ser y estar???

[Davy]

Could somebody try and explain to me WHEN i use SER and when do i use ESTAR in Spanish. I have some difficulty with it!
Thanks.

[Suki]

Originally posted by Davy
Could somebody try and explain to me WHEN i use SER and when do i use ESTAR in Spanish. I have some difficulty with it!
Thanks.

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Suki: Davy, Ser is used when it is a permanent state of being. Such as: Soy mujer, soy hombre. Estar is used when it is a temporary state of being such as: estoy cansado, estoy enfermo, estoy en Inglaterra. Though there are exceptions in which you may use both or either one (depending on how you consider yourself) such as : soy casado, estoy casado....jaja. For example your religion is permanent in Spanish such as: soy cristiana, soy budista, soy judia. But feelings and anything non-permanent is temporary to be and as such it would be estar. Estoy alegre, estoy enojado, estoy feliz. Estoy entrenando, estoy viajando, estoy comiendo (present progressive verb form in Spanish is temporary).

Hope it helps. Suki.

[Davy]

Gracias por la información, esta es muy amable!

Yes it helped!

[Yujike]

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.