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Old December 19, 2011, 08:26 PM
pacomartin123 pacomartin123 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomisimo View Post
A quick comparison between Ser and Estar
Disclaimer: This is basically off the top of my head so some things could be missing. If you see something that should be here and it's not, please post it. In any case, it's a good start for learning when to use ser and when to use estar.

Ser is used for:
  • Professions - Soy carpintero - I'm a carpenter
  • Permanent conditions - La ciudad es muy sucia - The city is really dirty (A fact of life, unlikely to change)
  • Permanent characteristics - Soy bajita - I'm short; El martillo es pesado - The hammer is heavy
  • Definitive characteristics even if they're not permanent - El es nuevo aquí. - He's new around here.
  • Where someone is from - Soy de España - I'm from Spain
  • Telling time - Son las 3 de la tarde - It's 3 PM
  • Saying what the date is - Es el tres de octubre - It's October 3rd
  • Saying what day of the week it is - Es lunes - It's Monday
  • Nationalities - Ella es francesa - She's French
  • Possesion - La cámara es de Miguel - The camera is Michael's
  • What something is made of - La pared es de ladrillo - The wall is made of/from brick
  • Religion - Es católica - She's Catholic
  • Size & Length - El palo es largo - The stick is long; El bolígrafo es pequño - the pen is small
  • Colors - Las rosas son rojas - Roses are red
  • To specify one of several object don't confuse this with the location criteria below - ¿Cuál es la casa de Juan? Es la casa de la esquina. - Which house is Juan's? It's the house on the corner.

Estar is used for:
  • Changeable conditions - La calle está sucia - The street's really dirty (It just rained and there's mud everywhere, not a permanent condition)
  • Changeable characteristics - Está enojado - He's angry
  • Location/position of people/things Even if it's something permanent - Está en la recámara - It's in the bedroom; Londres está en Inglaterra - London is in England
  • Temporary state of something - La luz está prendida - The light is on; La puerta está abierta - The door's open
  • Used to form the "-ing" form of verbs - Estoy caminando - I'm walking

You can use either ser or estar for certain things, both are correct, but have different meanings:
There are many more examples of this. As I think of them, I'll try to add them.

Juan es aburrido - Juan is boring
Juan está aburrido - Juan is bored

María es nerviosa - Mary is a nervous person
María está nerviosa - Mary is nervous (right now, but not always)

El mango es bueno - Mangoes are good
El mango está bueno - This mango tastes good or The mango is good (as in not rotten or spoiled)

Es buena - She's a good person
Está buena - She's hot
Tomasimo,
The English verb "to be" is by far the most commonly used verb (roughly 1 in 4 times when we say a verb it is a conjugation of "to be") and also by far the most irregular verb in the language with multiple forms. Despite it's simplicity it is a mash up of several different Anglo Saxon verbs. In vernacular forms of English it has multiple variations that different from standard English "We be nice when we’re trying to impress the teacher."

What always helped me was to realize that the Spanish verb ser is related to the same concept linguistically as the English word essence. The correlation goes way back before Latin to Proto Indo European.

The Spanish verb estar is related to the Proto Indo European root sta from which we get the English words "status","station", and "state".

The "case by case" description of when to use estar and ser outlines in your post, can all be seen to fundamentally relate to the concept of "essential" or to "status".

There are some advantages to thinking about the verbs this way, instead of the classic "ser" is for permanent things, and "estar" is for temporary things. For instance the English sentence "My grandfather is dead", is difficult to translate for many students. The reasoning is that death would appear to be a permanent, so students believe they should use "ser".

But if you think about it using the other cognates, you see that you don't want to say "My grandfather is essentially death". What you want to say is "The status of my grandfather is dead".

"Mi abuela esta muerte" is the correct translation. The choice of verb has nothing to do with the temporary or permanence of death.
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