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The Spanish copulas are ser and estar.The latter developed as follows: stare → *estare → estar. The copula ser developed from two Latin verbs. Thus its inflectional paradigm is a combination: most of it derives from svm (to be) but the present subjunctive appears to come from sedeo (to sit) via the Old Spanish verb seer.
In English, the sentence "The boy is boring" uses a different adjective than "The boy is bored". In Spanish, the difference is made by the choice of ser or estar. El chico es aburrido uses ser to express a permanent trait ("The boy is boring"). El chico está aburrido uses estar to express a temporary state of mind ("The boy is bored").
Similarly, the participle agrees with the subject when it is used with ser to form the "true" passive voice (e.g. La carta fue escrita ayer 'The letter was written [got written] yesterday.'), and also when it is used with estar to form a "passive of result", or stative passive (as in La carta ya está escrita 'The letter is already written.').
The use of one or the other is largely a matter of personal taste and dialect. Many only use the -ra forms in speech, but vary between the two in writing. Many may spontaneously use either, or even prefer the rarer -se forms. The imperfect subjunctive is formed for basically the same reasons as the present subjunctive, but is used for other ...
Butt and Benjamin provide a number of common combinations of tenses: if the main clause is in the present tense, one has to use the present subjunctive for the dependent clause, but the present perfect subjunctive if the comment made is about a past event – the imperfect subjunctive may be used as well, replacing the latter; if the main ...
Used interchangeably, the past (imperfect) subjunctive can end either in -se or -ra. Both forms stem from the third-person plural (ellos, ellas, ustedes) of the preterite. For example, the verb estar, when conjugated in the third-person plural of the preterite, becomes estuvieron. Then, drop the -ron ending, and add either -se or -ra.
Another well-known example comes from the Portuguese or Spanish verbs ser and estar, both being translatable as to be (see Romance copula). Ser is used with essence or nature, while estar is used with states or conditions, however. Sometimes this information is not very relevant for the meaning of the whole sentence and the translator will ...
Estar is very frequently used in place of ser. Que tanto and que tan are frequently used instead of cuanto or cuan. [47] Dr. Comfort Pratt has found that Adaeseño, despite its mostly Mexican providence, uses vosotros as a second-person plural pronoun, [48] with the corresponding verb forms, as in vosotros tenéis 'you (pl.) have'.