Lesson 30: Using 'estar' in all sorts of ways
In the last lesson we saw one way to say 'to be' in Spanish is 'estar'. Let's see how that can be used with what we've already learned!
Estar recap
OK, we'll just run through all the forms of 'Estar' again for revision and this time using the words for "I", "you", etc. just for practice.
 Spanish |  English |
|---|---|
| Yo estoy | I am |
| Él está | He is |
| Ella está | She is |
| Usted está | You (formal) are |
| Ellos están | They are |
| Nosotros estamos | We are |
| Nosotras estamos | We are (female group) |
| Tú estás | You (informal) are |
And now let's use these with verbs and words we've learned in previous lessons.
Estar with Comó
Now the "you (informal)" version of 'Estar' is one you are going to here all the time in Spanish speaking countries.
'Comó' means "How" and 'Estás' means "you are" (as in your current state - not about a characteristic of you) so naturally:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿Comó estás? | How are you? (informal) |
| ¿Comó está? | How are you? (formal) |
| ¿Comó están? | How are you guys? |
Just a quick point on this which helps with written Spanish. If you are trying to remember which of the 'o's the accent goes on just remember the Spanish general rule is that the spoken accent should go on the penultimate syllable. So there would be no need to put the accent on the first 'o'. This way you can always remember the accent is on the second 'o'.
Estar with Dónde
'Dónde' means "where".
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿Dónde estás? | Where are you? (informal) |
| No sé dónde estamos | I don't know where we are |
| Estoy aquí | I am here |
| Quiero estar aquí | I want to be here |
| Voy a estar aquí más tarde | I'm going to be here later |
| ¿Dónde vas a estar? | Where are you going to be? |
| ¿Dónde tienen que estar más tarde? | Where do you guys have to be later? |
Estar and Deber
We used 'Debo' in previous lessons to say "I must" - the to form is 'Deber'.
"Must" can be used in the same alternative way in Spanish as we do in English - to express our belief that something is true even if it may not be - e.g. "He must be here by now".
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Debe estar aquí | He must be here |
| Debe estar cansado | He must be tired |
| Deben estar cansados | They must be tired |
| Deben estar cansadas | They (female group) must be tired |
Quedar recap
As we covered in a previous leson 'Quedar' means "to remain". If you don't remember it clearly now is a great time to do the mental exercise of going through all the forms using the rules for verbs ending 'ar'.
It is a reflexive verb - something we can do to ourselves so we use 'me instead of 'yo'.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Me quedo | I stay / I'm staying |
| Nos quedamos | We stay / We're staying |
Let's just try that in a mega sentence - "We are not going to stay because we are very tired". As always looks tricky until we break it down:
- We are not going to - 'No nos vamos a'
- stay - 'quedar'
- because - 'porque'
- we are - 'estamos'
- very tired - 'muy cansados'
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| No nos vamos a quedar porque estamos muy cansados | We are not going to stay because we are very tired |