why is "are" translated son and estan?

Question

why is "are" translated son and estan?

estan should be están - idahorsegirl, Sep 18, 2009

Answer 1

The word "are" translates into "son" and "están" for two reasons. First, are is a form of "to be", and the words for "to be" in Spanish are "ser" and "estar." Secondly, the word "are" is found in English when one says "They are" or "You all are", thus conjugating the Spanish verbs to "son" and "están." Since "You are" and "We are" are also valid in English, other possible translations are "eres" and "somos", or "estás" and "estamos", for "ser' and "estar", respectively.

Thank you so much :) - MrsRED, Sep 18, 2009

No problem. - idahorsegirl, Sep 18, 2009

Answer 2

Ok. First we have to distinguish between Ser and Estar. Its hard to grasp in usage sometimes, even for someone in advanced classes.

Ser is used when an object or person has a permanent character of the description to follow, or in other peculiar uses I won't go into here.

They are crazy

(Ellos son locos) It implies that the people described are lunatics as a permanent characteristic.

Estan todos locos ahora, las mujeres siempre hacen este effecto

(They are all crazy now, women always have this effect on them)

Other examples

Las bananas son amarillas (The bananas are yellow)

Los pantallas estan amarillas ahora. Cuando los estan rojas, llamame!

(The screens are yellow now. When they are red, call me!)

For full details, see lessons on Ser and Estar. They take up a full chapter in my advanced Spanish book for good reason.

In short, Spanish divides "to be" into permanent and temporary states, and gives different forms to those states. English does not make this distinction. Thus its hard to understand and carry out correctly.

Son- third person plural, of Ser Estan- third person plural of Estar

(permanent, characteristic------- temporary, state of being.

Answer 3

Usualmente, Ser se usa para descripcion de una persona o algo. Estar se usa para una condicion temporaria, colocacion, y para formar los tiempos progresivos (los cuales se usan para indicar una accion que esta pasando en el momento que habla.

Mi sobrino es muy delgado.

Mi Sobrino esta en la cocina.

Mi sobrino esta preparando su almuerzo en la cocina.

Espero que esto le haya ayudado