The Spanish verb SER means “to be”. But there are two verbs meaning “to be” in Spanish – SER and ESTAR.
SER is used primarily in situations to imply permanence, equivalence, characteristics, origin, nature, identity and possession (“My apple IS bigger than his”, “He IS tall”, “Ice IS cold”, “He IS French”, “This car IS mine”). SER is an irregular verb. You just need to memorize the form that goes with each pronoun.
One of the most commonly used verbs in the English language is to be. In Spanish, we actually have two verbs that can mean “to be” and they are SER and ESTAR. First we’re just going to focus on SER.
| NOTE: The unchanged form of the verb is called the infinitive. Thus, SER is the infinitive form of this verb. |
In English, the verb to be is irregular in that we change “be” to different conjugations like “is,” “am,” and “are.” The verb “be” is also irregular in Spanish. Let’s take a look at the conjugations in the chart below. Remember from our previous lesson about subject pronouns (Subject Pronouns Unit) that memorizing where the subject pronouns “live” in this chart can be very helpful in your Spanish learning!
ser = to be
| soy | somos |
| eres | sois |
| es | son |
A closer look…
Here is the same verb conjugation chart but it is now showing the pronouns that go with the verbs and their meaning in English.
| yo soy = I am | nosotros (as) somos = we are |
| tú eres = you (informal) are | vosotros (as) sois = you all (Spain) are |
| él es = he is ella es = she is usted es = you (formal) are | ellos son = they (masculine) are ellas son = they (feminine) are ustedes son = you all (Latin America; formal in Spain) are |
How do I know when to use ser versus estar?
We use ser in more permanent situations versus the temporary ones when we use estar. We will dive more in depth on this topic in our upcoming estar lesson but for now remember these few tips on when to use ser:
- Telling time (Ex: Son las siete y media de la noche.)
- Expressing the date (Ex: Hoy es martes.)
- Description (Ex: La niña es muy pequeña.)
- Occupation (Ex: Mis padres son doctores.)
- Origin (where someone is from) (Ex: Elena es de Argentina.)
- Possession (Ex: Esta mochila es de Juan.)