Questions about "porqué" in Spanish I learned about "porqué" from my Spanish class the other day. As far as I know, "porqué" is only used as a noun, meaning "the reason" or "the cause", as in: Example A: No entiendo todo el porqué de vuestro comportamiento. (I don't understand the motive behind your behavior.) However, my Spanish teacher also offered an example using "porqué" similar to the one below: Example B: Ella está investigando porqué Pedro no está aquí. (Intended: She's trying to find out why Pedro is not here.) And he insisted that it is "porqué" that should be used, rather than "por qué". I was (and still am) very surprised by "porqué" being used as a kind of subordinator that's followed by a clause, like "whether" and "that" in English. My question is two-fold: 1. Is it correct to use "porqué" to introduce a clause as used in Example B? Is it OK to replace it with "por qué"? 2. My Spanish teacher is a Spanish and Catalan bilingual from Barcelona. I was wondering if the usage in Example B is acceptable to Spanish natives of other areas/varieties.