Ser vs. Estar: Emotions, Conditions, and Characteristics

1. Los verbos ser y estar (The Verbs ser and estar)

The commonly used irregular verbs ser and estar have the same translation, “to be.” Present tense forms of both verbs translate to “am,” “is,” and “are” in English. Refresh your memory of the present tense forms of both verbs by looking at the following charts:

ser (to be)

estar (to be)

Ser is used to describe a permanent characteristic or the essence of someone or something.

In previous lessons, you saw ser used to express dates and the nationality/origin of someone or something. In future lessons, you will learn more about using ser when communicating the time:

And to indicate possession:

Estar is used to describe the condition/state of being, the present appearance or perception, or the location of someone or something.

In previous lessons, you saw estar used when expressing emotions:

In a future lesson, you will learn more about using estar with prepositions to express location:

2. Adjectives Used with Both ser and estar

Many adjectives can be used with both ser and estar. Here is a list of common adjectives:

hint

Remember to change the ending of the adjective if needed so that it agrees in both gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural) with the noun it describes.

For most adjectives, the decision of whether to use ser or estar depends on the intended meaning. The meaning of the sentence can change solely based on the selection of the verb. You will notice in many of the examples below that using:

• ser signals an internal quality or natural characteristic
• estar indicates how something is perceived at a particular moment or expresses the state of being of someone or something

Here are some further examples using the verbs ser and estar with the adjectives from the chart above. These examples continue to demonstrate the use of ser when describing natural characteristics or permanent qualities and the use of estar when describing the condition or state or something.

think about it

Consider a question word that you have been using ever since the beginning of this course: ¿Cómo? literally means “how?” but is not always translated that way in English.

Listen to the following dialogue and notice how the use of ser or estar drives two different translations of ¿Cómo? in the questions ¿Cómo estás? and ¿Cómo es...?

Spanish	English
¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás?	Hi! How are you?
Estoy bien, gracias.	I’m fine, thanks.
¿Cómo es tu novio?	What is your boyfriend like?
Es cómico y muy inteligente.	He’s funny and very intelligent.

3. Adjectives Used with estar Only

The chart below shows adjectives that combine only with estar. In general:

• Adjectives ending in -ado or -ido are only used with estar.
• Adjectives ending in -nte are usually used with ser, but an exception is caliente (hot), which tends to combine with estar.

hint

Again, remember to change the ending of the adjective if needed so that it agrees in both gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural) with the noun it describes.

Note that in situations where the adjectives from the chart above are used as nouns (e.g., by adding the article el or la in front of the adjective), the verb ser is used.

The meaning of some adjectives can change when used with ser, or if a closely related form of the adjective is used with ser:

Now try building some sentences yourself using ser and estar.

4. Location with ser and estar

The only situation in which ser is used to provide the location of something is when mentioning where an event takes place.

The verb estar is used to express location in all other contexts.

Watch the video to practice an informal conversation using the differences between ser and estar that you learned from this lesson.

watch