porque

Porque is a word used in two Romance languages, Spanish and Portuguese, with related but distinct spellings and functions. In both languages it often serves as a conjunction meaning “because,” but its other forms distinguish questions, explanations, and nouns.

In Spanish, because is written as porque when introducing a causal clause: No pude ir al juego porque estaba cansado. There are two related forms used in other grammatical situations: por qué (two words, with an accent) means “why” in questions or exclamations, as in Por qué no vino? and por qué as a phrase meaning “the reason why.” The noun form el porqué (often written with a definite article) means “the reason.” A rarely used variant, porqué, is a noun without the article, encountered in formal writing.

In Portuguese, porque also means “because” as a conjunction: Não fui à festa porque estava ocupado. Distinct from that usage, por que (two words) means “why” in questions, whereas por quê (two words with an acute on é) appears at the end of a sentence or before punctuation. Porquê (one word with acute on the e) is a noun meaning “the reason” or “the cause.”

Etymology generally links porque to combinations of por (for, by) and que (that/what), with parallel development in both languages from Latin phrases expressing cause or reason.

See also porqué, por que, and por quê for the varied orthographies and grammatical functions in Spanish and Portuguese.