Learn how to form the plural present indicative form of the Spanish verb estar
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Buenos días, me llamo Natalia. |
| Carlos: What’s going on? My name is Carlos. |
| Natalia: “That Pushy Clerk.” Naty, look, I have the conversation and I know what it is and I told you, bank clerks could be pushy. |
| Natalia: Oh Carlos, I never argue with you. I know clerks are quite pushy. |
| Carlos: I am just saying. They start off all nice and formal and then suddenly you can’t breathe because they are following you around. |
| Natalia: Or are they putting clothes in your face and that is the reason why you can’t breathe. Well, you know, you might do something, they don’t know you. |
| Carlos: Whatever. I have an honest face. Anyway, at least they should be honest. I mean Jorge just made an excuse for following her. |
| Natalia: Or he is flirting, he could be. |
| Carlos: Well, how would you react to someone who is saying this color would go better with your eyes? |
| Natalia: I’m not even going to justify that and I have, like, deep brown eyes. So it doesn’t really do anything but well, audience, today we are going to continue our discussion of the verb “estar”. So pay attention to that and not to him. |
| Natalia: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| JORGE: Esta blusa se le vería muy bien. |
| MARTA: Disculpe, ¿me está siguiendo? |
| JORGE: No... era... mmm una opinión. |
| MARTA: ¡Nadie se la pidió! |
| JORGE: Creo que por el color de sus ojos este color se vería mejor. |
| MARTA: ¡Qué necio! |
| And now, slowly. |
| Una vez más, esta vez lentamente. |
| JORGE: Esta blusa se le vería muy bien. |
| MARTA: Disculpe, ¿me está siguiendo? |
| JORGE: No... era... mmm una opinión. |
| MARTA: ¡Nadie se la pidió! |
| JORGE: Creo que por el color de sus ojos este color se vería mejor. |
| MARTA: ¡Qué necio! |
| And now, with the translation. |
| Ahora, incluimos la traducción. |
| JORGE: Esta blusa se le vería muy bien. |
| JORGE: This blouse would look very good on you. |
| MARTA: Disculpe, ¿me está siguiendo? |
| MARTA: Excuse me, are you following me? |
| JORGE: No... era... mmm una opinión. |
| JORGE: No...it was...mmm...an opinion. |
| MARTA: ¡Nadie se la pidió! |
| MARTA: No one asked for it! |
| JORGE: Creo que por el color de sus ojos este color se vería mejor. |
| JORGE: I think that with the color of your eyes, this color would go better. |
| MARTA: ¡Qué necio! |
| MARTA: What an idiot! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Natalia: Carlos, I mean, I wouldn’t get so mad. You know, the guy is just trying to do his job. |
| Carlos: Okay, really like “Naty, this will go better with the color of your eyes.” |
| Natalia: It doesn’t matter…. |
| Carlos: If you like a shirt. |
| Natalia: He is trying to sell, he is trying to sell. In the next lesson, we will know what happened. So I mean we will see if it actually works or if it doesn’t work. I say it’s a selling technique. |
| Carlos: Okay, you could say it’s a selling technique or whatever you want, but I know that I would have something that we would like to buy but if they are following me around but it happens all the time. I don’t put anything, any clothes here because they are following me around and I am like... |
| Natalia: Just ignore him. |
| Carlos: Out of spike, I am like I am not buying your clothes. |
| Natalia: Well, you lose. You are the one that was wearing the same clothes all the time. |
| Carlos: Well whatever. I am not – we don’t know how many of them you missed, Natalia. |
| Natalia: Let’s continue. |
| Carlos: Okay, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. First we have a masculine noun. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natalia: “Color”. |
| Carlos: “Color”, “character.” |
| Natalia: “Co-lor”, “color”. Por ejemplo: “Rosado es mi color favorito”. |
| Carlos: “Pink is my favorite color.” And now we have a verb. |
| Natalia: “Disculpar”. |
| Carlos: “To forgive”, “to excuse.” |
| Natalia: “Dis-cul-par”, “disculpar”. Por ejemplo: “Disculpamos al profesor por no venir”. |
| Carlos: “We forgive the professor for not coming.” Next a feminine noun. |
| Natalia: “Opinión”. |
| Carlos: “Opinion”, “view.” |
| Natalia: “O-pi-nión”, “opinión”. Por ejemplo: “Este colegio no me merece muy buena opinión”. |
| Carlos: “I have a poor opinion of that school.” And coming up, an adjective or an adverb. |
| Natalia: “Mejor”. |
