Conjugations of Ser and Estar

Question

¡Hola!

I am learning Spanish and understand the present indicative forms of SER and ESTAR, however, I am wondering how to effectively and accurately use them in sentences.

For example with 'Juan es médico' it makes sense that 'es' is used as this is the 'él/ella/Ud.' conjugation of the verb. However, with sentences like '¿Qué hora es? - how do you know that 'es' is the correct conjugation?

Please could someone help explain when to use: estoy, estás, está, estamos, estáis and estan and soy, eres, es, somos, sois and son. Especially in contexts that are not so obvious.

¡Gracias!

Answer 1

Please follow this link below. I wrote a pretty good article on this, and as this question keeps coming around I always have this link ready.

This article will teach you everything you want to know, and probably a little more.

Link to Ser and Estar

Thank you, that is very helpful - xoxolibby, Dec 8, 2016

¡Perfecto! - codyandrews1993, Dec 8, 2016

Answer 2

Estar is used for temporary things or locations i.e. Juan está en la cocina, while ser is used for more permanent things such as Pulgarcito es antipático or Tito es gordo.

You need to see my article. You will see that this "permanent"/ temporary thing doesn't really work. It's a little more complicated than that. - Daniela2041, Dec 8, 2016

When people say that "ser is for permanent and estar is for temporary" it is like nails on a chalkboard to me. It doesn't even come close to being 50% accurate. - codyandrews1993, Dec 8, 2016