{"id":11022,"date":"2017-12-20T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T14:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/?p=11022"},"modified":"2017-12-13T10:15:39","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T15:15:39","slug":"a-guide-to-the-spanish-verbs-ser-and-estar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/a-guide-to-the-spanish-verbs-ser-and-estar\/","title":{"rendered":"A Guide to the Spanish Verbs Ser and Estar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re a newbie to Spanish such as I am, one of the most difficult things to grasp is how to use the two verbs meaning &#8220;to be&#8221; &#8211; <em>ser<\/em> and <em>estar<\/em>. Here&#8217;s a guide to the Spanish verbs <em>ser<\/em> and <em>estar<\/em>, with a short introduction, some examples, and links to several more in-depth posts and videos that we&#8217;ve shared over the years.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center\">Introduction<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_11028\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/1-DSC04107.jpg\" aria-label=\"1 DSC04107\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11028\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11028\"  alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/1-DSC04107.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/1-DSC04107.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/1-DSC04107-350x233.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-11028\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cuenca es una ciudad hermosa.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The easiest way to think of the difference between the two is that <em>ser<\/em> is used for more permanent qualities, while <em>estar<\/em> is temporary. Here are some examples of when you use them:<\/p>\n<p><em>Ser<\/em>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>descriptions (name, appearance, nationality)<\/li>\n<li>occupation<\/li>\n<li>time (hour, days, dates, years, etc.)<\/li>\n<li>relationships<\/li>\n<li>possession<\/li>\n<li>origin<\/li>\n<li>characteristics\/personality traits<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Estar<\/em>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>location\/position<\/li>\n<li>emotions\/feelings<\/li>\n<li>present continuous tense<\/li>\n<li>temporary condition<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One great example that my teacher in Mexico told me helps me remember the difference between <em>ser<\/em> and <em>estar<\/em>. He said:<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center\">My wife always tells me&#8230; &#8220;<em>Estoy cansada de ser casada!&#8221;<\/em><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">This means, &#8220;I&#8217;m tired of being married.&#8221; As <em>cansada<\/em> (tired) is a temporary state, you use <em>estar<\/em>. <em>Casada<\/em> (married) is a permanent state, so you use <em>ser<\/em>. This is also a helpful example, because it&#8217;s easy to mix up the words for &#8220;tired&#8221; and &#8220;married,&#8221; which could definitely cause some confusion. Plus, I actually thought his dad joke was pretty funny!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/intermediate-spanish-review-lesson-10-the-differences-between-ser-and-estar\/\">Read more about the differences beteween <em>ser<\/em> and <em>estar <\/em>here<\/a>. Before we continue and get into some examples, it&#8217;s important to master the conjugation of both <em>ser<\/em> and <em>estar<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center\">Conjugation<\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\">Ser<\/h3>\n\n<table id=\"tablepress-2\" class=\"tablepress tablepress-id-2 aligncenter\">\n<tbody>\n<tr class=\"row-1\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">yo soy<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">I am<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-2\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">t\u00fa eres<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">you are (familiar)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-3\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">usted es<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">you are (formal)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-4\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">\u00e9l es<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">he is<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-5\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">ella es<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">she is<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-6\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">nosotros somos<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">we are<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-7\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">ustedes son<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">you are (plural)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-8\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">ellos son<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">they are (masculine)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-9\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">ellas son<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">they are (feminine)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<!-- #tablepress-2 from cache -->\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">*For <em>vosotros<\/em>, you use\u00a0<em>sois<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\">Estar<\/h3>\n\n<table id=\"tablepress-3\" class=\"tablepress tablepress-id-3 aligncenter\">\n<tbody>\n<tr class=\"row-1\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">yo estoy<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">I am<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-2\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">t\u00fa est\u00e1s<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">you are (familiar)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-3\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">usted est\u00e1<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">you are (formal)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-4\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">\u00e9l est\u00e1<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">he is<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-5\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">ella est\u00e1<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">she is<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-6\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">nosotros estamos<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">we are<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-7\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">ustedes est\u00e1n<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">you are (plural)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-8\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">ellos est\u00e1n<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">they are (masculine)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-9\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">ellas est\u00e1n<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">they are (feminine)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<!-- #tablepress-3 from cache -->\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">*For <em>vosotros<\/em>, you use\u00a0<em>est\u00e1is<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You can learn the Spanish pronouns and the conjugations of both verbs &#8220;to be&#8221; in this short video:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Spanish Pronouns and the Verbs &quot;To Be&quot;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cD_g2NRQnf8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center\">Examples<\/h2>\n<p>To help show you when to use each of the Spanish verbs &#8220;to be,&#8221; here&#8217;s a little description of myself and what I&#8217;m doing these days. I&#8217;ll alternate between the verbs <em>ser<\/em> and <em>estar<\/em> to show different conditions.