CHANGE THE VERB….CHANGE THE MEANING! SER v ESTAR
It’s easy in English – we have just one verb to say ‘TO BE’. In Spanish we have two….SER & ESTAR.
Did you know that changing the verb can completely change the meaning of what you say? Spanish people have often asked me how we manage with only one!
When talking about people, we use SER to describe their character – their nature. ESTAR is used to describe a person’s mood. There are lots of adjectives which change in this way – so be careful!
Es aburrido – he’s boring
Está aburrido – he’s bored
Ella es baja – she is short
Ella está baja – she feels down, she’s depressed
There are of course many more. Here’s a list of some useful ones, but it’s by no means exhaustive. I’m sure you can find a lot more listed online.
