Introduction to Verbo Ser (To Be permanent)
The first step in today’s blog will take us to see the verb To Be in Spanish. If you do not know it yet, in Spanish, unlike English, we have two different verbs TO BE; the use of each of them will depend on what we are trying to express:
Basically, SER (To Be) will be be used when our communication refers to a permanent expression and ESTAR (To Be) refers to a temporary expression.
→ Remember: SER IS THE PERMANENT VERB TO BE IN SPANISH.
Let’s see the 2 small examples that we should already know:
¿Cuál es tu nombre?
Which is your name?
Mi nombre es Sarah
My name is Sarah
◊ Do you think that the identification of your name is a permanent thing or a temporary thing?
(eventually people can change it but is a very rare thing)
→ So, we would say that is a permanent expression which will take us to SER.
¿Cómo estás?
How are (you)?
Yo estoy cansado
I am tired
◊ Do you think that the mental/physic state in a certain moment is a permanent or a temporary thing?
Is it to be tired, a permanent or a temporary state? It changes clearly.
→ So we would say that is a temporary expression which will take us to ESTAR
People are really curious about the way we look, and of course our country and our faces are connected to it.
So, we’d say……where are you from?
Do you think that the nationality of a person is a permanent thing or a temporary thing?
(eventually people can change as the name but is a very weird thing)
→ So we would say that is a permanent expression which will take us to SER
Nationalities are a clear permanent thing.
¿DE DÓNDE ERES?
From where are (you)?
♠ The order of the words is different than English as we can see:
→WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
→ The exact question in English is:
→ FROM WHERE ARE YOU?
The first step to answer this question is seeing the conjugation of the verb SER. Let’s see:
SER IS THE VERB TO BE PERMANENT IN SPANISH
|
PERSONAL PRONOUN |
PRONOMBRE PERSONAL |
TO BE |
ESTAR |
|
I |
YO |
AM |
SOY |
|
YOU |
TÚ |
ARE |
ERES |
|
YOU (FORMAL) |
USTED |
ARE |
ES |
|
HE |
ÉL |
IS |
ES |
|
SHE |
ELLA |
IS |
ES |
|
WE |
NOSOTROS |
ARE |
SOMOS |
|
YOU(ALL) |
VOSOTROS |
ARE |
SOIS |
|
YOU (ALL FORMAL) |
USTEDES |
ARE |
SON |
|
THEY (MASCULINE) FOR GUYS |
ELLOS |
ARE |
SON |
|
THEY (FEMININE) FOR GIRLS |
ELLAS |
ARE |
SON |
Therefore:
¿DE DÓNDE ERES?
From where are (you)?
YO SOY DE ESPAÑA
I AM FROM SPAIN
YO SOY ESPAÑOL
I AM SPANISH
◊ Of course, we do need vocabulary for countries and nationalities. We will see it in the next section.
Just a small introduction in vocabulary about countries:
|
COUNTRY |
PAÍS |
|
CHINA |
CHINA |
|
JAPAN |
JAPÓN |
|
UNITED STATES |
ESTADOS UNIDOS |
|
ENGLAND |
INGLATERRA |
|
GERMANY |
ALEMANIA |
|
INDIA |
INDIA |
|
SPAIN |
ESPAÑA |
|
SOUTH KOREA |
COREA DEL SUR |
|
RUSSIA |
RUSIA |
|
FRANCE |
FRANCIA |
|
PHILIPPINES |
FILIPINAS |
|
MALAYSIA |
MALASIA |
Are you able to tell me which country you are from already? We bet you are!! Remember:
¿DE DÓNDE ERES?
From where are (you)?
YO SOY DE ESPAÑA
I AM FROM SPAIN
YO SOY ESPAÑOL
I AM SPANISH
Territories and citizenship in Spanish
In the previous section, we saw the names of several countries around the world, but, not the nationality of them. Just a small introduction to Spanish ⇔ Español.
In specific terms:
País (Country)⇒ España (Spain)
Nacionalidad (Nationality)⇒ Español (Spanish)
Here it comes, one of the most annoying things of the Spanish language. The gender of the words (masculine and feminine words). Adjectives, Nouns, Determinants…have a gender (masculine-feminine). We do need a single post to explain the gender but before we go deeper, remember:
♠ Nouns, Adjectives…have a feminine or a masculine gender.
The gender of a noun remains itself without any change.
