Ser OR Estar for this situation
Ningunas vacaciones a Alaska son completas sin una excursión a Mt. McKinley. No vacation to Alaska is complete without a trip to Mt. McKinley.
The web site has the above.
My Spanish teacher changed the son to están Ningunas vacaciones a Alaska están completas sin una excursión a Mt. McKinley.
What do you all think?
6 Answers
In this case either ser or estar is grammatically correct, as it depends on the nuance of the writer.
Ningunas vacaciones a Alaska son completas ....... This nuance is that vacaciones is repeated, ie: Ningunas vacaciones a Alaska son vacaciones completas .............. focosing on the nature of the vacations.
Ningunas vacaciones a Alaska están completas ......... Here we obviously cannot repeat vacaciones. This variant emphasises the condition or state of the vacations.
Using estar in this case is more common. The use of ser would be found in writings like adverts.
Both are ok.
Goo:
I would side with your teacher on this one. If you use an adjective with ser you are referring to an inherent, typically permanent, characteristic of something. If you use an adjective with estar you are often referring to a temporary mood of a person or when referring to things, you might be describing a condition. For example you would use estar to talk about something being clean or dirty, or ripe or unripe, etc.
Sometimes you can use either ser or estar with an adjective to talk about something. Ser bueno, when referring to food for example, means that the food is of high quality, has excellent ingredients, etc. Estar bueno with food means that it tastes particulary good to you, it's really delicious.
In this case, you are saying that a vacation is incomplete without a trip to McKinley and it is complete with such a trip. By mentioning how a vacation changes from one thing to another with this attribute, it makes more sense, in my opinion, to use estar.
On the other hand, if you said something like....all the vacations offered by that agency are very complete / comprehensive, you could use ser. As Julian said, the travel agency would use ser in their advertisements. This is an inherent characteristic of these vacations as contrasted to less complete vacations offered by other agencies. The travel agency wants to convey the idea that their vacations are always complete and that if you choose to go on one of their vacations you can count on having a complete vacation.
Igual que Ken, el español no es mi lengua nativa. “Están completas” me suena correcto. Para ilustrarlo uso dos diálogos cortos:
— Oye, ¿cómo están las vacaciones? — Estupendas. Ya volvimos a casa. Íbamos a visitar el McKinley pero se nos acabó el tiempo.
— Oye, ¿cómo son las vacaciones? — ¿Cómo que no lo sabes? Es cuando sales del trabajo y te dedicas a la diversión.
Hello Goo,
Welcome to our SpamishDict community forum 
You said/asked:
Ningunas vacaciones a Alaska son completas sin una excursión a Mt. McKinley. No vacation to Alaska is complete without a trip to Mt. McKinley. The web site has the above.My Spanish teacher changed the son to están Ningunas vacaciones a Alaska están completas sin una excursión a Mt. McKinley. What do you all think?
Yes, I would also certainly have to agree with your Spanish teacher, as well as Ken and Don Bigote, on this point since you are not talking about a characteristic in this context but a condition or state of being complete! The verb ser is used for characteristics but the verb estar is used to indicate a state of being complete, or an action!
So, están completas in the context of your answer is correct, not..... son correctas!
Ningunas vacaciones a Alaska están completas sin una excursión a Mt.McKinley
Here are two examples below to help you better understand the differences:
1.Las vacaciones de verano son largos = The summer holidays are long!
You would use the verb ser in this context because it describes the characteristic of the (summer) holidays: long
2.Las niños están jugando en el parque. = The children are playing in the park
You would use the verb estar in this context because you are talking about an action: the children are playing in the park! More importantly, the verb estar is used to form the present and past progressive tenses!
I hope this helps
Corrijan mi español si es necesario, por favor
