Quote:
Originally Posted by hola
don't you think that whether or not somebody is polite is a changeable condition?
a person can be polite now and rude later
a person could have been polite 2yrs ago but is now rude
would you be able to explain this?
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You're right, someone can be rude today and polite tomorrow. The fact that you should use
ser cortés hinges on the fact that being rude or being polite to a native Spanish speaker is a
way of being -- even if it changes from day to day or hour to hour -- rather than a temporary condition, and thus must use
ser. That is why it's dangerous to think of ser and estar as meaning permanent and temporary.
It's same with telling time. You use
ser.
Son las dos de la tarde. But after one second goes by, it's 2:00:01 and it's no longer
las dos de la tarde. What is going on? At the moment you say the time, that's what time it is. It's an intrinsic, immutable charactaristic of that moment in time.
Instead of permanent and temporary, think of this:
ser = intrinsic, definitive, charactaristic stuff - what you "are" (even if that can change)
estar = descriptive, subjective, exterior stuff - your current condition (even if that will continue forever)