ser/estar pesado
Hi which is correct: "Esta bolsa es pesada" or "Esta bolsa está pesada"? Can both be right? Or does it make a difference how many bags there are...."Estas bolsas son pesadas" I read both "Esta bolsa está pesada" and "Estas bolsas son pesadas" in a book for learning Spanish and it confused me.
Thanks for the help
4 Answers
Both good answers, but note that in certain situations this formula is different.
When discussing people we say, ie: Ese tipo está pesado ... That guy is heavy / overweight.
But to say that he is a difficult person, ie: Ese tipo es pesado ... That guy is hard to get along with. (This is idiomatic in Mexico and maybe not used in all regions)
I tend to agree with isijder.
With objects, you would typically use ser to describe the inherent nature of something. The bag itself is heavy.
You use estar to describe the current nature of something. For example, you would definitely use estar to talk about something being clean or dirty.
If you want to say...these bags (full of stuff) are really heavy. You can say Estas bolas están pesadas.
Note however the following sentence from the SD dictionary.
Estas bolsas de la compra son pesadas.
These grocery bags are heavy.
Here, ser is obviously being used to describe the bags full of groceries. It is not saying anything about the weight of the empty bag.
In a situation like this, I think either ser or estar can be used to talk about some bags that are heavy with their contents.
Using ser implies that bags full of groceries are always heavy. It is their nature.
Using estar might convey that these bags are particularly heavy, heavier than normal. They are a real pain to carry!
I'm not a native speaker, if I am incorrect about any of the above, I hope a native speaker will correct me.
Another thing to watch out for, with ser + past participle that agrees with the subject in number and gender, in that the passive can be formed in this way. I mention this only to make you aware of this possibility as you continue your studies. I doubt very much that you are dealing with that phenomena here for several reasons.
Estas bolsas son pesadas.
These bags are weighed. (in this case, not a statement referring to a past event, but it would be possible to find such a sentence in the description of a multi-step process, but it would be much more likely that the sentence just means the bags are heavy. )
Estas bolsas ya han sido pesadas. (stating an action that has been performed using ser passive)
Estas bolsas ya se pesaron. (using se passive with preterite)
These bags have already been weighed. Or these bags were weighed.
As with most things in English and Spanish, additional context will normally make it easy to know whether you are dealing with an active statement about their weight, or a passive statement about whether someone has already weighed them.
While we wait for the experts to chime in, I would understand the first one as:
"Esta bolsa es pesada" to mean the bag itself is heavy.
In the second example:
"Esta bolsa esta pesada" to mean the contents in the bag make it heavy.
Eso de “está pesado” no me suena bien. Cuando yo describo a una persona digo, “Mario es pesado y ES corto.” (“Mario is heavy and he is short”). Si es un tipo gruñón, criminal, poco amigable, etc., también usaría “es” pero lo aclararía de antemano: “No te metas con Mario, que es un pesado de la pandilla.” (“Don’t get in Mario’s face because he’s a ‘heavy’ in the gang.”).
Eso de la bolsa, si es o está pesada, sí creo que depende de la bolsa misma o de su contenido.
