Struggling with Ser vs. Estar? Here's Your Plain English Guide!

The verbs ser and estar both mean to be in Spanish. However, they can’t be used interchangeably. This causes a great deal of confusion as to which to use, especially for beginners. In this article we’ll simplify the distinction and provide a couple tips to help you always pick the appropriate verb.

Short and sweet

We'll start with this rule of thumb –

• Ser is used to describe something permanent about someone or something.
• Estar is used to describe something temporary or describe the location of something.

Different verb, different meaning

In many cases when choosing between ser and estar, there might not be an absolute wrong answer – but there isn’t a correct one either. Let’s look at an example where both verbs are grammatically correct but express different ideas:

In the example, soy and estoy (conjugated forms of ser and estar) refer to different time frames for being feliz. They’re both grammatically correct, but can cause confusion as they convey different ideas. We hope to clear up this source of confusion in the rest of this article.

Examples

More about ser

As mentioned, ser expresses permanent descriptions or characteristics. This includes things like occupations, relationships, nationalities, origins, and traits.

Here are some examples:

Ser is also used when talking about the time or date:

More about estar

Estar is used when talking about temporary conditions or traits. In particular, this includes physical position or location.

Estar is also used when mentioning actions that are actively happening.

Next steps

Let us know of any useful tips you’ve encountered for learning ser and estar. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to us.