Using ser vs estar is one of the most puzzling aspects of learning Spanish for anyone not used to the concept of having two distinct verbs for to be. Don’t feel discouraged though, every language has more and less difficult parts and the most frequently used verbs are usually also the most irregular. Even in English the verb to be conjugates very irregularly.

Not every instance of the English to be can be translated to ser or estar. And those which can be translated may as well be substituted with alternative phrases in most cases. So for the best results focus on translating the meaning, not the words. This article will help you understand how to do it.

We don’t like learning by heart so we always look for ways to avoid it. Instead of the usual acronyms and long lists of rules and exceptions, we’ll concentrate first on how to look at this matter from different angles and use logical thinking to decide which verb to use. But if you’re looking for rules, they are presented further on as well.

Of course some things just have to be memorized, especially at the beginning. But the more of them we may eliminate the faster and more enjoyable the progress will be.

For example, memorizing irregular conjugation forms is necessary, because guessing that soy, era and fui are all forms of the verb ser is not easy. It is worth the effort as these two verbs belong to the most frequently used. Also not every form needs to be memorized because they don’t conjugate irregularly in every tense. Most of the forms may be created following regular rules like in case of the Condicional and Futuro tenses.

It’s often possible to avoid the Ser vs Estar dilemma

The choice of ser vs estar may very often be avoided using alternative phrases. Learning these has great additional advantages. You will enrich your vocabulary and thus sound way more eloquent. You will understand more in conversations as different people have different speaking styles. For instance the sentence:

could be substituted with one of the following:

If you happen to use ser/estar and are uncertain about your choice, you can simply get more specific by explaining when, why, etc:

To emphasize that you mean only an unusual state or a temporary condition, use expressions like:

• a veces — sometimes
• ahora / ahora mismo — now / right now
• en este momento — at the moment
• ocasionalmente — occasionally
• raramente / rara vez / raras veces — rarely
• de vez en cuando / de cuando en cuando / de tiempo en tiempo — once in a while / every so often / from time to time

To emphasize that you mean a usual state, normal condition, quality or characteristic, use expressions like:

• siempre — always
• cada vez — every time
• día a día — day after day
• una y otra vez — over and over again / time after time
• todo el rato / todo el tiempo — all the time

Not every English to be translates to Ser or Estar

An important thing to remember is that not all to be English forms may translate directly to one of the to be forms in Spanish:

So in these examples we see that the verb tener is used when talking about the age, hunger or thirst. The verb hacer is used when talking about the weather.

Beware the Permanent/Temporary oversimplification for Ser vs Estar

You’ve probably already heard that ser is usually used when referring to something permanent and estar when referring to something temporary. While it is convenient, it is also oversimplified and after making some progress in learning Spanish it becomes confusing and raises many questions. Look at it as a very general tip with many exceptions or simply one of the different points of view.

It is more useful to think about what identifies the subject, what are its integral parts versus what state of being the subject is in. Ser is used when describing something that distinguishes the subject from others. It includes physical description, personality or character, what things are made of, race, gender, origin, etc. Estar is used when describing a condition that distinguishes the current state of being of the subject from its other possible states of being.

For instance, let’s analyze the adjective muerto in the following sentence:

The permanent/temporary tip doesn’t work here. People get confused by it because being dead is quite permanent. But the state of being tip explains it. If you looked at this particular animal (subject you could identify as in many aspects unique), you wouldn’t say that it is now some hairy thing, but rather:

The first few examples are written in present and past tenses because you could use any of them in reality. It would depend on the context, your mood and what you would like to express.

So we clearly see how ser goes with what identifies a man as a man, a rabbit as a rabbit or a thing as a thing. And how estar goes with what describes how they are doing, what is happening to them, what they experience, etc.

The next dose of examples describes water which changes its states of matter. Note how ser is used for identification and how estar is used for state description. All refer to water in three different states of matter, just from different points of view.

Point of view #1 – three different things

Point of view #2 – one thing in three different states

Hopefully at this stage the concept of having two separate to be words is much more clear. Maybe you even start seeing how powerful it actually is. It allows these two single words be more than just auxiliary verbs. Ser and Estar may carry so much additional meaning. So if you are not learning it just to pass an exam and forget, you should actually enjoy this idea.

