Estar a punto de vs. Estar por

DenanerC1Kwiziq community member

Estar a punto de vs. Estar por

I was doing a writing exercise, and I put "estar por" instead of "estar a punto de" and I was corrected and "estar por" wasn't shown as an option. I'm wondering why since I have heard and used this expression frequently. 

The phrase that has to be translated was, "He was about to go out the door when..."

Asked 1 year ago
InmaKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Hola Denaner 

As David said, it is possible to use estar por but it's not that commonly used in Spain - in Spain we'd use it but with an extra nuance generally. Here is a lesson about that topic:

Using Estar por + infinitive to express feeling tempted/having the intention to do something (perífrasis verbal)

If you tell me which writing challenge you were doing when coming across that sentence, we can then have a closer look and we may need to add that extra option. 

Saludos

Inma

DavidC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

My [Oxford] dictionary implies that it might be more common in Latin America > when it gives the example: "Junto estábamos por empezar a comer".

Estar a punto de vs. Estar por

I was doing a writing exercise, and I put "estar por" instead of "estar a punto de" and I was corrected and "estar por" wasn't shown as an option. I'm wondering why since I have heard and used this expression frequently. 

The phrase that has to be translated was, "He was about to go out the door when..."

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