→ Per example: España ⇒ Spain. España as a noun, does have a gender but it will not change, of course. Then, where does the change come from??
♣ In Nationality terms, knowing that the nationality word (Spanish) is an adjective , girls will have a word with a feminine gender and boys will have a masculine one.
|
PAÍS (COUNTRY) |
HOMBRE (MAN) |
MUJER (WOMAN) |
|
ESPAÑA |
ESPAÑOL ⇔ SPANISH |
? |
|
CHINA |
CHINO ⇔ CHINESE |
? |
|
JAPÓN |
JAPONÉS ⇔ JAPANESE |
? |
|
ESTADOS UNIDOS |
ESTADOUNIDENSE ⇔ AMERICAN |
? |
|
INGLATERRA |
INGLÉS ⇔ ENGLISH |
? |
|
ALEMANIA |
ALEMÁN ⇔ GERMAN |
? |
|
FRANCIA |
FRANCÉS ⇔ FRENCH |
? |
|
ARGENTINA |
ARGENTINO ⇔ARGENTINIAN |
? |
|
COLOMBIA |
COLOMBIANO ⇔ COLOMBIAN |
? |
So, we can use the table above:
→ FOR MEN (MASCULINE) :
¿DE DÓNDE ERES?
From where are (you)?
YO SOY DE ESPAÑA
I AM FROM SPAIN
YO SOY ESPAÑOL (for men)
I AM SPANISH
→ FOR WOMEN (FEMININE):
¿DE DÓNDE ERES?
From where are (you)?
YO SOY DE ESPAÑA
I AM FROM SPAIN
◊ HERE IT COMES THE GENDER CHANGE:
I AM SPANISH
YO SOY ??? (for women)
In the following section, we will explain the gender of a word and the change from a masculine into a feminine word. Do not worry, it is not as hard as it looks, basically it is just annoying!
Masculine and Feminine nationalities in Spanish
As we said previously, many Spanish words (nouns, adjectives, articles…) have a gender, being one of the most annoying things of our learning. Easy but extremely annoying.
To recognize, with a naked eye, when we are reading, using or writing a feminine word, we will understand it afterwards at the end of this section. Everything will make more sense once we see the transformation of the gender from a Masculine Nationality into a feminine.
We have seen countries and masculine (men) nationalities so far. To make the masculine nationality word into a feminine one, we have to know the men (masculine) nationality first:
|
PAÍS (COUNTRY) |
HOMBRE (MAN) |
MUJER (WOMAN) |
|
ESPAÑA |
ESPAÑOL |
? |
|
CHINA |
CHINO |
? |
|
JAPÓN |
JAPONÉS |
? |
|
ESTADOS UNIDOS |
ESTADOUNIDENSE |
? |
|
INGLATERRA |
INGLÉS |
? |
|
ALEMANIA |
ALEMÁN |
? |
|
FRANCIA |
FRANCÉS |
? |
|
ARGENTINA |
ARGENTINO |
? |
|
COLOMBIA |
COLOMBIANO |
? |
|
AMÉRICA |
AMERICANO |
? |
◊ THE GENDER
YO SOY ESPAÑOL
I AM SPANISH
♣ (español is a masculine adjective, so only male would use it)
How would we turn ESPAÑOL into a feminine word?
- ADJECTIVES THAT ENDS WITH A CONSONANT WE WILL TURN THEM FEMININE JUST ADDING AN A AT THE END
ESPAÑOL ⇒ ADD A ⇒ ESPAÑOLA
→ Exemple:
¿DE DÓNDE ERES?
from where are you?
BOYS ⇒ YO SOY ESPAÑOL
I AM SPANISH
GIRLS ⇒ YO SOY ESPAÑOLA
I AM SPANISH
- ADJECTIVES THAT ENDS WITH A VOWEL, WE WILL TURN THEM FEMININE SWITCHING THE ENDING VOWEL I, O, U into A
CHINO ⇒ SWITCH I, O, U to A ⇒ CHINA
→ Exemple:
¿DE DÓNDE ERES?
from where are you?
BOYS ⇒ YO SOY CHINO
I AM CHINESE
GIRLS ⇒ YO SOY CHINA
I AM CHINESE
- ADJECTIVES THAT ENDS WITH A VOWEL E, WILL REMAIN THE SAME FOR GIRLS AND BOYS
ESTADOUNIDENSE (MEN)
⇒ SAME ⇒
ESTADOUNIDENSE (WOMEN)
→ Exemple:
¿DE DÓNDE ERES?
from where are you?
