Blog · · 6 min de lectura6 min read
Ser and estar: two verbs for one English "be"
English has one "to be"; Spanish has ser and estar, and sometimes hay, tener or hacer. How to choose, and why "permanent vs temporary" fails.
Learn, Speak, Repeat!
"I am a teacher." "I am tired." "I am at home." "I am thirty." "There is a bank on the corner." English does all of this with one verb. Spanish splits it: some of these take ser, some take estar, and some take neither. The choice changes the meaning, so you can't treat them as two spellings of one verb. The good news is that one clear distinction sits behind most of it, and English already knows a piece of it.
The one-line rule
Ser says what something is: identity, nature, origin, job, material, owner, the time and the date. Estar says where it is and how it is: location, a state, the result of a change, an action in progress.
ser: what it is
| Spanish | literal English |
|---|---|
| Soy profesor. | "(I) am teacher." |
| Lucía es mexicana y Tom es irlandés. | "Lucía is Mexican and Tom is Irish." |
| María es alta. | "María is tall." |
| La mesa es de madera. | "The table is of wood." |
| El coche es de mi hermano. | "The car is of my brother." (= my brother's) |
| Hoy es lunes. | "Today is Monday." |
| Es la una. Son las tres. | "(It) is the one. (They) are the three." (= it's one, it's three) |
This is the first verb the course gives you, in ser and tener for who you are.
estar: where and how it is
| Spanish | literal English |
|---|---|
| Estoy en casa. | "(I) am at home." |
| Estoy cansado. | "(I) am tired." |
| La sopa está fría. | "The soup is cold." |
| Ya estamos listos. | "Already (we) are ready." |
| Está lloviendo. | "(It) is raining." |
| ¿Cómo estás? | "How (you) are?" |
Why "permanent vs temporary" lets you down
Many textbooks teach ser for permanent things and estar for temporary ones. It works often enough to be tempting, and fails often enough to cause real mistakes:
- Location is always estar, however permanent: Madrid está en España ["Madrid is in Spain"]. Madrid isn't going anywhere, but it is located there.
- Es joven ["(He) is young"]: youth passes, still ser. Está muerto ["(He) is dead"]: nothing is more permanent, still estar, because it is a state that came from a change.
- Events are the exception to location. Where something takes place is ser: La fiesta es en mi casa ["The party is in my house"], but Las llaves están en mi casa ["The keys are in my house"].
So ask a better question: is this what the thing is, or the state and place it's in?
Hints English already gives you
- "What is X like?" vs "How is X?" English makes the same split. ¿Cómo es tu jefe? ["How is your boss?" (= what is he like?)], Es serio y justo ["(He) is serious and fair"]. ¿Cómo está tu jefe? ["How is your boss?" (= how is he doing?)], Está bien ["(He) is well"].
- "be + -ing" is estar + gerund, for what is happening now: Estoy trabajando ["(I) am working"]. Only for now, though: English "I'm leaving tomorrow" is a plan, and Spanish uses the present: Me voy mañana ["Myself (I) go tomorrow"], not estoy yéndome.
- Adjectives for what happened to someone, often "-ed" words in English (tired, worried, broken, closed), go with estar: Estoy preocupada ["(I) am worried"], La ventana está rota ["The window is broken"].
Where English "be" is neither
Three everyday cases where English uses "be" and Spanish uses another verb:
- "There is / there are" is hay: Hay un banco en la plaza ["There-is a bank in the square"]. Once the thing is known, it's estar: El banco está en la plaza ["The bank is in the square"]. Hay introduces something new, está places something you already mean; the course gives this its own point, hay and está.
- Age, hunger, cold and fear take tener: Tengo treinta años ["(I) have thirty years" (= I'm thirty)], Tengo hambre ["(I) have hunger"], Tengo frío ["(I) have cold"], Tengo miedo ["(I) have fear"].
- Weather often takes hacer: Hace frío ["(It) makes cold" (= it's cold)], Hace sol ["(It) makes sun"]. But Está nublado ["(It) is cloudy"]: a state, so estar.
One adjective, two meanings
The best proof that these are two verbs: with the same adjective they say different things.
| adjective | with ser | with estar |
|---|---|---|
| aburrido | boring | bored |
| listo | clever | ready |
| rico | rich | tasty |
| verde | green | unripe |
| malo | bad (a person) | ill; gone off (food) |
- Juan es aburrido ["Juan is boring"]; Juan está aburrido ["Juan is bored"].
- Su familia es rica ["His family is rich"]; La tarta está muy rica ["The cake is very tasty"].
- La manzana es verde ["The apple is green"]; La manzana está verde ["The apple is green" (= not ripe yet)].
- El pescado está malo ["The fish is bad" (= it has gone off)]. In Spain, Hoy estoy malo ["Today (I) am bad"] means "I'm ill today".
The course comes back to this at B1, with adjectives that change their meaning.
What to do with it
A table gives you the rule; the choice has to become a reflex, and a reflex only forms when you build the sentence yourself and pick the verb in the moment. In the course ser and estar appear in the first chapters and meet head to head in chapter A2-05, Comparar y elegir ["To-compare and to-choose"], on the A2 page: es caro ["(it) is expensive"] or hoy está más barato ["today (it) is more cheap"], ¿cómo es? or ¿cómo está? That chapter is where the contrast gets practised, not where you're done with it: you'll still catch yourself hesitating long after the rule is clear.
Two verbs for one "be" is one of the real novelties at the start, along with gender and articles. How they fit into the whole road is in Spanish for English speakers: where to start.