Students of Spanish always rack their brains when it comes to choose between “ser” and “estar”… Why are there two options for the verb “to be”? Don’t they mean the same?
Today on Tips for Learning Foreign Languages I am going to explain the main differences between these two verbs.
The most important difference of meaning is that “ser” is used to designate permanent features, characteristics that always are like that.
For example, if I want to say “I am Ana” in Spanish, I would say “Yo soy Ana”, because this is something that never changes, I will always be Ana until the day I die.
When do you have to use “ser”? Mostly, when you talk about physical characteristics, personality, occupation, origin, family ties, universal truths and possession. Here you can find some examples:
- Physical characteristics: Mi primo es muy alto (My cousin is very tall). If you say “mi primo es muy alto”, you are assuming that your cousin will be very tall all his life, that’s why you use the verb “ser”.
- Personality: Carlos es muy simpático (Carlos is very nice). When we talk about someone’s personality in Spanish, we assume that that person is always behaving like that.
- Occupation: Penélope Cruz es actriz (Penélope Cruz is an actress). When we talk about professions in Spanish, we consider it a personal characteristic, something that defines you, this is the reason why we use the verb “ser”.
- Origin: Yo soy española/ Yo soy de España (I am Spanish/ I am from Spain). You cannot change the place where you are born, so in Spanish we consider that nationalities and any word that designates your origin must be used with the verb “to be”.
- Family ties: Ese hombre es mi padre (That man is my father). When you are born in a family, you have some family ties that you cannot change –for example, your mother or your brother will always be your mother and your brother, so in Spanish you should use the verb “ser”.
- Universal truths: El cielo es azul (The sky is blue). There are some occasions when we have some shared ideas about the main characteristic of an object/concept. In these cases, we use the verb “ser”. For example, poppies are red (las amapolas son rojas) or the Earth is round (la Tierra es redonda). Nobody can change these universal truths.
- Possession: Ese libro es de Paco (That book is Paco’s). In Spanish, we use “ser” to indicate possession.
Then, if we use “ser” for permanent features, when do we use “estar”…? Aha, you are right –we use “estar” any time we are referring to non-permanent features, characteristics that not always are like that.
For example, if I want to say “Today I am very happy”, I would say “Hoy estoy muy contenta”, because unfortunately my happiness is something that can be affected.
The main occasions on which we can use “estar” are when we talk about:
- Temporal characteristics: El cielo está nublado (The sky is cloudy). In Spanish, we consider that “cloudy” is a temporal feature –today it may be cloudy, but tomorrow it may be sunny.
- Position: Raúl está de pie (Raúl is standing). Raúl may be standing right now, but he may sit down later.
- Location: El lápiz está sobre la mesa (The pencil is on the table). The pencil may be on the table right now, but you can move it to a different place.
- Physical and mental conditions: Estoy cansada (I am tired). Moods and emotions are changing all the time, therefore we use “estar”.
When you have doubts about using “ser” or “estar”, I advise you to ask yourself if that thing is always like that or not.
Also, be aware that “ser” and “estar” can be used as auxiliary verbs in some tenses, same that “to be” in English.
- Passive voice (ser): La liebre fue cazada por el águila = The rabbit was caught by the eagle
- Present continuous (estar): Estoy leyendo un libro = I am reading a book
- Participle (estar): La mesa está hecha de madera = The table is made of wood
To sum up, “ser” is used for permanent features and “estar” for non-permanent features. Of course, like any language, Spanish has many exceptions and subtle differences of meaning that you will learn little by little.
For example, having said that we use “ser” for physical characteristics because they are something permanent, it can be a bit confusing using “estar” for the same features, but it can be possible. Imagine that you have a classmate who looks especially beautiful on a specific day and you want to tell her “You look very beautiful today!”. In Spanish, we would say “¡Hoy estás muy guapa!” because we are emphasizing that that person looks more beautiful than usual.
As I said, little by little you will get used to these especial uses of “ser” and “estar” 🙂
If you want to practise a little bit on your own, on the Internet you can find many websites with exercises and tests to challenge yourself:
https://espanol.lingolia.com/es/gramatica/verbos/ser-estar/ejercicios
https://www.spanishdict.com/quizzes/41/ser-vs-estar
https://studyspanish.com/grammar/test/serest4.htm
I hope you find this post useful! If you have any doubts/comments, please feel free to leave me a message! And don’t forget that, if you have tips to learn any kind of languages, you can contact us to write your own post for this blog 🙂
¡Hasta la próxima!
Tips for Learning Languages 