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Tutorial index
Spanish-English Dictionary
English-Spanish Dictionary
Spanish grammar
Simple Spanish vocab
Traducción profesional
We've so far been making sentences using the verb forms estoy, estás and está. These are all forms of the verb estar meaning to be. We've used these verb forms to make various sentences using a particular list of adjectves: cansado (tired), aburrido (bored), despierto (awake), dormido (asleep) etc.
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If you look at these adjectives, you'll see they have something in common. They all refer to the "state" that the person is in. For example, compare the following two sentences:
1(a) he's tired
1(b) he's English In 1(a), we refer to the state of the person, saying that they're tired. We say that tired is a "state" because it doesn't really characterise the person. We don't generally conceive of people as being grouped into categories of "tired" and "non-tired". Rather, we see tired as a state of an individual that could change over time. Now contrast this with the adjective English in 1(b). This adjective is one that we use to forms more of a "category" of person: English, French, Dutch, German etc. We don't generally think of "English" as something that will change over time (even though in extreme cases somebody could actually change their nationality). In other words, being English is more of a characteristic of a person than a state. In Spanish, there are two different verbs that commonly convey the idea of the English verb "be": ser and estar: |
Is estar used for "temporary" states?Beginners are commonly taught that estar introduces something "temporary" and ser introduces something "permanent". There is probably some mileage in this– things that are "states" rather than "characteristics" (e.g. being tired, happy)– will often tend to be temporary. But something can also be in a permanent state. For example, if we say my dog is dead or the glass is broken, there's probably nothing temporary about dead or broken. What's important is that these are states that can change or have changed during the lifetime of the person or object, rather than things that characterise a "type of dog" or "type of glass". The corresponding Spanish adjectives (muerto and roto) are used with estar. |
So far in this tutorial, all the verb forms that you've used have been from estar: estoy, estás and está, and all the adjectives you've used have been ones that represent a "state".
Now, there are actually a few adjectives where the distinction between "state" and "characteristic" is less clear-cut. For example, if I say he's quite fat, I could be implying that that is how I characterise that person, or I could be saying that they've recently gained weight. In such cases in Spanish, usage can fluctuate between ser and estar. For the purposes of this tutorial, we won't go into all the details. We'll restrict ourselves to adjectives where the choice between the two verbs is more straightforward.
In a moment, we'll see a couple of verbs that actually change their meaning depending on whether estar or ser is used, but the distinction is still straightforward because the change of meaning is very clear.
We'll practise using the following adjectives, which are used with ser in Spanish:
| Adjective | Masculine form | Feminine form |
|---|---|---|
| English | inglés | inglesa |
| French | francés | francesa |
| Spanish | español | española |
Notice that these adjectives don't end in -o in the masculine form. But they do still add -a in the feminine. In general, this is typical for adjectives ending in -és. (There are various other adjectives like this that denote different nationalities, e.g. danés Danish). Note too that the written accent disappears in the feminine*.
* This is predictable. In general, adding a feminine or plural ending to an adjective or noun in Spanish doesn't move the accented syllable. So in pronouncing the word inglesa, the accent is still on the e as in inglés. But this vowel is now in the second-to-last syllable. And in reading a written Spanish word that ends in a vowel, it is assumed that the accent is on the second-to-last syllable. So no written accent is required on inglesa.
The adjective español is a little unusual: adjectives ending in -l generally don't add -a in the feminine, but español does. Although unusual, español is such a common adjective that it's important to know its feminine form!
A few adjectives are used with either ser or estar, but change their meaning depending on which is used. In this tutorial, we'll include the following adjective:
| Adjective | Meaning with ser | Meaning with estar |
|---|---|---|
| aburrido | boring | bored |
| listo | clever | ready |
On this page, you'll practise making sentences using the following forms of ser. For comparison, we'll list them alongside the forms of estar that you've been using so far:
| Person | estar | ser | Example (estar) | Example (ser) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | estoy | soy | estoy cansado I'm tired | soy inglés I'm English |
| you (familiar) | estás | eres | estás cansado you're tired | eres inglés you're English |
| he/she; you (formal) | está | es | está cansado he's tired; you're tired (masc) está cansada she's tired; you're tired (fem) | es inglés he's English; you're English (masc) es inglesa she's English; you're English (fem) |
In this exercise, you'll practise using the above forms of ser. In addition, you'll still have to use the forms of estar in some cases. In other words, for each sentence you're asked, you'll have to:
This exercise therefore means you'll be practising several important elements of basic sentences in Spanish. It's worth practising for a little while and getting as familiar as you can with these simple sentences.
All the subjects you've been practising so far have been singular. On the next page, we'll look at sentences with ser and estar with a plural subject.
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