Spanish: An Essential Grammar

increíble ‘to be incredible’ and, perhaps more surprisingly, ser feliz‘to be

happy’ and ser desgraciado ‘to be unlucky/unhappy’ even though these

appear to indicate states.

Note: Está claro que[SP] ‘It’s clear that’.

3 Estar lleno ‘to be full’, estar vacío ‘to be empty’, estar intacto ‘to be

intact’.

Serand estarwith past participles

Ser with a past participle forms the passive voice. Estar with a past

participle describes a state. See 15.1 for these constructions.

Special uses of estar

Estar de

The phrase estar de (but never just estar) is used with a noun to indicate

that a person is acting in a particular capacity, or occupying a position:

Está de cónsul en Newcastle. He is acting as consul in

Newcastle.

Estoy de jefe hasta que I am the boss until Juan returns.

vuelva Juan.

Note: Estar deis used in fixed prepositional phrases such as estar de vacaciones ‘on

holiday’,estar de buen/mal humor ‘in a good/bad mood’,estar de viaje‘travelling’.

Colloquial expressions using estar

Notwithstanding the general principle that serrather than estaris used

when a noun follows, estarvery occasionally combines with a noun to form

a colloquial expression: Estoy pez en matemáticas ‘I’m clueless about

maths’, Está fenómeno ‘It’s fantastic’.

20.5.2

20.5.1

20.5

20.4

1111

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111

20

Serand estar

214