When the correct choice between Ser and Estar is the most important

Luckily, in most cases, if you choose incorrectly which verb to use you will still be easily understood. What you need to be careful about are the cases where the verb is followed by an adjective. That’s because the meaning of the adjective may be different when used with ser and different when used with estar.

Classical examples of this would be the following adjectives:

• aburrido which with ser means to be boring and with estar means to be bored
• interesado which with ser means to be selfish and with estar means to be interested
• listo which with ser means to be clever and with estar means to be prepared

We have a longer list of these adjectives, but for brevity it was moved to a separate page: Ser vs Estar – Adjectives changing Meaning. This list also includes example sentences.

Rules for choosing between Ser and Estar

You can now perhaps do without the need for rules. However, because we recommend looking at the topic from different angles, it’s worth at least getting familiar with them. Be particularly careful with the rules having exceptions. Such rules are usually too general and although using them is convenient, they also tend to cause the most confusion.

The list of rules is not short. If you intend to learn them by heart, you may want to use a shortcut. You could first learn only the ones for estar and by elimination use ser in all other cases. Or vice-versa, learn only the ser rules if they seem easier to remember.

A list of rules for Estar

Comix recap of Estar rules

Read the comix, identify all the rules used, which influenced the choice between ser and estar. Transcription with translations and explanations is provided below the comix.

A list of rules for Ser

Comix recap of Ser rules

Read the comix, identify all the rules used, which influenced the choice between ser and estar. Transcription with translations and explanations can be found below the comix.

Ser vs Estar – rules or logic?

The problem with rules for ser vs estar is that there are quite a few of them and that they have exceptions. And exceptions often lead to confusion.

For example there’s a rule that talking about location we use estar. But there’s also an exception that for the location of events we use ser. We could logically analyze it and say that an event cannot be located in the physical sense, because it has no physical form. It either exists or doesn’t exist (before and after it happens). So talking about an event we are talking about its existence or occurrence. We identify it unambiguously stating where and when it exists. And identification is the job of the verb ser.

But logical analysis is not ideal either. It’s not always easy and results may be ambiguous. That’s mainly because things we talk about every day have different natures. They may be physical entities, concepts, ideas, metaphors, figures of speech, analogies, symbols, etc. In some contexts we could come up with misinterpretation or multiple interpretations.

For instance even in a simple situation, where someone would like to ask where the bathroom is, the following questions may arise:

• Should I think about location and use estar? (location rule)
• Should I think about how permanent it is for the toilet to be in some part of the house and use ser? (permanent/temporary rules)
• Should I use estar because logic implies that the location of the bathroom is not its characteristic, doesn’t identify it? It would still be the same bathroom if located on the ground floor. If the whole house was moved by a flood and landed safe somewhere down the river, we would still say that it is our house, just located in a different place.

The best approach would be to explore all we talked about so far and treat every tip as a different point of view which is good to understand. Focus on translating meaning, not words. You may find more ways to express a particular meaning than to directly translate a particular sentence.

A plan for improving on ser vs estar

• Read, watch and listen. To make fast progress, during the next few weeks whenever you hear or read Spanish focus particularly on catching all the uses of the verbs ser and estar. There’s a lot of free or inexpensive content to read, watch and listen. What you choose depends on your level, but try to regularly digest some stuff which is too difficult to understand for you. Push your limits to expand them. You don’t even have to focus every time. Let it just play in the background while you prepare breakfast.

  
  Example sources of content can be found in the How to Learn Spanish Your Favorite Way article. To get the most out of these sources you need to be able to recognize different forms of the verbs, so:

• Learn the conjugation of ser and estar well. Check these links:
  • Ser conjugation charts in all tenses
  • Estar conjugation charts in all tenses
  • Exercises to practice the conjugation and usage of ser
  • Exercises to practice the conjugation and usage of estar
  • You can get a mix of exercises for both ser and estar at the same time using the Word Basket (see the help for it). In order to practice these verbs in selected tenses only, configure the ‘Select tenses to include in exercises and conjugation’ section in the Exercises
  • Search for other resources we have for ser
  • Search for other resources we have for estar

  
  And finally:

• Check your knowledge taking one of the Ser vs Estar tests available in the Spanish Practice Tests section.

What is your favorite tip for Ser vs Estar?

Share it in a comment below!

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