está & es used twice??

Question

I think my paper was corrected wrong. (We were describing people in our photos). I had this: Ésta es una foto de cinco miembros de mi familia. 1 - "Aquí está mi abuela. Se llama Lena." ...etc.,

• "Detrás de mi abuela, a la derecha, está mi madre. Mi mamá se llama Gloria. Es ama de casa."....

• "La mujer - al la derecha - está mi tía Mary. Es enfermera." etc.,

• "Al la izquierda está mi tía, Althea. Es ama de casa.

• Ella es alta y delgada."

etc.,

She corrected my paper and put "es" after every está.

So it was changed to:

• Detrás de mi abuela, a la direcha, está es mi madre.

I had followed examples in my textbook and thought you used está when you're using a direction like to the right, on the left etc. But if you're saying this woman/man is my aunt/uncle, etc. you use "es". Now I am totally confused because it looks like the verb 'to be' is being used twice the way she changed it. I'm thinking maybe she thought I was saying ésta instead of está. But in the context of the sentence it should be clear and I did use the accent mark on the á (está). But before I ask her about the corrections, I just want to be sure. Maybe you do use it twice when written this way?

Answer 1

I understand your confusion and I don't know if I can help. In every language there are multiple ways to say the same thing. In Spanish there are two verbs for to be. Not everyone uses them correctly all the time (including me). I think you were correct in using estar, but I'm not a native speaker. But here is my advice. Take everything you learn with a grain of salt. Question everything and think for yourself. You have an teacher saying one thing and a textbook saying the opposite. Decide which you think is correct and then when you have a chance to speak with a native ask them the same question.

¿Dónde está tu tía? Ella está a la derecha. Or, Ella es la una con cabello largo. The first is using location as you did above and the second is using a physical description.

I hope this helps a little.

That makes sense to me! But my text book didn't have an example right on point. Thanks - RachelC, Jul 4, 2012

Answer 2

Actually, I think this one is pretty clear.

First, there is no ambiguity between the demonstrative adjective esta and the 2nd/3rd person of estar, since the latter has the tilda, i.e. 'está. So I doubt your teacher is messing up there.

But, who you say who a person is, i.e. their identify, or their basic characteristic, that is definitely SER, and thus in this case, ES.

What you are doing is thinking about the fact that you mentioned the location of the person, and thus thinking you needed to use Estar. But really, that is just an aside. You´re using it to indicate which person your talking about, but what your´re really saying, is who the person IS. What you´re really doing, is identifying the person, and that is SER, in this case.

Let me think for second and I´ll come up with a better example.

I think the problem is she didn´t know what you were trying to say, or, WE, not seeing the instructions your professor provided, don´t know what was really asked here.

First, you said that you started out with.

Ésta es una foto de cinco miembros de mi familia.

I think you meant to say. This is a photo... which should have been.

Esta es una foto de cinco miembros de mi familia.

This might have put the teacher into thinking you didn´t know esta vs está right away, and thus looking for more problems, whether they existed or not.. Depends if she´s the school of thought that allows using or skipping the accents on éste when not ambigous.

In your first bullet point, you did describe her location, so está seems right, Your prof might have thought you were trying to say,, or were supposed to say This is, in which case it would have been ´esta es´ But in that case, her correction should have gotten rid of the tilde too, otherwise she´s still wrong.

On your second bullet point, is should have been Está enferma, not es, so that is wrong legitmately.

That´s the only obvious problem I see,

Go discuss it with your prof and I bet it gets all sorted out.

Thanks. My text book used: Ésta es una foto de mi familia. It then states Aquí están mis abuelos. As for the rest... I didn't say está enferma. I said "Es enfermera". (She is a nurse) I will post my entire presention so it is clear. Thxs! - RachelC, Jun 29, 2012

I think you´re right, and 'I´just read enfermera vs enferma incorrectly, so you´re is looking better and better.. - rogspax, Jun 29, 2012

Just a side note: both "esta" and "ésta" are appropriate translations for "this". However, "está", with the accent on the "a", is completely different. - Goldie_Miel, Jul 3, 2012

Answer 3

Aquí está mi hermano Ramón.

