Thread: ser y estar???
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Old 3rd April 2004, 19:05
Yujike Yujike is offline
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The main difference between ser and estar is if the condition is intrinsic, meaning is a permanent condition (tall, intellligence, color) or non-intrinsic, like feelings (tired,sick) or conditions(hot,cold, open, close) which are subject to change. But sometimes they could be interchangeable depending on what you want to convey. For example; Soy guapo means that I'am handsome even when I dress in rags, I'm intrinsic handsome, but Estoy guapo hoy., means that today maybe I shaved, put on new clothes and happen to "look" handsome. El carro es nuevo means is a brand new car, El carro esta nuevo, maybe because I waxed it and cleaned really good and looks brand new. ALso nationalities (american, puertorrican) and origin(US, Florida, PR., Cuba) use ser because those things are part of the person and do not change. Estar is basically used for 2 things 1) location (real or imaginary) and things that are not intrinsic(variable, changing) almost everything else is ser. i.e. Estoy en Puerto Rico. Soy puertorriqueno.
Lastly, if you need more explanation and exercises, go to a search engine and type ser and estar and you should get many many sources and sites reffering to this theme.
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