| Carlos: “Better”, “best.” |
| Natalia: “Me-jor”, “mejor”. Por ejemplo: “Los futbolistas argentinos son los mejores”. |
| Carlos: “The Argentine soccer players are the best.” And then a verb. |
| Natalia: “Seguir”. |
| Carlos: “To follow”, “to keep on”, “to continue”, “to still be.” |
| Natalia: “Se-guir”, “seguir”. Por ejemplo: “Hay alguien que nos sigue”. |
| Carlos: “There is somebody following us.” And last but not least, a feminine noun. |
| Natalia: “Blusa”. |
| Carlos: “Blouse.” |
| Natalia: “Blu-sa”, “blusa”. Por ejemplo: “Esta blusa está muy linda”. |
| Carlos: “This blouse is very pretty.” |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: All right, you know what Naty, let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Natalia: The first word we will look at is “color”. |
| Carlos: “Color”. That’s a masculine noun, “color”. That’s pretty easy. I mean “color”, “color”, “color”, “color”. |
| Natalia: Yeah, it does mean “color” but also it could mean “character” or “nature.” |
| Carlos: Really? |
| Natalia: Yep. Remember that “trova” song? |
| Carlos: Which one, Naty? |
| Natalia: Carlos, “No soy de aquí ni soy de allá”. “I am not from here nor there.” |
| Carlos: How can I forget? |
| Natalia: Carlos, what’s one of the lines? |
| Carlos: I am trying to think… |
| Natalia: What goes on? What goes on after that? |
| Carlos: Oh okay, okay. “Y ser feliz es mi color de identidad”. You know I always wondered about that. I mean I kind of get the meaning but what does it mean exactly? |
| Natalia: “And be happy is the color of my identity.” |
| Carlos: You know what, now I see the link. You know but think of the conversation, Naty. They used it there a little more traditionally. |
| Natalia: Yep. “Creo que por el color de sus ojos este color se vería mejor”. |
| Carlos: “I think that with the color of your eyes, this color would go better.” Man, that clerk has guts. |
| Natalia: Well, call it what you want, I would excuse him. |
| Carlos: Naty. |
| Natalia: Okay, okay. The next word is the verb “disculpar”. |
| Carlos: Which would be to forgive or to excuse which is why you would excuse him. |
| Natalia: Right but a very, very important verb to use and if you know, if you want to be polite, that’s the one you have to use. |
| Carlos: Well, you could be polite or annoyed like… |
| Natalia: “Disculpe, ¿me está siguiendo?” |
| Carlos: “Excuse me, are you following me?” She doesn’t sound happy. |
| Natalia: I wouldn’t be either. You know, you wouldn’t. |
| Carlos: Well, no, I wouldn’t, not at all. |
| Natalia: But here is a more polite way to use it. |
| Carlos: How so? |
| Natalia: “Tengo que disculparme con mi hermana por no llamarla en su cumpleaños”. |
| Carlos: “I have to apologize to my sister for not calling her on her birthday.” Naty, how could you forget? |
| Natalia: Carlos, it is just an example. I would never forget my little sister’s birthday. |
| Carlos: I really hope so, Naty. Well, next up. |
| Natalia: Next up a feminine noun, “opinión”. |
| Carlos: I think I got this one. “Opinión”, “opinion.” |
| Natalia: Good work. |
| Carlos: I try, I try. You know, it was used like that in the conversation. |
| Natalia: “No... era... mmm una opinión”. |
| Carlos: “No, it wasn’t, my opinion.” Naty, I know you think she’d reacted correctly. |
| Natalia: She did but maybe you know I wouldn’t have taken it that much. |
| Carlos: Ah, okay. |
| Natalia: It depends, we don’t know the situation. Maybe she is…. |
| Carlos: We are imagining. |
| Natalia: Maybe he was two inches from her. |
| Carlos: We are imagining the situation a bit differently obviously, okay? But audience, I am sorry to say but “Naty no tiene una buena opinión de los hombres”. |
| Natalia: Carlos, give me a good reason to have a better opinion of men and I will have one. I am not that much of a feminine. |
| Carlos: Man, she walked right into that one, you know. She didn’t even deny it. |
| Natalia: Okay, anyways, audience I am not a rotten feminist. Please believe me. How awful, Carlos, you get me involved and I fall and I say these things and then I listen to myself in the lessons and look at this. |
| Carlos: And you have a mirror put up to your face. |
| Natalia: Oh anyways, Carlos, here is an adjective or an adverb. |
| Carlos: Nice. A double threat. Which is it? |
| Natalia: “Mejor”. |
| Carlos: “Mejor”. Better or best. |
| Natalia: Right but it was used as better in the conversation. |
