To be or not to be … That’s the question that drives so many students of Spanish as a second language crazy. Because what in many languages is expressed with just one verb, in Spanish is expressed with two: ser or estar. Among romance languages, this only happens in Spanish and Portuguese. For this reason, there are strong theories pointing out this happens because of the influence of Basque language, which has this distinction.
When to use one or the other verb in Spanish is a complex matter as you go on learning and using the language, but in broad lines SER defines and ESTAR indicates location or state or mood. If you get this idea from the beginning, it will be very natural for you to start using both verbs instead of only one.
In this post we will focus on basic uses of the verb SER.
We can say that SER DEFINES. For example, talking about a person anything that defines that person would be expressed with SER: name, physical appearence, personality, profession, nationality, political ideas, religion, role in a group or organization, team they support, … Whereas when talking about an object we will use SER to express: name, color, shape, size, material it’s made of, if it’s new/old, …
And now, finally, have a look at the verb SER and start practicing 👇🏽👇🏽
You can start practicing with the verb SER from now, in everyday life situations:
- introducing and saying something about yourself > yo soy …
- introducing other people and saying something about them > ella es … ellas son …
- identifying things arround you, also to learn new vocabulary in Spanish > esto es …
- identifying people in photos or videos, and saying something about them > él es … ellos son …
Once you feel confident with the verb SER you should have a look to our post on the verb ESTAR
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