the verb "Estar" and articles

Question

Hi Our teacher of Spanish told us that the verb Estar can only be used with a definite article. In Learn Spanish 1, the lesson - Ser versus Estar -, there was a sentence - Está en una oficina. - He is in an office. Was this by mistake only, or is the combination of Estar+indefinite articles a grammatical phenomenon that is used in Latin America only. Thank you. regards Maros

Answer 1

I'm not sure whether that is a rule, but "está" is a verb used to give specifics about something, while "un" is used for objects that are not easily identifiable (i.e indefinite), which is a contradiction. When things are indefinite, in Spanish we use "hay".

"Ahí está un niño" (sounds very weird)

"Ahí hay un niño" (correct)

Of course, "un" can appear with other words:

"Está en una ciudad" (the city is indefinite)

I think that's the confusion. Estar isn't normally immediately followed by an indefinite article. Bien hecho. - KevinB, Jan 27, 2011

Answer 2

I've never heard what your teacher said. Está en una oficina is a perfectly good sentence. Estar is used with the indefinite article quite often everywhere Spanish is spoken. I would ask your teacher to clarify.

From a page on elementary physics:

Una partícula cargada que está en una región donde hay un campo eléctrico, experimenta una fuerza igual al producto de su carga por la intensidad del campo eléctrico Fe=q·E.

A charged particle that is in a region where there is an electric field esperiences a force equal to the product of its charge times the intensity of the electric field: F = qE.*

But that's not "Está un". - lazarus1907, Jan 27, 2011

Good point, but that was the example. - KevinB, Jan 27, 2011