| Carlos: Yeah. “Creo que por el color de sus ojos este color se vería mejor”. “I think that with the color of your eyes, this color would go better.” |
| Natalia: Right, but it also means “best.” |
| Carlos: Like... |
| Natalia: “La mejor parte de la historia fue el final”. |
| Carlos: “The best part of the story was the end.” You know a story all depends on the end. It really does. |
| Natalia: The following verb means “to follow.” |
| Carlos: “Seguir”. Clever. |
| Natalia: You aren’t the only one who has his moments. |
| Carlos: No, you are right, Naty. |
| Natalia: Well, we’ve heard the example already but this is where Marta asked the question “Disculpe, ¿me está siguiendo?” |
| Carlos: “Excuse me, are you following me?”, but come on, we already saw the example. I know you can come up with another one off the top of your head. |
| Natalia: I can, “Te puedo seguir en mi carro”. |
| Carlos: “I can follow you in my car”, if you had a car that is. |
| Natalia: Ah I don’t want a car now or ever. Actually I got a car – well, I will tell you later. Carlos, examples, examples. Don’t grab everything’s literally. |
| Carlos: or whatever I am just trying to say. See there are certain that Naty has a very strong conviction with and having a car is one of them. |
| Natalia: And another one is clothes. |
| Carlos: Of course, our next word is a... |
| Natalia: Feminine noun, “blusa”. |
| Carlos: “Blouse.” So a woman’s shirt. |
| Natalia: Yes Carlos, exactly, a women’s shirt. |
| Carlos: So what makes up “blusa” I never understood that. |
| Natalia: Carlos, me neither. I always say my shirt. |
| Carlos: Okay, true. |
| Natalia: The thing is that blouse I guess it goes for a female and for a dressier kind of thing and then like… |
| Carlos: I will take that explanation. |
| Natalia: That’s my – that’s what my mom says, I don’t know. |
| Carlos: Well, you know what but Jorge has an opinion of the blouse from Marta. |
| Natalia: “Esta blusa se le vería muy bien”. |
| Carlos: “This blouse will look very good on you”, and are we allowed to give our opinions with that. |
| Natalia: Never. |
| Carlos: Just checking. I can give you an example, I think. |
| Natalia: Go ahead. |
| Carlos: “En la tienda hay muchas blusas nuevas”. “In the store there are a lot of new blouses.” |
| Natalia: That’s a good one. |
| Carlos: I just remembered you once saying that in a store. |
| Natalia: Oh well, well, well! It’s good that you remembered you know. There are some holidays coming. Thanks. |
| Carlos: They all passed. My birthday is first. |
| Natalia: No, no but we got upcoming holidays. Any ways Carlos, let’s continue with our discussion of the verb “estar”. |
| Carlos: You know I was going to ask you about that because it is really important. |
| Natalia: Yes, it is. Let’s go real quickly. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Natalia: What kind of conjugation is in the verb “estar”? |
| Carlos: Well, the verb “estar” is a first conjugation verb which means “to be.” |
| Natalia: Which means... |
| Carlos: Well, that means that it is a “ar” verb or it ends in “ar”. |
| Natalia: Right and again, what is it used to describe. |
| Carlos: Well, it’s used to describe changeable kinds of being. |
| Natalia: As opposed to... |
| Carlos: “Ser”, which also means to be but refers to permanent states of being. |
| Natalia: What do you mean? |
| Carlos: Well, like origin, like “Soy de Nueva York”. “I am from New York” and no matter what happens in my life or where I am, that doesn’t change like “eres de Costa Rica”, “you are from Costa Rica.” |
| Natalia: Exactly, but “estar” on the other hand has to do with the kinds of beings that come and go. |
| Carlos: Right like being angry, being happy or tired or excited et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. |
| Natalia: “Estar” is one of the most important verbs in the Spanish language. |
| Carlos: That’s a big claim, why do you say that? |
| Natalia: Because it is used in so many different contexts. |
| Carlos: So since this is a verb, are we going to focus on conjugating it? |
| Natalia: Good guess. |
| Carlos: Which one? |
| Natalia: Well, let’s continue with the present tense of the indicative mood but this time in the plural. |
| Carlos: Perfect. The formation isn’t that hard. |
| Natalia: Well then how do you form it? |
| Carlos: Well, to form the present tense of the indicative mood of the verb “estar” in the plural, you need to remove the “ar” ending and then add the personal plural endings. |
