Can I use "son" instead of "estan" here?
Hi guys, I have a few sentences from a text of my Spanish textbook. Here they are:
(... Una La cocina esta a la derecha.) Las tres zonas "estan" muy bien distribuidas y se distinguen claramente...
Why must "estan" be used here after "las tres zonas"? Why can't it be "son"? I am feeling confused because I don't think we are talking about a certain object located at a certain place, like the sentence "los dos dormitorios estan en la primera planta." I can understand in the above sentence, estan is the correct verb to use rather than ser.
Thanks for reading!
3 Answers
I really don't know why.
I think it is because "distribuido/a" is not an intrinsec characteristic of the areas, but a relative one.
Here's what I think:
La cocina esta a la derecha = The kitchen is on the left. That is clearly a location, so "estar" is correct.
Las tres zonas estan muy bien distribuidas... = The three zones/areas are very well distributed/placed/located... Again, "estar" is correct.
It can be difficult to figure out if "location" is involved, but even if you use the wrong one, you will very likely be understood. Good luck!
La cocina está a la derecha
This is a simple matter of location and nothing more, so estar is the only possibility - a la derecha has nothing to do with its being or nature, but just a direction to the kitchen.
"los dos dormitorios están en la primera planta."
This is again a simple location, but we can change the nature of los dos dormitorios by creating an adjective of la primera planta, ie: los dormitorios de la primera planta (of course, this is now just a frase and needs more to become a complete sentence).
Las tres zonas "estan" muy bien distribuidas y se distinguen claramente...
This too can be said with an adjective phrase using son by saying: Las zonas muy bien distribuidas se distinguen clamente. (This is not very likely, but grammatically it can be done).
