| Hola! This is Brenda, your Spanish teacher. |
| Today, we’re going to have a look at the difference between ser and estar, but specifically to talk about locations compared to events. As you know, we have two different verbs to say “to be” in Spanish. We’re going to have ser and estar. So because we only have one verb in English, we need to learn when we use one verb and when we use the other verb in Spanish. |
| One of the things that is very distinctive between these two verbs in Spanish is that we’re going to use el verbo ser to talk about events. Anything that is related to the event including the location, we’ll use el verbo ser and not estar. For locations in general, just to say where things or yourself or other people are located, then we’re going to use el verbo estar. |
| Let’s start with el verbo estar in this specific case because we know for sure that whenever we have a location… location, location, location, we’re going to use el verbo estar. |
| So let’s have a look at some examples… |
| Estoy en la universidad |
| ¿Marta, dónde estás? |
| él está en el café |
| El banco está en la calle Colón |
| ¿Dónde está el baño? |
| ¿Dónde está el restaurante? |
| Colombia está en Sudamérica |
| Estamos en México de vacaciones |
| So you can see all these examples, we have either people or things in a location. Whenever we want to talk about a location, we’re going to use el verbo estar and not ser. It would be incorrect to use el verbo ser for any of these examples. |
| Let’s talk about events. So what is an event? An event, it would be anything that is organized. For example, an event could be a party. Fiesta! It could be, yes, like a party, but including a birthday party, end of the year party, any sort of party, housewarming party, anything party. It could be a concert or a play, a movie, etc. For anything that is an event, we’ll use the verb ser and not estar including the location. Let’s have a look at this example. |
| La fiesta es el viernes |
| La fiesta es a las 8 de la noche |
| La fiesta es en mi casa |
| So have a look at here. So we have, for the date and time, we know that we have to use el verbo ser, so the party is on Friday, it is at 8pm, but pay attention to this, la fiesta es en mi casa. In this case, we’re talking about a location, but can you see that we’re using the verb ser in this case? And that is because we’re talking about the location of the event. I’m not asking where your house is, I’m asking or we’re giving information about the location of the party, the event itself. |
| Now, if someone didn’t know where I live or didn’t know my address, we’ll say, perfect, I got it, the event location. |
| ¿Dónde está tu casa? |
| “Where is your house? |
| Because now, we’re not talking about the event. Now, we’re talking about the house, the location of the house. We need to switch to the verbo estar. I know it could be a little confusing. Often, you know, oh my god, is this an event? Is this a location? It’s very simple. An event, remember is a concert or a party or any gathering that is important. |
| So, a little trick to use if you’re not sure is to replace the verb with “is taking place.” If it makes sense, you know that you’re using the verb ser correctly. |
| So, let’s have a look at this… |
| La fiesta es en mi casa. |
| “The party is taking place in my house.” |
| It makes sense? ¡Sí! Creo que sí. |
| El concierto es en el estadio. |
| “The concert is in the stadium.” |
| The concert is taking place in the stadium. |
| ¿Tiene sentido? |
| “Does it make sense?” |
| Yes! So you know that you’re using the verb correctly. |
| El banco es en la av. Colón. |
| So “The bank is taking place in Colon Avenue.” |
| I don’t think… that doesn’t make sense, okay? |
| Mi casa es en el norte. |
| “My house is taking place in the North.” |
| It doesn’t make sense, so if it doesn’t make, you know that you’re using the verb ser incorrectly for… it’s not an event, it’s a location and you need to use el verbo estar instead. |
| And, if you want to replace el verbo estar in these cases, you can replace it “is located.” |
| Por ejemplo… |
| El banco está en la av. Colón. |
| “The bank is located in Columbus Avenue. |
| Mi casa está en el norte. |
| “My house is North… My house is located North.” |
| Let’s try this with events. |
| La fiesta está en mi casa. |
| “The party is located in my house.” |
| Maybe, sounds a bit weird. |
| El concierto es… |
| El concierto está en el estadio. |
| “The concert is located in the stadium.” |
| It doesn’t quite make sense because it’s taking place, it is a one-time occasion. |
| Muy bien! I really hope that you found this lesson useful and then now you understand the difference between ser and estar in terms of location. When we talk about general location of things or people and when we are talking specifically about events. ¡Muchas gracias! Thank you so much for watching and I will see you next class. ¡Adiós! Hasta luego. |
Comments
Hide