Estar VS ser VS tener

Question

what is the difference between the words Estar ser and tener

This has been covered a squillion times . - ray76, Dec 8, 2015

Copy down the links that Dani has obligingly given to you. - ray76, Dec 8, 2015

Answer 1

What do you think the difference is? I am sure you have been taught that ser and estar are both verbs meaning 'to be'.. Ser is used more often than estar, but there have been lots of previous threads about this.

Tener means to have, though as you have probably discovered the Spanish use it to describe being hungry or thirsty.. I remember one lesson we had a list of sentences with a gap and all of them were idiomatic expressions with tener.

I also recall many lessons about the idiomatic uses of estar and ser.

I suggest you do a search of the net. If however, you have a particular phrase or a use which is puzzling you, ask about that. My name isn't google!

I pressed submit not realising that Daniela was your search engine - Mardle, Dec 8, 2015

I think I'll have my own site "danielasearch.com" :) I only search once per customer then I encourage them to do themselves. - Daniela2041, Dec 8, 2015

Answer 2

Ser and estar both mean "to be" but are used in different ways. Tener on the other hand means "to have" but there are many idiomatic expressions used with all these verbs, so you really can't trust the dictionary in their usage.

Here are some links you can use to research the subject. These are from our vast selection of grammar topics you can find at the bottom of our main webpage under "grammar"

basic ser and uses

uses of ser descriptions

There are more uses of ser, just keep on looking in the "Verbs" subsection of grammar.

Here's a couple of links on "estar"

First link on estar

Uses of estar--condition

Here's some on "tener"

First link on "tener"

A really "cool" link on idiomatic uses of "tener" plus other goodies.

I could have given you all this information but I probably would have exhausted all the bandwith on SD BTW, the info on "tener" came from Google search and not SD

Buena suerte

Your answer saves her looking - but good links. - Mardle, Dec 8, 2015