Diferencia entre "estés bien" y "estás bien"

Question

Hola SpanishDict,

¿Cuál es la diferencia entre "Espero que estés bien" y "Espero que estás bien"?

Creo que el segundo es incorrecto.

"Espero que estás bien" está mal expresado, no existe... "estás bien" es una oración en presente (ej: "¿tuviste un accidente? ¿estás bien?"=are you ok?) y "Espero que estés bien"viene a ser un "wish" (un deseo) y es como una despedida o un "good luck"... - Raziel220, Apr 25, 2013

Answer 1

After esperar, both the indicative and the subjunctive can be used, but with a resulting difference in the meaning of esperar:

Esperaban que viniéramos: They hoped we would come

Esperaban que vendríamos: They expected us to come

Regarding the question, the first sentence is correct, as esperar is used here to express the emotion of hope.

Sheily you are correct, I'm sorry I said the second isn't acceptable, as it is. I wasn't aware of the "expect" use of the verb. - socceryo3, Jul 11, 2010

Answer 2

One is like a wish estés bien . Estás bien is like a question . Hope this helps .

Not always... "¡No llores! ¡si estás bien!" (don't cry! you arent' hurt!!) "estar bien" es un estado (estoy bien = I'm ok) - Raziel220, Apr 25, 2013

Answer 3

EDIT: I originally said the second isn't acceptable, however, it is. It just means something different. The first is subjunctive. Estás is in the present tense of the indicative mood, which is only for real things. The thing you hope for, that the person is well/ok, is not necessarily SO, it's just something hoped for. You can't use the indicative because you can't indicate as certain what you only hope for. If you DO use the indicative, it means you consider it a certainty. With an indicative verb after, it changes to mean "to expect".

Eh, tell me if something I said was confusing as I feel like I rambled/repeated a bit. I give some credit to Sheily because she explained the indicative use while I had said it wasn't correct.

Thanks....that was pretty clear. - aphextg, Jul 11, 2010