Giantpaper.org

First off, since we’re talking about languages: Two Chinese Characters: How to Pronounce Beijing. I remember several years ago coming across a web page somewhere, where the owner was put off by people pronouncing Beijing with a French j. I haven’t been able to find that page again, but I assumed he meant it’s actually pronounced with an English j and looks like I was right.

I wrote an entry on Japanese pronunciations earlier. And just because I like the language just as much, I’ve decided to write something about Spanish! I don’t know if an entry on pronunciations is really that needed (I think most people—at least where I come from, know that you’re supposed to roll your r’s in Spanish). Instead, let’s talk about…to be verbs!

There are two to be verbs: ser and estar. What’s the difference between them?

• ser: Used to describe the quality of something.
• estar: Used to describe the situation (or condition) of something.

So in a sentence about a green apple, when conjugated to third person singular, you have (respectively):

• La manzana es verde.
• La manzana está verde.

They both mean “The apple is green”, but the first one refers to “green” being a quality, so it’s actually talking about an apple that is always green. On the other hand, because the second one refers to the condition of the apple, it’s referring to an apple that is unripe (i.e. it’s green now, but will be some other color later).

I wouldn’t say that ser is more permanent and estar is more temporary, because then it’ll only get confusing (i.e. what if I don’t know if Person X is always crazy/sick/happy, etc?). And besides, when you talk about someone being dead, you use estar (Está muerto), and death is a permanent thing (well…unless if you’re talking about a fandom like the Drgaonball series…).

Some other examples:

• “He’s happy.”
  Es feliz. (he’s a happy person)
  Está feliz. (he’s happy)
• “He’s hot.”
  Es caliente. (he’s horny—I thought it would mean that he’s physically attractive, but the Spanish Wiktionary entry seems to refer to either temperature or horniness :/)
  Está caliente. (he’s hot, temperature-wise)
• “He’s crazy.”
  Es loco. (he’s insane or mad)
  Está loco. (he’s out of his mind)

Modified: July 07th, 2008