"Avoid" means to keep away from a person or thing. Here are some examples:
avoid: evitar; to keep away from: mantenerse alejado/a de;
After we had that fight, my sister has been avoiding me.
Después de esa pelea, mi hermana me ha estado evitando.
Pizza makes my stomach hurt, so I avoid eating it.
La pizza hace que me duela el estómago, así que evito comerla.
Note that in these examples, the word that comes after “avoid" can be a noun or a gerund (the -ing form of a verb).
gerund: gerundio "ando" o "endo" (terminación ING de los verbos);
PREVENT
Now, consider the word “prevent”. It means to take some action to stop something from happening. It can be used in a simple way with a noun. So, going back to our previous example:
prevent: prevenir, impedir; it means: significa, expresa;
To prevent stomach problems, I do not eat pizza.
Para prevenir problemas estomacales, no como pizza.
In this sentence, several nouns follow the word “prevent”. The meaning is clearly to stop something. You can also use “prevent” in a more complex sentence with an object followed by a verb.
clearly: claramente; more complex sentence: oración más compleja;
This gives us a more detailed idea of stopping someone from doing something. In fact, you will often find the word “from” in sentences with “prevent”:
this gives us: esto nos da; in fact: en realidad;
The city wants to prevent drivers from speeding on that road, so they added some speed bumps.
La ciudad quiere evitar que los conductores aceleren en esa carretera, por lo que agregaron algunos topes de velocidad ("lomos de burro" en Argentina).
In this example, drivers cannot go too fast because the city placed some raised areas, speed bumps, on the road, forcing cars to slow down.
drivers: los conductores; cannot go too fast: no pueden conducir demasiado rápido; raised areas: zonas elevadas; speed bumps: topes de velocidad; to slow down: reducir la marcha, bajar la velocidad;
So, Sergio, if you are trying to decide between AVOID and PREVENT, think about this difference. AVOID is just staying away from something you do not like or want. PREVENT is to take an action that keeps someone from doing something or keeps something from happening.
to take an action: tomar medidas