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_11027\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/1-DJI_0330.jpg\" aria-label=\"1 DJI 0330\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11027\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11027\"  alt=\"A Guide to the Spanish Verbs Ser and Estar\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/1-DJI_0330.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/1-DJI_0330.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/1-DJI_0330-350x263.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-11027\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Estoy en Peru.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Hola! Me llamo Sasha. <strong>Soy<\/strong> de Michigan, pero <strong>estoy<\/strong> en Peru ahora. <strong>Soy<\/strong> maestro de ingles. <strong>Estoy<\/strong> trabajando para una compa\u00f1\u00eda en China, pero <strong>soy<\/strong> independiente. <strong>Soy<\/strong> casado y vivo con mi esposa. <strong>Somos<\/strong> felices juntos. <strong>Estamos<\/strong> viajando en Sur America por medio a\u00f1o.<\/p>\n<p>Hello. My name is Sasha. I&#8217;m from Michigan, but I&#8217;m in Peru now. I&#8217;m an English teacher. I&#8217;m working for a company in China, but I&#8217;m independent. I&#8217;m married and I live with my wife. We are happy together. We are traveling in South America for half a year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Here are some more examples in another video you can follow:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ser and Estar - The Spanish Verbs &quot;To Be&quot;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mlNzTIvCqU4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>(Yo) <strong>soy<\/strong> de Estados Unidos.<br \/>\nI\u2019m from the United States.<\/p>\n<p>(T\u00fa) <strong>eres<\/strong> maestro.<br \/>\nYou are a teacher.<\/p>\n<p>Usted <strong>es<\/strong> casada.<br \/>\nYou are married.<\/p>\n<p>\u00c9l <strong>es<\/strong> joven.<br \/>\nHe is young.<\/p>\n<p>Ella <strong>es<\/strong> bonita.<br \/>\nShe is beautiful<\/p>\n<p>Nosotros <strong>somos<\/strong> amigos.<br \/>\nWe are friends.<\/p>\n<p>Ustedes <strong>son<\/strong> estudiantes.<br \/>\nYou are students.<\/p>\n<p>Ellos <strong>son<\/strong> mis vecinos.<br \/>\nThey are my neighbors.<\/p>\n<p>Ellas <strong>son<\/strong> amigas.<br \/>\nThey are friends.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>(Yo) <strong>estoy<\/strong> en la casa.<br \/>\nI\u2019m at the house.<\/p>\n<p>(T\u00fa) <strong>est\u00e1s<\/strong> ocupado.<br \/>\nYou are busy.<\/p>\n<p>Usted <strong>est\u00e1<\/strong> en el banco.<br \/>\nYou are at the bank.<\/p>\n<p>\u00c9l <strong>est\u00e1<\/strong> de vacaciones.<br \/>\nHe is on vacation.<\/p>\n<p>Ella <strong>est\u00e1<\/strong> triste.<br \/>\nShe is sad.<\/p>\n<p>(Nosotros) <strong>estamos<\/strong> felices.<br \/>\nWe are happy.<\/p>\n<p>Ustedes <strong>est\u00e1n<\/strong> en la escuela.<br \/>\nYou are at the school.<\/p>\n<p>Ellos <strong>est\u00e1n<\/strong> enfermos.<br \/>\nThey are sick.<\/p>\n<p>Ellas <strong>est\u00e1n<\/strong> en el cine.<br \/>\nThey are at the cinema.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there are plenty of cases where you can use either <em>ser<\/em> or <em>estar<\/em>, and the meaning changes entirely depending on which verb you use. Just look at this example:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td width=\"50%\">Elena\u00a0<strong>est\u00e1<\/strong>\u00a0aburrida.<\/td>\n<td>Elena is\u00a0<strong>bored<\/strong>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td width=\"50%\">Elena\u00a0<strong>es<\/strong>\u00a0aburrida.<\/td>\n<td>Elena is\u00a0<strong>boring<\/strong>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>As you can see, which verb you use is quite important. You wouldn&#8217;t want to call your friend boring when you&#8217;re just trying to say that she is bored. You can read more examples in these two posts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/ser-vs-estar\/\">Ser vs. Estar<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/ser-vs-estar-ii\/\">Ser vs. Estar II<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center\">More Practice<\/h2>\n<p>By now you&#8217;re probably ready to try using the verbs <em>ser<\/em> and <em>estar<\/em> on your own. That&#8217;s great, because we have several posts and videos you can check out to challenge yourself:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/review-ser-or-estar\/\">Review: Ser or Estar?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/review-ser-or-estar-the-answers\/\">Review: Ser or Estar? (answers)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/beginner-spanish-review-lesson-12-using-ser-and-estar-to-make-descriptions-in-spanish\/\">Beginner: Using Ser and Estar to Make Descriptions<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/beginner-spanish-review-lesson-37-practice-using-spanish-adjectives-with-ser-and-estar\/\">Beginner: Spanish Adjectives with Ser and Estar<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/spanish-adjectives-with-ser-and-estar\/\">Intermediate: Spanish Adjectives with Ser and Estar<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/advanced-spanish-review-lesson-2-expresiones-con-ser-y-estar\/\">Advanced: Expressions with Ser and Estar<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You&#8217;ll also find plenty of videos on our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/TLSpanish\/search?query=ser\">YouTube channel<\/a> that you can follow along with to practice. Many of these are embedded in the posts, so you can always check back to the post to get the text\/answers. With all these resources at your fingertips, you&#8217;re sure to master how to use the Spanish verbs <em>ser<\/em> and <em>estar<\/em> in no time. Make sure you&#8217;re learning a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transparent.com\/word-of-the-day\/today\/spanish.html\">new Spanish word every day<\/a> while you&#8217;re at it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"263\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/1-DJI_0330-350x263.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"A Guide to the Spanish Verbs Ser and Estar\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/1-DJI_0330-350x263.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/1-DJI_0330.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>If you&#8217;re a newbie to Spanish such as I am, one of the most difficult things to grasp is how to use the two verbs meaning &#8220;to be&#8221; &#8211; ser and estar. Here&#8217;s a guide to the Spanish verbs ser and estar, with a short introduction, some examples, and links to several more in-depth posts&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/a-guide-to-the-spanish-verbs-ser-and-estar\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":11027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6,13],"tags":[472580,472579,472709,472708,472706,472737,472707,472736],"class_list":["post-11022","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","category-vocabulary","tag-beginner-spanish","tag-easy-spanish","tag-spanish-verb-estar","tag-spanish-verb-ser","tag-spanish-verbs-to-be","tag-spanish-video","tag-verb-to-be-in-spanish","tag-verbs-to-be-in-spanish"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11022"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11035,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11022\/revisions\/11035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}