"The fields are separated by walls"

Question

Hello! I'm a native English speaker learning spanish. As part of my lessons, I look at photos and describe what I see, and then have it checked by a helpful native Spanish friend. I was looking at a picture of rice fields in China, and one of the statements I wrote was:

"Los campos son separados por muros."

I was corrected that it should be "estan", not "son".

Boo, another ser vs estar question, I know. In my mind, the walls seem like a feature of the landscape, and pretty permanent. I'm not sure why estar is correct.

Can anyone help?

Thanks, spanishdict community! You the best!

G'day mate , welcome, I am waiting for aSpanish speaker to give you a definitive answer , one will mosey by shortly . - ray76, Nov 11, 2015

Answer 1

Well, the sentence: los campos son separados por muros could be correct depending of the context of the sentence.

In this kind of special cases, the rules that English speakers learn in Spanish are not totally valid.

In a normal conversation you would say: Los campos están separados por muros, but if you are writing about the fields you could say, for example En esta zona de China, donde los campos son separados por muros, llueve mucho.

This is almost exclusive in writing Spanish (or talking as a narrator).

:) - rac1, Nov 11, 2015

Answer 2

Location of physical objects is Estar.

You see here is one moseying by as I predicted , thanks mate. - ray76, Nov 11, 2015

Even if it's not really the location being talked about? You're describing the fields, the wall is a description or condition of the fields. - Winkfish, Nov 11, 2015

I was thinking that - it sounds like a permanent feature of the fields - nothing to do with their location. - ian-hill, Nov 11, 2015

Answer 3

We'll that's certainly an easy explanation. Thanks!