Lesson 31: Using 'ser' in all sorts of ways
We've seen how to use 'estar', now we'll look at places you would use 'ser' as 'to be' in order to explain the characteristics or a person or thing.
We've already talked about how to remember 'ser' as a characteristic through its use to describe "a being".
 Spanish |  English |
|---|---|
| Un ser | A being |
| Un ser humano | A human being |
Incidently here we come across one of those happy moments when we get an adjective and a noun in one word. In the sentence above 'humano is an adjective -it is being used to describe what type of "being" we are talking about.
But it can also be used as a noun (the object):
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| El humano | The human |
The forms of 'ser'
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Soy | I am (characteristic) |
| Soy estudiante | I am a student |
'Ser' is very irregular but as with most languages (including English) such popular and well used verbs often are.
We'll pause here for a second because I have some good news. There are only 4 verbs in Spanish where the 'I' form ends in 'oy' and now we have covered them all.
- 'voy' - I go
- 'doy' - I give
- 'estoy' - I am (state)
- 'soy' - I am (characteristic)
Hoorah!
Some more good news is that we have actually already covered some of the other forms of 'ser' in earlier lessons, one in the very first lesson:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Es posible | It is possible |
| Son doctores | They are doctors |
And now we can work backwards to get 'we are' by using the rules we already know for discovering forms of verbs. We take off the 'on' and add 'omos'
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Somos | We are |
Thinking about it this way means that it you ever forget the we form but remember the they form you know how to work it out and this 'Thinking' approach will mean you remember forms much better over the long term.
The completely irregular one we haven't covered yet is:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Eres | You (informal) are |
Ser and Comó
With 'Estar' we use comó to find out how someone is - what state they are in.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿Comó estás? | How are you? (informal) |
| ¿Comó está? | How are you? (formal) |
| ¿Comó están? | How are you guys? |
When used with 'ser' we are asking what a person or thing is like - what are its characteristics.
We do this sometimes in English - "How is he?" but from this question we don't know if the person is asking about his health or his character. In Spanish the differentiation is clear because of the difference between using 'Estar' and 'Ser'.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿Comó es? | How is he / what is he like? |