CSG038

Unit 3

Ser and Estar

Similarities and Differenees Between Ser and Estar

•    Learning the different uses of ser and estar in Spanish may pre-sent some challenges for the English speaker. Both ser and estar are equivalent to the English to be, and they are frequently used in daily communication. A comparison of ser and estar will help highlight some similarities and differences.

•    Both ser and estar are irregular verbs in some tenses. For the sake of comparison, let us look at the present tense forms.

ser (to be)	estar (to be)
soy somos eres sois es son	estoy estamos estas estais esta estan

See the Verb Tables at the back of this book for the other tenses of ser and estar.

•    Both ser and estar are used as the main verb in a sentence.

Soy de los Estados Unidos. I am from the United States. Estoy en Washington.    I am in Washington.

•    Both are used as auxiliary verbs. Ser is used in the passive wice; and estar helps conjugate the progressive forms (equivalent of -ing in English).

El caso fue estudiado por las autoridades. Estamos considerando tu

propuesta.

The case was studied by the authońties.

We are considering your proposal.

But ser and estar are very different both in meaning and in usage.

Copyright © 2004 by Giida Nissenberg. Ciick here for terms of use.

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