"esta" and "estas"

Question

In the question "How are you?" in spanish why do you say "estas" or "esta" I understand "es" is from the verb "ser"= "to be" but where does the ending come from?

Susan - Es is from the verb "Ser" Esta is from the ver "Estar" - ian-hill, Sep 28, 2009

Susan - look in the "conjugation" section under the "more" tab. - ian-hill, Sep 28, 2009

Welcome to the forum - Aranjuez12, Dec 14, 2012

Answer 1

In Spanish there are three lines of "respect" That expression, How are you?, can be written or said,

1. ¿Cómo está (usted)? = Formal
2. ¿Cómo estás (tú)? = Informal
3. ¿Cómo estás (vos)? = Even more informal (between buddies, brothers, pals, etc. This line of Spanish is not used in all Spanish speaking countries, but it is correct Spanish.

All three of them are correct!

Answer 2

Esta/estas comes from a different verb in fact, the verb Estar.
Estar also means to be but refers more to temporary states than to permanents states.

So, 'esta' is the formal/Ud. form of estar, whereas 'estas' is the informal/tu form of estar.

Answer 3

estas would be the informal tu and the esta would be the formal UD.

Answer 4

Your question actually pertains to the fact that Spanish has two separate verbs for the English equivalent to be.

The two verbs in Spanish are ser and estar.

For the sentence that you are asking about, the correct verb would be estar.

There is a good video lesson and reference article on this website about the differences between these two verbs that I would recommend you to take a look at.

Here is a link to the reference article Ser vs Estar

Answer 5

¿Cómo está? is a phrase you're able to use when you want to ask how someone is doing who you don't know, older people, your teacher. People you want to address formally. ¿Cómo estás? is a phrase you're able to use when you want to know how someone is doing when you're the same age, younger people, friends. People you want to address informally. Both are from the verb estar. emotion is often temporarily and therefore expressed with Estar.

When you use esta / estas without accents you are using a word to describe "this" or "these". The written accents in Spanish are extremely important for it will make you recognize what you're talking about. In speech it will tell where to put the accent how to pronounce a word.

I hope this will answer your question. Also make sure you'll watch the video Ian pointed out.

Answer 6

When do you use está and estás?

Answer 7

Daniel, this Post/Thread is about estar as used in "How are you." Yours is an answer to some other question. This answer is not correct in the question's context. - Moe

Moe: are you saying the conjucation of estar is not está and estás? Without the accent mark they mean "this" and "these" -- or am I out in space agian.

Daniel, I guess what I ought to have said is that the references to "this" and "these" only introduce some other idea into the answer. If you wanted to say "está" and "estás" needed tildes, that should have been said more directly. - Moe, Sep 28, 2009

Answer 8

Thanks for the corrections, I suck at the accents......lol

Answer 9

Esta = this; and estas = these. It should be "está" and "estás"

Daniel, this Post/Thread is about estar as used in "How are you." Yours is an answer to some other question. This answer is not correct in the question's context. - Moe, Sep 28, 2009

Not sure about that Moe "How are you?" from the original post. - ian-hill, Sep 28, 2009

"How are you?" = "Cómo está(s) right? - ian-hill, Sep 28, 2009

I think that he was saying that the meat of the question had to do with the original poster's lack of knowledge regarding the two verbs "estar" and "ser" - Izanoni1, Sep 28, 2009

Answer 10

Well I'm new also. But this is how I understand this. Está and estás are both conjugations of the verb estar and not ser. I find my Spanish verb book helps a lot for questions like these. There are 2 ways to say you in Spanish. Tú, which is informal and used for friends and family. The other is Usted. Used for occasions when you are not familiar with the person, or is someone respected, etc. Como estás is the informal version of how are you, or the tú form of saying you. Está is the formal version or the usted form of you.

Como estás - Informal Como está - formal

Trust me, these will get easier for you......

added accents - Izanoni1, Sep 28, 2009