LESSON
How to Use SER and ESTAR
Spanish has two important verbs that confuse Spanish learners all around the world: ser and estar.
The problem strives in that these two verbs have only one equivalent in English: to be. So when learners want to say something that would involve the verb to be, they hesitate about which verb to use: ser or estar.
The truth is that it is quite difficult to choose which one to use in some cases. But there are actually many cases also in which learners can decide quite easily. That is, if someone has explained to them well how to use these verbs.
And that is what we are about to do now.
How to Choose between SER and ESTAR
Almost every time I have read an article about the use of ser and estar, I’ve found advice that tries to address the problem from the wrong angle.
They oversimplify saying that “ser expresses permanent states and estar expresses temporary states”, they create acronyms—you have probably seen many D.O.C.T.O.R. vs P.L.A.C.E. infographics already—etc.
The problem is they are trying to build a list of infalible rules that are, in fact, not infalible at all.
It’s worth looking into the root of the problem. We’ll separate the different usages of ser and estar in three groups, and see that only one of them is problematic.
1 SER Expresses Identity
We use ser to express the identity of someone or something.
Identity can be defined as the condition of being someone or something, and not another.
We are still speaking in quite abstract terms that may not help you with the problem. So we’ll move to the field of language. Let me ask you a question?
What is it that we use in every language to name someone as a unique person, different from other people?
A proper noun.
Laura, Carlos, Ana, Luis…
These are all proper nouns that we use in Spanish to name individuals.
And we use ser to introduce proper nouns:
● Soy Laura. [I am Laura.]
● ¿Eres Carlos? [Are you Carlos?]
● Es Laura. [She is Laura.]
There are also proper nouns we use to name animals and things. Notice that we also use ser to introduce them:
● Es Willy. [It is Willy*.] *Remember Willy, the orca in the Free Willy films?
● Es Australia. [It is Australia.]
We also identify people, animals and things as members of a group. In this case, we don’t use proper nouns but common nouns, such as agua [water], libro [book] or niña [girl].
And we use ser to introduce common nouns also:
● Es agua. [It is water.]
● Es un libro. [lt is a book.]
● Es una niña. [She is a girl.]
With the right adjectives, we can also use common nouns to name unique individuals without using a proper noun:
● Es mi padre. [He is my father.]
● Es la directora. [She is the principal.]
● Es el profesor nuevo. [He is the new teacher.]
A good way to think about this is that ser expresses who or what.
And it is also important to recognize the pattern: ser + noun.
No matter how many elements there are in the sentence, ser is always introducing a noun:
● Ese niño es Luis. [That boy is Luis.]
● Lo que estoy bebiendo es agua. [What I am drinking is water.]
● La señora del vestido rojo es mi madre. [The woman in the red dress is my mother.]
● Este es el profesor nuevo. [This is the new teacher.]
Notice the pattern:
● ser + Luis
● ser + Agua
● ser + madre
● ser + profesor
2 ESTAR Expresses Location
We use estar to talk about the location of someone or something.
Now we are linking nouns to a word or group of words that express a location.
● Laura está aquí. [Laura is here.]
● Carlos está en la escuela. [Carlos is at the school.]
● Mi madre está en su casa. [My mother is at her place.]
It’s so simple.
A good way to think about this usage of estar is that it expresses where.
And it is also important to recognize the pattern: noun + estar + place.
● Laura está aquí. [Laura is here.]
● Carlos está en la escuela. [Carlos is at the school.]
● Mi madre está en su casa. [My mother is at her place.]
No matter how many elements there are in the sentence, even between our pattern, estar is always linking a noun to a place:
● Laura + estar + place
● Carlos + estar + place
● madre + estar + place
However, in this case we have an exception:
When we are speaking about the location of events, we use ser instead of estar.
● Nuestro examen es en esa clase. [Our test is in that class.]
● La boda es en la iglesia. [The wedding is in the church.]
In this case, ser is a synonym of tener lugar [to take place].
The pattern becomes then noun + ser + place.
● Nuestro examen es en esa clase. [Our test is in that class.]
● La boda es en la iglesia. [The wedding is in the church.]
Notice the pattern:
● examen + ser + place
● boda + ser + place
3 Linking Nouns to Adjectives
Up to this point, we haven’t found the difficulties ser and estar are famous for. Just easy stuff, right?
