LEARNING SPANISH?- The 2 forms of verb to be in Spanish- Sonia Hernández

Do you know that in Spanish we have two different verbs for "to be"?

Yes, but... what is exactly the difference and how to know when to use one or another?

Take a look at these sentences:

1. Juan es español -----------John is Spanish                         

2. Juan está en España-------------John is from Spain

The main difference here is that in the first sentence "Juan es español " we want to say that Juan is originally from Spain, he was born there. That is a PERMANENT CHARACTERISTIC.

But in the second sentence "Juan está en España" we want to say that Juan is in Spain at the moment, maybe travelling around the country, living there for a limited period of time or just on holidays. That is a TEMPORARY CHARACTERISTIC.

1. In general we use the verb "SER” to describe situations, people, time, characteristics, and is also used for descriptions.

- María es simpática-------------María is friendly

- Son las dos----------It´s two o´clock

- La casa es grande-----------the house is big

- Juan es alto----------John is tall

2. We use the verb “ESTAR” to express a state or condition of the moment. This includes people and things, and also the location of people, things, and places.

- Julia está enferma---------Julia is sick

- Carlos está en China----------Carlos is in China

- Madrid está en España----------Madrid is in Spain

-Ella está triste hoy------------She is sad today

JUST REMEMBER that learning a language is all about practice, practice, practice so...why don´t you start learning Spanish from here?

Happy learning everybody!

Teacher Sonia Hernández