Para and Por when speaking of why an action happened

Hello, I was reading the reason for using para vs por in the sentence: “Eu espero por ti” because its a subtle way to speak why an action is happening “backwards”.
But I have a flashcard “Ele tem pouca paciência para festas” where i feel like I can apply the same logic. The action that is happening, him having little patience, is happening because of parties. Is there another way I should be looking at this?

Olá, @mehzpez! I would think of “Ele tem pouca paciência para festas” as expressing the purpose of the patience he lacks, rather than the reason. What would he use that patience for? To attend parties.

If you flip the sentence into a more positive version, this purpose vs. reason thing might be more obvious: Ele tem muita paciência para festas. When you put it this way, you’re probably less inclined to think that the parties are the reason why he’s patient. Well, they’re also not the reason why he’s impatient. Any actual reason would be expressed via the preposition por. For example:

  • Ele tem pouca paciência para festas por não gostar de barulho. = He has little patience for parties due to not liking noise.
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