Ser or Estar?

Estudiantes... I am posting this information, reaped from other sources, in the hopes that it will be a helpful pool of resources for you. The notion of "ser vs. estar" is one of the trickiest concepts for beginning students of Spanish. So I hope you find some or all of the following very helpful. I do not take credit for any of it. The websites have been included for citation purposes, so you may like to bookmark the sites.

General Ser Rule

Ser is used to classify and identify permanent or lasting attributes. If the general rule isn´t specific enough for you, think of the acronym DOCTOR, which stands for Description,Occupation, Characteristic, Time, Origin, and Relationship

General Estar Rule

Estar is used to indicate temporary states and locations. If the general rule doesn´t suffice, think of the acronym PLACE, which stands for Position, Location, Action, Condition, and Emotion.

Here is the link if you would like to see more (including examples).

http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/100040/ser-and-estar

Also, the following information comes from http://www.studyspanish.com/. For more information, check out this site. It's a wonderful site because it first explains the grammar concept in English and then in Spanish.


http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/serest1.htm
http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/serest1.htm
http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/serest3.htm
http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/serest4.htm

When a noun follows the verb, use ser
When an adjective follows the verb, decide between "essence" and "condition"
To tell where something is from, use ser
To tell where something is located right now, use estar
To tell where an event is taking place, use ser


And for audiovisual you folks, here is some YouTube you might enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPRWnL2kGok&feature=related

Like anything that is difficult, this is going to take some time and practice. And even then, it may be awhile before you feel comfortable distinguishing between the two verbs.