| Natalia: Which are? |
| Carlos: Check it out. First person plural, “nosotros estamos”, “estamos”, “e-s-t-a-m-o-s”, “we are.” |
| Natalia: And the second person plural. |
| Carlos: “Vosotros estáis”, “estáis”, “e-s-t-á-i-s”, “you all are”, informal. |
| Natalia: And the third person plural. |
| Carlos: Well, that would be “ellos estan”, “they are” masculine, “ellas están”, “they are” feminine and “ustedes están”, “you all are”, formal. So we have “están” for all of those. |
| Natalia: Wow! Okay, well audience, those are the plural conjugations. |
| Carlos: I got these down, I mean the fundamentals, Naty. I’d hope I will be able to… |
| Natalia: I hope so “estar” is fundamental. |
| Carlos: Naty is right. We cannot overemphasize the importance of this verb. |
| Natalia: So then since it’s so fundamental, let’s look at some examples. |
| Carlos: Well, after you Naty. |
| Natalia: No, no, no, not this time. You give me the sentence. |
| Carlos: Okay, check it out. Man, I hate the pressure. |
| Natalia: Think. |
| Carlos: Okay, “Nosotros estamos fastidiados”. |
| Natalia: “We are annoyed”, good. Annoyed related to mood. You wouldn’t be annoyed forever. |
| Carlos: Well, that depends. |
| Natalia: On what? |
| Carlos: Nothing. |
| Natalia: Carlos, no. Go on. |
| Carlos: “Vosotros estáis felices”. |
| Natalia: “You all are happy.” Now will we say this in Latin America? |
| Carlos: No, “vosotros”, Spain |
| Natalia: Good. Another. |
| Carlos: “Ustedes están contentos”. |
| Natalia: “You all are pleased.” I think you got it. |
| Carlos: Well, I told you I did, Naty. What about you audience, any questions. I mean comment on this lesson and we will get back to you on that as soon as possible. |
| Natalia: You can also comment if I should get Carlos’s blouse for his birthday. Now listen, for all of the tenses in the Spanish language, the first person plural, for example the “nosotros” form always ends in “mos”. |
| Carlos: “M-o-s”. Right like “estamos” and I think I see where you are going with this and listen, I make that bluff look good. |
| Natalia: Okay, then let me continue. The third person plural in all tenses always ends in “N”. |
| Carlos: Like “están”, “están”. |
| Natalia: Exactly. This is an important characteristic to remember as it will help you decide for the functions of the verb since you learn more of the tenses. |
| Carlos: Which really is key, trust me. I mean it is one of the most important things to learn but to make things really clear, how about a common or useful expression with the verb “estar”, “to be.” |
| Natalia: Okay. A useful expression to learn with “estar”, “to be”, is “be well.” |
| Carlos: Well, then how would you say that? |
| Natalia: There are different ways. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Natalia: If you want to say to a close friend, you would say “¡que estés bien!” |
| Carlos: And let’s say I want to be respectful and say it’s an older person. |
| Natalia: If you want to say to an older person and thus formally you would say “¡que esté bien!” |
| Carlos: Fine and let’s say I am having a reunion with friends and I am going to leave to come back to Costa Rica and I want to say “be well” with all of them, how would I say that? |
| Natalia: Depends where are you. |
| Carlos: What do you mean? I am in New York. |
| Natalia: No, you have a choice. Latin America or Spain. |
| Carlos: Okay, okay why not. I think of myself as a globetrotter. So just tell me how to say if I am in Spain or Latin America. |
| Natalia: Fine, if you want to say it to more than one close friend in Latin America, you would say “¡que estén bien!” in Latin America. |
| Carlos: And in Spain? |
| Natalia: “¡Que estéis bien!”, in Spain. |
| Carlos: You know I will just throw it out there for argument sake. What about if I wanted to say to more than one older person which would be formal. |
| Natalia: You would say “¡que estén bien!” |
| Carlos: You know, these are all good phrases to know. I always say “be well, people” in English. |
| Natalia: And you can say it in Spanish. |
| Carlos: Right and I will. |
| Natalia: Okay, I will make sure to keep an ear on. |
| Carlos: And she will but you do that, Naty. |
| Natalia: Okay. |
Outro |
|---|
| Carlos: Well, you know what, that just about does it for today. Okay, we are out of here. ¡Nos vemos! |
| Natalia: ¡Hasta luego! |
| Carlos: ¡Chao! |
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