Éste hombre es mi papá.

These two examples are correct, as far as I can se.

Here is my brother ( position in foto)

This is my father. ( permanent relationship, not location)

Thank you. So do you think what I wrote originally was correct to use está ? - RachelC, Jun 29, 2012

La mujer a la derecha es mi tía.. sounds better to me. Gringo sums it up. Look at more examples for ser and estar, it helps. - annierats, Jun 29, 2012

And, as Roxpax says, the tilde is very important. Hope I've helped, I'm no expert at all. - annierats, Jun 29, 2012

Answer 4

Esta is a demostrative pronoun, it can be directly translated as this, your teacher should know better what s/he teaches, since s/he is a teacher.

No, she understands that of course. The problem - I think - is that she thought I was using esta as a demonstrative pronoun when I wasn't. I was using estar. - RachelC, Jun 29, 2012

Answer 5

You are correct, but you have a few errors. "La mujer a la derecha es mi tía, Mary". "A la izquierda es mi tía, Althea". Other that that, looks good!

Answer 6

(I had the photo up on a screen with a pointer, pointing to the various parts of the photo.)

Ésta es una foto de cinco miembros de mi familia.

1 - Aquí está mi abuela. -

2- Se llama Lena. -

3- Es vieja; -

4.- Ella tiene noventa y dos años en la foto.-

5- Sus padres son de Alemania.-

6- Es gorda.-

**

1- Detrás de mi abuela, a la direcha, está mi madre. Mi mamá se llama Gloria. -

2-Es ama de casa. -

3- Es morena con ojos café y de estatura mediana y un poco gorda. -

4- Es la mayor de las hermanas. -

**

1- La mujer - al la direcha - está mi tía Mary. -

2- Es enfermera. -

3- Es alta y gorda. -

4- Es morena con ojos café. -

**

1- Al la izquierda está mi tía, Althea. Es ama de casa. -

2- Ella es alta y delgada. -

3- Es morena con ojos avellana. -

**

1- Detrás de Althea - está mi tía favorita. -

2- Se llama Shirley. -

3- Es delgada y alta. Es rubia con ojos café. -

4- Ella es muy sympática. -

5- Es la menor de las hermanas. -

**

(And the sentence: "Ésta es una foto de cinco miembros de mi familia." was taken directly from text book with the accent over the É. )

Yes, "Ésta" with the accent over the "E" is acceptable as well as "esta" (sin tilde). I think with the first "error", you're teacher simply misunderstood what you were trying to say. - Goldie_Miel, Jul 3, 2012

With the second, "La mujer - al la derecha - está mi tía Mary", I see the mistake. It should say "La mujer *que está a la derecha* es mi tía" or "La mujer *a la derecha* es mi tía". - Goldie_Miel, Jul 3, 2012

The original way reads very peculiar. Kind of like: "The woman - to the right - is present(?) my aunt" - Goldie_Miel, Jul 3, 2012

Oh, and you could also say: "A la derecha *está* mi tía". - Goldie_Miel, Jul 3, 2012

Answer 7

Hi guys, Thanks for the responses. But I am still confused by these answers.

In my text book, it states the ESTAR (está) is used with prepositions of location - not Ser. And I am not speaking of Ésta as a demonstrative pronoun when I say, "La mujer a la derecha está mi tía, Mary".

Are you saying I should still use es, even though I preceded "mi tía" with "a la derecha" (preposition of location) ?

I know if I were to say, "Ésta mujer es mi tía." I would use es. But here, I am giving her location in the photo. In my text book, there is an example where the speaker is pointing to various people in the photo and they say:

Aquí está mi hermano Ramón.

Éste hombre es mi papá.

Thanks for any further clarification because this is really confusing me. I've received different answers on this. I had a Spanish speaker say what I originally had, using the verb estar was correct as originally written.