“To be or not to be?
That is the question.”
I know very few lines from Shakespeare.
But it’s no surprise to me that one of the few I do know, contains the verb “to be”
twice.
You see, I consider “to be” to be the mother of all verbs.
I’d bet a lot of money that “to be” is the most frequently used verb in English
and in Spanish.
Anytime you say “is” “am” “are” “was” or “were”, you’re actually
saying a conjugated form of “to be”.
But here’s the thing.
In Spanish, they have two different “to be’s”.
Hola, I'm Jordan and this is a Spanish Quickie--fast, easy Spanish lessons from somebody who speaks
your language.
What we’re going to talk about today has been the scorn of Spanish students since the
beginning of time.
Like I said a second ago, in Spanish, they have two different ways to say “to be”.
Crazy, eh?
In Spanish “to be” is both “ser” and “estar”.
So every time you say “I am” or “he is” or “we were”, you have to think
about and choose which word to use!
This really threw me for a loop when I started because there’s a long laundry list of rules
dictating when you use “ser” and when you use “estar”.
If this, use “ser”, if that, use “estar”, if this, but not that, but this, but that,
then use... uhhhh!
But don’t you worry about all that.
Through the years, I figured out three rules that will help you decide between “ser”
and “estar” in 90% of the situations you find yourself in.
Not just at the beginning--but forever.
And really, if you can start to look at things the way I tell you to, you can rely on just
one of those rules.
Now, I’ve been trying to avoid giving you any conjugations, but in order to make this
lesson clear, I can no longer avoid it.
So let’s just focus on the present tense third person singular.
We go to the chart.
Singular on this side.
Third person here.
“To be” in the third person singular is “is”.
He “is”, she “is”, it “is”.
In Spanish we have two ways to say “is”.
With “ser” and with “estar”.
In the third person singular, “ser” is “es” and “estar” is “está”.
So in Spanish, you can say “is” with either “es” or “está”.
Okay, so let’s get into those three rules that will help you choose either ser or estar
in 90% of the situations you encounter.
Rule #1: Temporary Vs. Permanent.
For permanent stuff, you use “ser”.
For temporary stuff, you use “estar”.
He “is” a human being.
He will always be a human being.
So for that you would use “ser” because he is a human being permanently.
“El es humano.”
“He is a human.”
But he “is” happy.
He is happy right now.
That’s temporary.
He can be sad in a second.
You use “estar” for this.
“Él está feliz.”
Make sense?
But I want you to notice something important, and pretty cool if you ask me.
Sometimes, you can use either one, depending on what you want to say.
The meaning of a sentence can change just by changing the version of “to be”.
He “is” happy.
That can mean two things really.
It can mean he’s happy right now, like we said a second ago.
But it can also mean he is a happy person in general.
If you wanted to say he is happy right now, you would use “estar” like before.
“Él está feliz.”
But if you were just talking about him to another person and you wanted to describe
him as a happy person in general, you would use “ser”.
“Él es feliz.”
Another quick example.
A green apple.
The green apple can be a green apple because it’s a green apple, not a red one, not a
yellow one, but a green one.
In this case, it will be green forever, it’s a green apple.
“La manzana es verde.”
“The apple is green.”
But what if it’s a red apple, but it’s not ripe yet?
We could say “La manzana está verde.”
because it’s just green right now, but as it ripens, it would turn red...
See what’s going on?
This doesn’t come up very often.
Most of the time, there is a right and a wrong answer.
You use either “ser” or “estar”.
But in cases like this, both could be used, but it changes the meaning of what you say,
so there’s still a right and wrong answer.
So keep an eye out for examples like that, but more generally just know to use “estar”
for temporary things and “ser” for permanent things.
Rule #2: Location uses “Estar”
You always use “estar” for location.
So he “is” at the market uses “estar”.
“Él está en el mercado.
That makes sense because it goes along with our temporary/permanent rule from before.
Where it got confusing for me is with buildings.
The location of buildings uses estar, even though it might seem permanent.
But buildings can burn down, be torn down or simply picked up and moved.
So if you think of buildings like that, they are temporary.
Regardless of how you think of it, use “estar” for location.
“The library is there” uses “Estar”.
La biblioteca está alli.
Location always uses “estar”.
Rule #3.
Profession
Professions use “ser”.
So he is a doctor is “Él es doctor”.
This kind of goes against the temporary/permanent thing, but I like to remember it correctly
by thinking back in the day, if you were a blacksmith, you were a blacksmith all your
life, so your profession was a permanent thing, and it just stuck?
I’m completely making that up, I don’t know if that’s really the reason, but that’s
how I think of it.
If you know something different, please leave a comment below.
I think that stuff is interesting to think and talk about.
A student counts as a profession in this case.
So “She is a student.”
would be “Ella es estudiante.”
Profession always uses “ser”.
Okay, that’s it for today.
Those three rules will govern 90% of the situations you encounter.
Not just at the beginning, but all the way through.
So, if you can get these 3 rules ingrained into your head, you’ll be all good for 90%
of the situations you find yourself in.
And really, it’s just one rule if you start thinking about professions as permanent and
locations of buildings as temporary.
To help you get the practice you need, I’ve put together a little practice sheet for you.
Just go to gringoespanol.com/ser-estar/ and download the PDF called Practice Sheet.
That link is below this video too.
There are a bunch of statements in English there, and you just have to choose whether
that sentence in Spanish would use “ser” or “estar”.
It’s all in English so you don’t have to look up a bunch of words, you can just
focus on choosing ser or estar.
The answer key is also located at gringoespanol.com/ser-estar/
So go there right now, download the practice sheet and ingrain this into your mind as much
as possible.
Temporary is “estar”.
Permanent is “ser”.
Location is “estar”.
Profession is “ser”.
If you’re not already on the Gringo Espanol newsletter, be sure to sign up when you go
the site to download the Practice Sheet.
Go now.
Hasta luego.