Using Ser and Estar
"Ser or Estar? That's the question."
"To be, or not to be?" was Hamlet's perplexing question. The Spanish student must grapple with a
similar one: "Which 'to be' to use?"
The are several instances in Spanish where one English word (or tense) can be translated two
different ways in Spanish (Por and Para, The Imperfect Tense and the Preterite
Tense, Ser and Estar) and the decision you make can have an impact on the meaning of the
sentence. Translating from Spanish to English is not a problem because both "ser" and "estar" both
become a form of "to be." Translating from English to Spanish on the other hand is much more
difficult because a decision needs to be made on which of the two words to use.
Before we get too much further, let's take a quick look at the (present tense) conjugations of both
verbs:
ser:
estar:
soy
somos
estoy
estamos
eres
sois
estás
estáis
es
son
está
están
"Ser" is completely irregular, and "estar" has an irregular "yo" form along with accented endings in all
but the "nosotros" and "vosotros" forms.
The Easy Way
So how do we decide which verb to use? Here's a simple way to look at things:
Estar
An easy way to think about the verb "estar" is to use it to describe temporary conditions and
locations. Conditions can be mental, emotional, or physical states of people, animals, and objects.
Locations are quite simply where something or someone is.
Pepe y Pablo están en mi dormitorio.
Emilia está enferma.
Note: A little rhyme will help you to remember this rule: To say how you feel and where you are,
you should use the verb "estar."
"Pepe and Pablo are in my room." This sentence describes someone's location so están (not son) is
used. "Emilia is sick." This sentence is talking about Emilia's physical condition so está (not es) is
used.
In both of these situations the condition mentioned is temporary. Presumably Pepe and Pablo won't
always be in my room; hopefully Emilia won't always be sick.
On the other hand...
Ser
Since estar deals with temporary conditions, that leaves ser as the verb to use for more permanent
situations. Generally speaking, ser is used when dealing with "inherent characteristics." That's a
fancy way of saying things which are not likely to change.
Mi coche es amarillo.
Sus hermanos son muy delgados.
"My car is yellow." This is not likely to change. The car probably has been yellow for some time and
will continue to be yellow into the future. We wouldn't expect it to suddenly be another color
tomorrow. "Her brothers are very thin." Again, this is a state that we wouldn't expect to change
quickly. When we think of these brothers, we think of them as being thin and don't expect them to
rapidly put on weight.
Notice that in these examples it's not impossible that the characteristics would change (cars are
repainted all the time, and thin people sometimes get bigger). It's just unlikely to expect that they
would soon.
The Exception: Events
It wouldn't be a rule if it didn't have an exception, right? In spite of the fact that it deals with a
location, we use ser rather than estar to talk about where and when events will take place.
La fiesta es en la casa de Alejandro.
Los partidos de futbol son en el estadio.
"The party is at Alejandro's house." "The soccer games are at the stadium." Both of these situations
might feel like we should be using a form of estar since we're dealing with where these things are
happening, but we use ser with events. Think of ser as meaning "to be" or "to take place."
The More Accurate Way
It's not really too different than the easy way discussed above, but it's more accurate to think of the
difference between ser and estar as coming down to what peoples' perceptions are. What are they
expecting?
We use ser to talk about things that we would perceive of as being expected or normal.
El café es caliente.
Las montañas son altas.
"Coffee is hot." That's how we want and expect our coffee to be. "The mountains are high." We
wouldn't call them "mountains" otherwise; we expect them to be high.
On the other hand, we use estar when we we're talking about things unexpected or outside of the
norm.
¡El café está frío!
¡Las montañas están muy altas!
"The coffee is cold!" Está is used (instead of es) because we don't normally think of coffee as being
cold. The temperature was unexpected. "The mountains are very high!" Están is used here (rather
than son) to show that the mountains are even taller than we previously imagined.
Differences in Meaning
So, as you can see, you choice of using either estar or ser can have an impact on the rest of the
sentence. Certain adjectives will convey different meanings based on which verb they're paired with:
La manzana es verde.
La manzana está verde.
The first sentence uses ser so we're talking about an inherent characteristic of the apple. It should
be translated, "The apple is green," meaning simply that the color of the apple is green. The second
sentence uses estar so we're dealing with its current condition. This sentence should be translated
something along the lines of, "The apple is not ripe," meaning that it still needs to ripen up and turn
red. Another example:
¿Cómo eres tú?
¿Cómo estás tú?
Both of these sentences could be translated exactly the same way in English, "How are you?"
However, since the first sentence uses a form or ser, the implied question is not "How are you right
now?" but "How are you usually?" or better yet, "What are you like?" The second question is the
more familiar "How are you?" or "How are you doing?"
Some other examples:
estar:
ser:
Estoy cansado.
Estoy enfermo.
Estoy feliz.
Está callada.
Está lista.
Está buena.
Está malo.
Está loco.
Está vivo.
Están aburridos.
I am tired. (now)
I am sick. (now)
I am happy. (now)
She's being quiet.
She's ready.
She's healthy.
He's sick.
He's crazy, frantic.
He's alive.
They're bored.
Soy cansado.
Soy enfermo.
Soy feliz.
Es callada.
Es lista.
Es buena.
Es malo.
Es loco.
Es vivo.
Son aburridos.
I am a tired person.
I am a sickly person.
I am a happy person.
She's introverted.
She's smart.
She's a good person.
He's evil. (a bad person)
He's insane.
He's lively.
They're boring.
Notes
See also: The Passive Voice

All of the present tense ser and estar rules apply to other tenses as well: La boda será en la
catedral.

Ser is used when talking about the time: ¿Qué hora es? Son las diez.

Ser is used when talking about possession: El coche es de Pancho.

Ser is used when talking about occupation: ¿Qué eres, Manuel? Soy abogado.

Ser is used when talking about origin: Marta es de Honduras.

Ser is used when talking about material used: Mis anillos son de oro.

Ser is also used in some passive voice constructions: La puerta fue cerrada.