Ser, Estar, AR, ER, IR
I am just starting to learn spanish and already having a tough time. What is all this Verb stuff in laymen terms? I mean Ser ver Yo Soy = "I AM" but Estar verb Estoy = "I AM" as well and what about these AR,ER and IR verbs'
6 Answers
Would also recommend next to above postings this section of the website, also for other grammatical pitfalls.
which must result in a lot of english jokes not makingf any sense at all in Spanish
lazarus1907 said:
Example: a man knocks at the door and asks the girl:
-Are you decent?
There are two answers:
-No, I'm still getting dressed (Are you dressed')
-No, I'm a burglar (Are you a decent person')
In Spanish, the question "Are you decent'" will use "ser" or "estar" for "are you" depending on whether you expect the first answer, or the second one.
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This is a simple fact of language. Every language evolves the mechanisms that are felt to be necessary by that culture to express the ideas that are of interest/concern to those people. The Inuit is baffled by our using one word ("snow") to describe what he may perceive to be half a dozen different kinds of snow (and, for which, he has different words). The Arab may be distressed at our saying "desert" to describe (what he perceives to be) many different kinds of landscape. If learning a language were merely a matter of substituting one word for another (because there was a one-to-one correspondence), it could be done by computers (and there would be little pleasure in learning a second language).
Example: a man knocks at the door and asks the girl:
-Are you decent?
There are two answers:
-No, I'm still getting dressed (Are you dressed')
-No, I'm a burglar (Are you a decent person')
In Spanish, the question "Are you decent'" will use "ser" or "estar" for "are you" depending on whether you expect the first answer, or the second one.
In laymmen's terms:
Spanish sorts its verbs into three different categories (conjugations): Those ending in AR,ER or IR. Each conjugation has its own rules for forming the verb in different tenses and moods.
Whereas in English we have one one verb for "to be" with many different conjugations Spanish uses two verbs to express . Their conjugations are more orderly and having two verbs allows them to divide the many uses of into two general categories allowing for more subtle expressions of the verb. Many of the connotations that in English we would have to garner through context can be perceived by which of the two methods of expressing is employed.
Dave, your question, original as it seems is the super king of all FAQs. There must be several thousand people asking the same question in the world every hour or so. Please read here for [url=http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A1063017]SER & ESTAR[/url].
