Spanish Lesson: Spanish adjectives with Ser & Estar

This lesson is part of the Beginner Spanish Course (127 lessons)

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In this Spanish lesson we are going to see Spanish adjectives that change their meanings depending on whether they are used with either Ser or Estar. We have already looked in depth at the two verbs Ser and Estar which are both the equivilant to the verb To be in English and their different meanings and uses. Here we will analyse in detail how certain Spanish adjectives with Ser & Estar change their meaning completely. For example, if we say Soy rico, using el verbo ser and the adjective rico, it means I am rich, whereas if we say Esta rico, using el verbo estar and the adjective rico, it means It is tasty. You can see that the Spanish adjective Rico completely changes its meaning from rich to tasty. It important to be aware of all of these little details as you can very easily misunderstand a conversation. Repeat each phrase after me in the video to work on your Spanish pronunciation, complete the activity and then write out lots of practice sentences in Spanish to see how much you have remembered.

Lesson notes:

Ser bueno/a: to be good (quality of objects/personality of people)
Estar bueno/a: to be tasty (food)/to be attractive (people)
Ser listo/a: to be intelligent or clever
Estar listo/a: to be ready
Ser verde: to be green (colour)
Estar verde: to be unripe (food)/to be new to a situation (people)
Ser claro/a: to be obvious
Estar claro/a: to be simple/clear
Ser malo/a: to be bad (quality of objects/ personality of people)
Estar malo/a: to be bad (taste of food)/ill (people)
Ser abierto/a: to be extrovert and sociable
Estar abierto/a: to be open
Ser rico/a: to be rich (people)
Estar rico/a: to be tasty
Ser cerrado/a: to be introvert
Estar cerrado/a: to be closed
Ser negro/a: to be black (colour)
Estar negro/a: to be tanned/to be angry or fed up/to be dirty (for objects)

Activity:

Translate the following…

This cake is very tasty.
The tomatoes are green.
Pedro is very open.
The table is black
This car is very good.

Here are the answers to the last activity:

Ring ring!
María: ¿Digame?
Jorge: Hola, ¿está Lola?
María: ¿De parte de quién?
Jorge: De Jorge.
María: Vale, ahora se pone.
Lola: ¡Hola Jorge!
Jorge: Hola Lola, ¿quieres ir al cine conmigo esta noche a las 9:00?
Lola: Vale, bien.
Jorge: Bueno, te dejo.
Lola: Nos vemos
Jorge: Hasta luego.