The short version
- Use ser for what something is: who someone is, what they're like, where they're from, what time it is.
- Use estar for where something is and how it is right now: location, feelings, what's happening.
- Some adjectives change meaning. Soy aburrido means "I'm boring". Estoy aburrido means "I'm bored".
A friend asks how your weekend was and you say Soy aburrido. You meant "I'm bored". You've just told them you're a boring person. It's the classic ser vs estar mistake, and almost every learner makes it.
Spanish has two verbs for "to be", and English speakers are used to having one. So there's no instinct to fall back on. You have to learn when each one fits.
The good news is that you don't need a long list of rules to get most of it right. You need one simple question, a few special cases, and plenty of practice saying real sentences out loud.
The short answer
What something is
Who or what it is, what it's like, where it's from. The kind of thing you'd put on a description.
Where it is and how it is now
Location, feelings, conditions, and what's happening at the moment.
You might have been taught "ser is permanent, estar is temporary". It works a lot of the time, but it breaks quickly. Está muerto (he's dead) uses estar, and that's about as permanent as it gets. Es joven (she's young) uses ser, even though nobody stays young.
"What is it?" versus "where or how is it right now?" holds up much better.
When to use ser
| Use | Example | English |
|---|---|---|
| Who someone is | Es mi hermana. | She's my sister. |
| Job | Soy profesora. | I'm a teacher. |
| What someone's like | Es muy simpático. | He's really nice. |
| Where someone's from | Soy de Manchester. | I'm from Manchester. |
| Time and date | Son las tres. Hoy es lunes. | It's three o'clock. Today's Monday. |
| What it's made of | La mesa es de madera. | The table is made of wood. |
| Where an event takes place | La fiesta es en mi casa. | The party is at my house. |
That last one catches a lot of people. For the location of a person or thing, you use estar. For the location of an event, like a party, a meeting or a concert, you use ser. La reunión es en la sala dos.
When to use estar
| Use | Example | English |
|---|---|---|
| Where someone or something is | Estoy en casa. | I'm at home. |
| How you feel | Estoy cansada. | I'm tired. |
| What's happening now | Estoy trabajando. | I'm working. |
| How something is at the moment | La sopa está fría. | The soup is cold. |
| The result of a change | La tienda está cerrada. | The shop is closed. |
| Alive or dead | Mi abuelo está muerto. | My grandad is dead. |
For location there's one more thing to know. When you're saying that something exists somewhere, use hay instead: Hay un bar en la esquina (there's a bar on the corner). When you're saying where a particular thing is, use estar: El bar está en la esquina (the bar is on the corner). There's more on this in how to use hay in Spanish.
Here's how it sounds when both come up in one conversation:
Words that change meaning
Some adjectives work with both verbs but mean different things. These are worth learning as pairs, because getting them wrong can be funny or a bit awkward.
| With ser | With estar | |
|---|---|---|
| aburrido | Es aburrido. (He's boring.) | Está aburrido. (He's bored.) |
| listo | Es lista. (She's clever.) | Está lista. (She's ready.) |
| rico | Es rico. (He's rich.) | Está rico. (It's tasty.) |
| malo | Es malo. (He's bad / It's bad quality.) | Está malo. (He's ill / It's gone off.) |
| abierto | Es muy abierto. (He's very open-minded.) | Está abierto. (It's open.) |
| verde | Es verde. (It's green.) | Está verde. (It's not ripe yet.) |
La paella está buena means the paella is good. Said about a person, está bueno or está buena means they're attractive, in quite a physical way. If you want to say someone is a good person, use ser: Es muy buena persona.
For being married, you'll hear estoy casado much more than soy casado in Spain. With soltero (single), people use both. Don't worry about these edge cases early on. Get the main uses solid first.
How to make it automatic
Knowing the rule helps you check a sentence. It doesn't help much in the middle of a conversation, when you have a second to answer. What helps there is having said the right sentences so many times that they come out on their own.
So the goal isn't to apply the rule faster. It's to have your own sentences ready, so you don't need the rule at all.
Write five sentences about yourself with ser and five with estar, all things that are true today. Soy de Leeds. Soy bastante tranquilo. Estoy en la cocina. Estoy un poco cansado. Estoy aprendiendo español. Say all ten out loud every morning for a week. Change the estar ones each day to match how you feel and where you are. The ser ones mostly stay the same, which is a good way to feel the difference.
It also helps to learn ser and estar inside the conversations you'll actually have, rather than as grammar on its own. When you talk about your job, you'll use soy (what you do) and estoy (how it's going). When you talk about where you live, es (what it's like) and está (where it is). The same idea is behind me gusta vs me encanta: learn the grammar in the sentences you need.
Common mistakes
Estoy de Londres.
Soy de Londres. Where you're from uses ser.
Soy cansado.
Estoy cansado. How you feel uses estar.
La fiesta está en mi casa.
La fiesta es en mi casa. Where an event happens uses ser.
Soy en casa.
Estoy en casa. Where you are uses estar.
Stopping mid-sentence to work out the rule.
Keep going. People will understand you, and practice will fix it.
That last one matters most. If you pick the wrong one, people almost always understand you anyway. It's much better to say it slightly wrong than to go blank while you decide. Once ser and estar feel comfortable, por vs para is the next pair most learners work on.
Recap
- Ser is for what something is. Estar is for where it is and how it is right now.
- Use ser for where an event takes place.
- Some adjectives change meaning, like aburrido, listo and rico.
- Learn your own sentences with each verb and say them out loud.
- If you pick the wrong one, keep talking.
In 100 Spanish Conversations, grammar like this comes inside real conversations, so you learn soy and estoy in the sentences you'll actually use. If you've got a ser or estar sentence you're not sure about, post it in the community on Skool and someone will help.
Leeroy studied Spanish for years before moving to Spain and finding he couldn't hold a conversation. He built Basically Spanish around the method that fixed it. Questions? leeroy@basicallyspanish.com