouns, not spelling. When it does, the number will sit here. Until then the quiz is the measure.
What comes after porque and por qué?
Spanish accent marks has the rules behind every accent on this page — the question words, the three stress rules and the pairs like tú and tu. Qué vs cuál is the other accent question English speakers meet — ¿qué es? asks what something is, ¿cuál es? picks one answer — and que vs lo que is the unaccented que's own puzzle. Por vs para is the preposition inside por qué, and the usual next wall. Pero vs sino has the same one-word-or-two trap: sino or si no. Ya vs todavía has one more accent that changes the word: aún is still, aun is even. The free Spanish level test places you on the A1–C2 scale in five minutes; A2 vs B1 Spanish says what changes after the first levels.