sentences with ser and estar

Question

I am doing some exercises about ser and estar again but I have some doubts about the following sentences. After doing the exercise I looked at the solutions provided by the book but somehow it seems to me that there are some mistakes at the book. Anyway my answers are :

1. El tiempo es muy fresco en estos días.
2. Esteban ¿estás listo ya? Tenemos que salir
3. Este yogur está malo. No tiene un buen sabor.
4. Voy a comprar pescado. Es bastante fresco.¿No crees?
5. Hoy no soy muy católica. Me siento mal.
6. El agua de la piscina está muy fría hoy.

are these correct?

Answer 1

The only thing I would correct would be the 5th sentence. It's different no ser católica (you don't believe in Catholicism) from no estar católica (you don't feel well or you don't feel like doing something).

There's another thing that sounds weird to be: it is "el tiempo es fresco", but I'm not sure if it's because it's wrong or because it's an unusual contruction for me...

• thanks you - rubia Sep 3, 2010
• :D - LoaEtayo Sep 3, 2010

Answer 2

Hi, Rubia. You did a great job on this exercise.

Here are two that seem incorrect to me.

Voy a comprar pescado. Es bastante fresco.¿No crees?

I would use "está" here because you are talking about the condition of the fish today. If you spoke of fish in general "El pescado es muy saludable" then I would use "ser."

Hoy no soy muy católica. Me siento mal.

This sentence is confusing because you are either a Catholic or you are not.

If you are not feeling too Catholic today, for example, you are experiencing a great dal of envy and it's not "very Catholic to give in to envy" then maybe you could say "No me siento como una católica hoy."

• I think the Catholic sentence is fine. It's not unusual to hear "no estoy muy católico" or "no me siento muy católico" meaning "I'm not feeling well". Spaniards can believe one day, and next one they don't... :D - LoaEtayo Sep 3, 2010

Answer 3

1. El tiempo es muy fresco [en] estos días.

Very unusual to use a verb of classification like "ser" based on an impression based on just a short time span. While it may not be wrong depending on how you look at it, it makes you think why it sounds so strange. "Estar" would fit better, but I would say "Hace mucho fresco estos días".

1. Hoy no soy muy católica. Me siento mal.

Here you are classifying yourself as a Catholic kind of person. The equivalent expression for " being under the weather" is expressed "estar", because it describes a state (-> estar) of being, instead of saying that you are a being-under-the-weather kind of person.

Answer 4

Very Good Try Ruby most of it seems good.

Just a few points...

4 I think Marianne is correct here it should be está since you talking about the fish on a particular day not in general (in which case you would ser )

5 Loa is correct here, it should be "no estoy católica (from verb estar not ser) I checked out this expresssion with my Spanish Oxford Dictionary which makes the distinction quite clear ! Ser would be used if you are saying that you **are a catholic**

I hope that this helps

• Esteban is a name - rubia Sep 3, 2010
• I think teh second sentence is fine: "Esteban" is a name (the sentence is adress to Esteban), "estaban" wouldn't make much sense... ^^ - LoaEtayo Sep 3, 2010
• I didn't realize that Esteben was a name sorry :) - FELIZ77 Sep 3, 2010
• Yes, Loa, you are right ...estaban wouldn't make much sense would it? lol - FELIZ77 Sep 3, 2010