2

Reading the blog for the Vuelta a España, I find the entry

Michael Storer (Team DSM) se marcha solo a por la victoria a 3 de meta. 17" sobre Verona y Sivakov y 4 minutos al pelotón.

I know what it means. He took off alone for victory, but why is it a por la victoria and not just por la victoria? I have looked up the entries for both a and por in the DLE, but without finding any example there. I do not think it can be a typo since the heading for that entry was

Storer se marcha a por el triunfo

1 Answer 1

5

RAE has an article about this. It seems that the usage of "a por" is exclusive to Spain, and I can say that it is common there.

In Spain, "a por" after a verb of movement means "to look for", or "to fetch/get", such as

Voy a por agua (I am going to get water).

RAE indicates that there is no reason to consider this usage incorrect, and that it is useful in some cases to avoid ambiguity due to the many meanings of por. The example RAE gives is

Voy a por mi hijo

which unambiguously means "I am going to pick up my son", whereas

Voy por mi hijo

may mean "I am going to pick up my son", but it may also mean "I am going because of my son", or "I am going for my son's sake", or "I am going because my son asked".

0

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.