CoffeeBreakSpanish.com
In this edition:
the two verbs
which mean
“to be” in
Spanish: ser
and estar
Lesson 46
Notes
¿Ser o estar?
To be ... or (not) to be!
Programme Notes
Coffee Break Spanish notes guide you through the content of each lesson. Lesson 46 deals with the
two verbs in Spanish which mean “to be”, ser and estar. The question of ser or estar is often seen as
difficult by learners, but once you learn a few simple rules you won’t have any problems at all!
Using estar
At the beginning of most of the Coffee Break Spanish lessons, Mark asks Kara:
¿estás lista para empezar?
are you ready to begin?
Kara traditionally answers:
estoy lista para aprender español con Coffee Break Spanish
I’m ready to learn Spanish with Coffee Break Spanish
Both these examples use the verb estar because being ready is a temporary situation in this case.
Look at these other examples of estar being used to describe temporary situations or conditions:
estar - temporary situations or conditions
¿cómo estás?
how are you (feeling)?
estoy cansado
I am (feeling) tired
estoy contento
I am (feeling) happy
Note that in these three examples it’s possible to introduce the concept of “to be feeling”. If you’re
trying to work out whether you need to use estar or ser, then ask yourself if you can add in the
concept of “to be feeling”: if so, it’s 99% likely to be estar!
Let’s consider the final example, estoy contento. This means that you are (feeling) happy at the moment.
You may well not be a particularly cheerful person all the time, but at the moment you’re feeling
happy. Feeling happy is a temporary situation or condition.
So, our second question to help us decide on ser or estar is: “can I add in the concept of ‘at the
moment’?” If so, then this will help you to be more certain that it’s estar!
In addition to temporary conditions, there’s another situation where estar is also used: if you’re
talking about a location then you’ll be using estar. Have a look at the examples below:
Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 46
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estar - locations
Estoy en la cocina
I am in the kitchen
Estamos en el estudio
We are in the studio
Madrid está en España
Madrid is in Spain
Until now we’ve been looking at estar in temporary situations, but you’ll notice from these examples
that estar is used for all locations, both temporary and permanent. If you say, “I am in the kitchen”
then it’s likely that you’ll move from the kitchen at some point. On the other hand, Madrid is fairly
permanently in Spain! This does not fit the temporary situation requirement for estar, but we’re
now talking about locations – and all locations use estar.
Here is a summary of estar rules:
ESTAR: Summary
temporary description
temporary
location
permanent
Before leaving estar, let’s conjugate the verb in the present tense. It’s fairly regular, but be careful
with the accents: if you miss out the accents then some of these words can mean something totally
different!
estar - to be
estoy
estamos
estás
estáis
está
están
Using ser
We’ll begin by conjugating ser. It’s much more irregular than estar, but the advantage is that we’ve
come across almost all of these forms in previous lessons.
ser - to be
soy
somos
eres
sois
es
son
If estar is used for temporary descriptions, then we can normally assume that ser is used for
permanent descriptions. This assumption isn’t 100% guaranteed, but it works in most situations.
Consider the examples below.
Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 46
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ser - inherent characteristics, saying who you are
soy escocés
I’m Scottish
mi madre es profesora
my mother is a teacher
¿eres católico?
are you Catholic?
es una persona contenta
she is a happy person
In the above examples we are describing inherent characteristics of people, or simply talking about
who they are. In most cases these characteristics do not change. Note in particular the final
example. Earlier we learned estoy contento, meaning “I am happy”. This, however, referred to a
temporary situation - “I am (feeling) happy (at the moment)”. In the case of es una persona contenta,
we are describing an inherent characteristic of the person, rather than a temporary situation. The
following situation is quite possible:
Es una persona contenta, pero en este momento está triste.
He/she is a happy person, but at this moment he/she is sad.
Note that in this sentence both ser and estar are used (highlighted in red). Es and está both mean
“he/she is”, but as we now know, they are used in different ways.
We can extend this idea of describing inherent characteristics: ser is also used for physical
descriptions. We’ll be covering descriptions in later lessons, but for the moment, remember that ser
is also used for physical descriptions.
The table below shows the main uses of ser, including a few which we’ve not covered so far in these
notes.
SER: Summary
who you are
soy Mark
mi padre es profesor
physical characteristics
soy alto
es morena
inherent qualities
es honrado
eres católico
time, price
son las once
son diez euros
Hopefully this makes sense! There is another way to think about ser... Basically, if your situation is
not a temporary description, and not a location, then there’s a good chance you’re looking at ser!
SER: Summary
not a temporary description
not a location
The flowchart overleaf will help you decide whether you need ser or estar.
Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 46
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Is it a location?
YES
NO
Are you describing a
temporary situation?
YES
estar
NO
NO
Can you add “at the
moment” without changing
the meaning?
YES
YES
NO
Are you talking about the
price of something?
Are you talking about
time or date?
YES
NO
Are you talking about
name, job, religion ... ?
YES
ser
NO
Are you describing
someoneʼs physical
characteristics?
YES
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Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 46
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