1 Use ser to express who or what. Link ser to a noun.
2.1 Use estar to express where. Link a noun to a word expressing location using estar.
2.2 If that noun expresses an event, use ser instead of estar.
If from now on you can’t confidently choose between ser and estar when expressing who, what or where, it will be because you are not paying attention, or because you are speaking faster than you think (a fair excuse in my opinion).
Now, there really are cases that make choosing between ser and estar difficult.
And that is when we are linking a noun to an adjective.
We have seen some adjectives in the previous examples:
● Es el profesor nuevo. [He is the new teacher.]
● La señora del vestido rojo es mi madre. [The woman in the red dress is my mother.]
● Nuestro examen es en esa clase. [Our test is in that class.]
The words nuevo [new], rojo [red], mi [my], nuestro [our] and esa [that] are adjectives.
In these examples each adjective is next to a noun with no words in between:
● profesor nuevo [new teacher]
● vestido rojo [red dress]
● nuestro examen [our test]
● esa clase [that class]
However, these nouns could be linked to the same adjectives in a different structure:
● El profesor es nuevo. [The teacher is new.]
● El vestido es rojo. [The dress dress is red.]
● El examen es nuestro. [The test is ours.]
● La clase es esa. [The class is that one.]
As you see, now we are using ser to link a noun to an adjective.
Statistically, we could say that we normally use ser to link a noun to an adjective, because the adjectives to which we link using estar constitute a really small percentage of the total number of Spanish adjectives.
The problem is that many of the adjectives in that small percentage are used with a very high frequency. Think of simple sentences such as:
● Ese plato está sucio. [That dish is dirty.]
● La bañera está llena. [The bathtub is full.]
● Laura está enferma. [Laura is sick.]
So going with ser as a norm wouldn’t be a good strategy.
The solution is to take care of the problem as soon as we learn a new adjective. Don’t just learn the meaning, learn also which verb we use.
● When you learn nuevo [new], learn that it is used with ser.
● When you learn rojo [red], learn that it is used with ser.
● When you learn nuestro [ours], learn that it is used with ser.
● When you learn ese [that], learn that it is used with ser.
● When you learn sucio [dirty], learn that it is used with estar.
● When you learn lleno [full], learn that it is used with estar.
● When you learn enfermo [sick], learn that it is used with estar.
Got it?
Well, we are not finished with adjectives yet. There is one last problem:
We sometimes use both ser and estar with a given adjective with different meanings.
● Using ser with nuevo is the standard.
● And using estar with sucio is the standard.
However, we can also change the verb and express a different nuance.
If we say, for example:
● Este libro es nuevo.
We mean that the book has been recently published, or that we have acquired it recently.
However, if we say:
● Este libro está nuevo.
We mean that the book is in a very good state of conservation, although it isn’t new.
If we say:
● Mi perro está sucio.
We probably mean our dog needs a bath.
However, if we say:
● Mi perro es sucio.
We mean our dog’s behaviour is dirty: it usually gets itself and other things dirty.
This makes it a little bit difficult to get the verb right, but the solution is the same one: learn how to use ser and estar with each adjective as soon as you memorize the meaning.
Let's recap:
1 Use ser to express who or what. Link ser to a noun.
2.1 Use estar to express where. Link a noun to a word expressing location using estar.
2.2 If that noun expresses an event, use ser instead of estar.
3 Although most adjectives are introduced with ser, there are important adjectives that are introduced with estar, and some that can be introduced with both with different nuances, so it's better to learn which verb we use as soon as we learn a new adjective.
4 Go Deeper
In this article we have seen the core of the problem of ser and estar usage.
Maybe you need a second read, but hopefully you now have a good overview and know how to address the problem.
If you feel you need further help to make sure you start internalizing the usage of these verbs without falling into false hacks that will only slow down your progress, make sure you check the Light On Spanish membership program.
We have a full course focused on the usage of ser, estar and haber (another verb that many Spanish learners find confusing), in which you’ll learn to recognize the patterns we have seen in this post even better. As you probably know already, nouns are often substituted by pronouns. And the order in which words appear also changes. You’ll see great examples there.
In that course, you advance one step at a time through real language examples that show the patterns and concepts you need to understand and internalize, and you have a large number of effective exercises.
On top of that, you will find the most complete list of adjectives with the verb normally used with each of them.