No es casada.
I heard this on a language tape: No es casada.
Is this correct? I thought it should be:
No está casada. (She is not married).
However, for soltera, since it can be an adj as well as a noun, I think both would work.
Es soltera (she is an unmarried person = she is single); Está saltera (she is single).
Is my understanding correct?
5 Answers
There is a difference of nuance between "estar casado" and "soy casado".Legal forms will just say "casdo o soltero" and if they happen to mention a married person, they will say "persona casada" and in this case it is the same as saying "la persona es casada".
In common speech if a woman says "Soy casada," she indicates that her entire life revolves around her marriage and family. If a woman says "estoy casada," she indicates a state she is in or she is a woman who just happens to be married.
A married man who wants to have an affair and if he doesn´t lie to another woman about about being married, will have better luck with her by using "estar" rather than "ser". States of being can be changed - the person himself can not be changed.
For some speakers sometimes there is a teeny bit of difference. The difference may be beyond what you're interested in knowing about at the present moment though, as it deals with how sentences are constructed rather than, necessarily, the semantic meaning of the sentence. Semantically, by itself, es/está casada is identical.
Easier to understand if you use a different sentence though.
They should be married by now. In this case some people would use estar instead of ser.
They were married by our preacher. In this case you absolutely must use ser, by definition of the passive construction. (There are other passive constructions, but they don't use ser or estar)
The reasoning is you treat ser casado as a passive construction, and use estar casado to describe the result of something.
The same difference can be seen far more easily in hecho/done.
The work should be done by the students at home. (Passive - ser)
When you come to class tomorrow the work should be done. (The end result - estar)
Both ways are right and they mean the same. Estar/Ser casado.
Do you consider "casada" as a state, or a temporary condition/location? That generally is a good guide to the use of ser or estar.
Julian said:
In common speech if a woman says "Soy casada," she indicates that her entire life revolves around her marriage and family. If a woman says "estoy casada," she indicates a state she is in or she is a woman who just happens to be married.
Wow! Guess I'd better change my status to "soy" because I've been using "estoy" and I don't want to give the wrong impression!!!
