A1 · Ser, estar and hay
ser — what something is
Name, origin, job, quality — what stays put.
At a glance
- Remember
- ser says what would be printed on the passport.
- Form
- (yo) soyI am
- Signal words
- de
- para
- porque
- siempre
- la hora
- Trap
- Wrong:Yo soy un profesor y yo soy de Berlín.Right:Soy profesor y soy de Berlín.
Your turn
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The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in Spanish. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (irregular) person ending
| I am | (yo) soy |
| you are (tú) | (tú) eres |
| he, she is / you (usted) are | (él, ella, usted) es |
| we are | (nosotros, nosotras) somos |
| you are (vosotros) | (vosotros, vosotras) sois |
| they / you (ustedes) are | (ellos, ellas, ustedes) son |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
Origin and nationality take ser.
Soy de Alemania. Somos alemanes.I am from Germany. We are German.
A job or a role takes ser, usually with no article.
Mi hermana es médica.My sister is a doctor.
A lasting quality takes ser.
El piso es pequeño pero luminoso.The flat is small but bright.
The time and the date take ser.
Son las tres y media. Hoy es lunes.It is half past three. Today is Monday.
Ownership and material take ser, with de.
La mesa es de madera y es de mi abuela.The table is wooden and it was my grandmother's.
Example sentences
¿Quién es esa mujer? — Es mi jefa.Who is that woman? — That is my boss.
No somos de aquí, somos de Bremen.We are not from here, we are from Bremen.
El examen es el jueves a las nueve.The exam is on Thursday at nine.
Estos zapatos son de cuero.These shoes are leather.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
English needs the pronoun — «am» on its own is not a sentence — so English speakers keep putting it in. Yo soy is not wrong in Spanish, but it is emphatic: say it in every sentence and you sound as though you were contradicting somebody. And the job goes without an article: Soy profesor, not Soy un profesor.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
ser names what somebody or something is: the name, where they are from, the job, the family, the material, who owns a thing, the time of day. Anything you could write on a passport takes ser.
The forms are irregular and are learnt in one piece: soy, eres, es, somos, sois, son. They are worth having by the end of the first day, because no other verb comes up as often.
The subject pronoun is usually left out. The ending already says who is meant: soy is «I am», and yo soy is said only when the I is being stressed against somebody else.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: ser