Why "estar hecho de"?

Question

Why use "estar" when telling of what something is made, as in, "La chaqueta está hecha de cuero," when another way of saying the same info is, "La chaqueta es de cuero?" Is it incorrect to say, "La chaqueta es hecho de cuero"?

Answer 1

My beer just says "Hecho en México", no ser, no estar.

I have also seen that on many things, , no verb. - annierats, Dec 5, 2013

And the name of my favorite restaurant in Austin. Any verbs are implicit in the actions of customers after tequila. - rogspax, Dec 5, 2013

¿Es la crema de la cerveza? Merece una vota. - Jubilado, Dec 5, 2013

Por supuesto. Cuando puedo tomar la mejor por que tomar menos. - gringojrf, Dec 6, 2013

Answer 2

Both work, ser + past participle strangely enough focuses on the action while estar + past participle focus on the result of an action, ie the state something is in after an action has been carried out.

So could this be like the difference in English between "made of" ser hecho and "made from" estar hecho? - Jubilado, Dec 5, 2013

I think it's just that ser is describing a passive action, they make it from such and such, where estar would be just a fact 'it's made of' - but that's just my take off the top of my head, not a real grammatical explanation lol. - Kiwi-Girl, Dec 5, 2013

Jubilado, I think this one is down to quibbling, but if so, I like your comparison a lot. Kiwi, I like your explanation a lot too, but will offer a very slightly different take on it (though barely) below. - rogspax, Dec 5, 2013

Darn I wish I understood all this as well as you. - rogspax, Dec 5, 2013

lol such fun :) - Kiwi-Girl, Dec 6, 2013

Answer 3

Just riffing on Kiwi´s comment of

I think it's just that ser is describing a passive action, they make it from such and such, where estar would be just a fact 'it's made of' - but that's just my take off the top of my head, not a real grammatical explanation lol.

I would say that´s just right, but maybe substitute the words ¨passive action¨ with something about ¨intrinsic characteristic¨ when talking about ¨ser¨ (Es de cuero)

And then está hecho de cuero, refers to the state the product ends up in.

That little tweak makes the choice of the two words at least consistent with the uses of Ser vs Estar that we´re used to. (But I don´t think this is one where it matters much)

Musing, I wonder if the choice of those two ways of expressing essentially the same thing might not be influenced somewhat by a native´s perception of whether something is almost sure to be made out of material X (and choosing es de) vs it being one of several common options, and choosing está hecho de. I don´t know. One for the natives.

It's always good to muse, my friend. This may be one of those things that will never be completely clear between the 2 languages because of the use of 2 verbs in Spanish and 1 in English. - Jubilado, Dec 5, 2013

I like your musing in the last paragraph. Interesting idea. - gringojrf, Dec 6, 2013

Answer 4

"La chaqueta está hecha de cuero," - The jacket is made of leather.

La chaqueta es de cuero. - The jacket is leather.

Just a guess. Maybe this has already been covered.