BOYS ⇒ YO SOY ESTADOUNIDENSE
I AM AMERICAN
GIRLS ⇒ YO SOY ESTADOUNIDENSE
I AM AMERICAN
LET’S TURN THE MASCULINE NATIONALITIES INTO FEMININE NOW THEN:
|
PAÍS (COUNTRY) |
HOMBRE (MAN) |
MUJER (WOMAN) |
|
ESPAÑA |
ESPAÑOL (ENDING L) |
(PLUS A) ESPAÑOLA |
|
CHINA |
CHINO (ENDING O) |
(O into A) CHINA |
|
China |
JAPONÉS (ENDING S) |
(PLUS A) JAPONESA |
|
ESTADOS UNIDOS |
ESTADOUNIDENSE (ENDING E) |
(KEEPS E) ESTADOUNIDENSE |
|
INGLATERRA |
INGLÉS (ENDING S) |
(PLUS A) INGLESA |
|
ALEMANIA |
ALEMÁN (ENDING N) |
(PLUS A) ALEMANA |
|
FRANCIA |
FRANCÉS (ENDING S) |
(PLUS A) FRANCESA |
|
ARGENTINA |
ARGENTINO (ENDING O) |
(O into A) ARGENTINA |
|
COLOMBIA |
COLOMBIANO (ENDING O) |
(O into A) COLOMBIANA |
|
AMERICA |
AMERICANO (ENDING O) |
(O into A) AMERICANA |
◊ Note that when turning a word from masculine into feminine the accent mark rule changes, so, as we see above, many masculine words have an accent but the feminine do not. Example:
Masculine ⇒ INGLÉS (ACCENT MARK)
Feminine ⇒ INGLESA (NO ACCENT MARK)
◊AGAIN:
¿DE DÓNDE ERES?
from where are you?
BOYS ⇒ YO SOY ESPAÑOL
I AM SPANISH
GIRLS ⇒ YO SOY ESPAÑOLA
I AM SPANISH
♣ AS WE HAVE SAID IN THE BEGINNING OF THE LESSON WE WERE GOING TO BE ABLE TO SEE WHEN IS A FEMINE WORD WHEN USING, READING OR WRITING.
ARE YOU NOW¿? WE BET YOU ARE.
♥ THE WORDS IN SPANISH THAT END WITH THE VOWEL A BASICALLY ARE FEMININE AND THE REST ARE MASCULINE.
United States, America and American in Spanish
In this section we are going to see something curious that has happened to us along the years that we’ve travelled and worked around Spanish Speaking countries in America.
We have seen in the previous lessons the United States and its nationality. Remember:
País (Country) ⇒ Estados Unidos (United States)
Nacionalidad (Nationality) ⇒ Estadounidense (American)
→ Estadounidense ends with vowel E. Therefore, the gender keeps the same for men and women.
Or
País (Country) ⇒ America (United States)
Nacionalidad (Nationality) ⇒ Americano/a (American)
So far everything is right. Then?
→ We have had the opportunity of being in several countries in South and Central America and when we were referring to American people (people from United States) as American, we saw that people was getting a little bit annoyed because we were using the word America to refer to United States and American to refer to people from United States. It happened few times, and the answer was always going in the same direction:
- Hey! I am American too! And I Live in America too!! Just in the South of America.
- Right!- Sorry -we’d say, and so we understood that when we are in Central and South America referring to the United States and their people as America or Americans is not completely right (they have a point in our eyes).
You might wonder if referring to American as a people from United States is right in those terms:
Well, checking the dictionary in English the Nationality of United States is, actually, the word American, there are no other words as we have in Spanish, so, it is right in English terms to refer to them as Americans but note that in many people eyes, America is the continent and American are the citizens of this continent.
Place ⇒ América
Nationality ⇒ Americano (men) – Americana (women)
- America refers to the continent.
- United States of America refers to the country.
- American refers to the nationality of people from United States.
- American can refer to a citizen of the continent of America.
This is just a curious thing that actually it does not happen in Spanish because as we have seen:
País (Country) ⇒ Estados Unidos (United States)
Nacionalidad (Nationality) ⇒ Estadounidense (American)
A short Spanish introduction
