How to use SER, ESTAR, HAY and TENER on daily situations

Probably, you  have learned thise verbs already and have a general idea of them, however, to know when use one or the other could be a little challenging at the beginning.
These verbs constitute  an important pillar on Spanish language learning. Once you master them, you will be able to comunicate a lot of things.


HOW TO USE THEM

Let’s start with the main difference between one and the others. Please notice the following examples are not the only way to use them, but I want you to understand the main difference and this is the easiest way.


And as you know, I’m a Harry Potter fan, so I will be using situations from the story 😉
  • SER: Descriptions
  • ESTAR: temporary conditions and locations.
  • HAY: Existence
  • TENER: posession 

Hay un campo de Quidditch en Hogwarts. El campo está a las afueras del castillo. Es grande y tiene 3 aros.



LET’S SEE EACH OF THEM IN DETAIL


SER
  • To express name: Él es Harry Potter. Ella es Hermione Granger. Él es Ron Weasley.
  • To express nationality: Harry es inglés.
  • To express profession: Minerva Mcgonagall es profesora de Transformaciones.
  • To express marital status: Albus Dumbledore es soltero.
  • To describe: Ron Weasley es alto y pelirrojo.                        Dobby es un Elfo libre.

ESTAR
  • Greetings: -Hola, Luna. ¿Cómo estás?
  • Temporary conditions: Hermione vio al Basilisco y por eso está petrificada.
  • Locations: Hagrid está en su cabaña.                     La sala de pociones está debajo del colegio, en las mazmorras


HAY
  • Express existence and it’s always singular. In all tenses.
Hay muchos centauros en el Bosque Prohibido.
Hay cuatro casa en Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw y Slytherin.


TENER
  • To express age: En Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal, Harry tiene 11 años.
  • To express possesion: Dumbledore tiene la Varita de Sauco.
  • Mental state: Harry tiene miedo del Colacuerno.
  • Fisical state: Después del partido de Quidditch, Ginny tiene sueño, tiene hambre y tiene sed.


To finish, a short text to show you how much you could say using only these 4 verbs:

Hay muchas tiendas y tabernas en Hogsmade. La taberna más famosa es Las Tres Escobas. Su dueña es la Señora Rosberta. Las Tres Escobas está cerca de Hogwarts. La taberna es grande y oscura. En el menú tienen cerveza de mantequilla. La cerveza tiene alcohol,  es dulce y está caliente. Los jóvenes magos están un poco mareados luego de beber la cerveza de mantequilla.
Fred y George tienen una tienda de artículos de broma. La tienda está en El Callejón Diagon. Hay muchos objetos mágicos en la tienda. Algunos artículos son peligrosos, otros divertidos y otros muy útiles. Fred y George están muy felices con su tienda.
Well, I hope everything is more clear now. As you see, It’s not necessary to know a lot of tenses or complicated verbs, you just need to know how to use the most common verbs and conjugations.


We can not end without a little challenge:
Can you describe a place from your favourite book? 
24 de junio de 2019
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Sofia Fernandez

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FLUENCY is an art you can master a CREATIVE assignment at a time! ¡Hola! I'm Sofy, your Spanish teacher and language coach. Looking for world-class lessons of the highest quality? Why wait? Let’s become friends today! I'm happy to help you learn smarter, avoiding clichés and 'hacks' that only make you feel frustrated when you don't reach those impossible and tricky goals. WHAT I OFFER? Creative assignments. Student lesson history page. Very detail feedback. Follow up after lessons. What is a creative assignment? Imagine you are learning new grammar, you can use it to tell a story about your favourite character from Game of Thrones or your Hogwarts house! Or, create your own story! MY STORY: I have been teaching online since 2012, in my last year of Colleage (I have a Business Administration degree). It was a suggestion of a teacher and I planned to do it until I graduate, but I fell in love with the profession and keep being a teacher after graduation! WHY CREATIVE ASSIG...
Flag
Español
globe
Argentina
time
21
Habla:
Español
Nativo
,
Inglés
C1
,
Japonés
B2
,
Italiano
A2
FLUENCY is an art you can master a CREATIVE assignment at a time! ¡Hola! I'm Sofy, your Spanish teacher and language coach. Looking for world-class lessons of the highest quality? Why wait? Let’s become friends today! I'm happy to help you learn smarter, avoiding clichés and 'hacks' that only make you feel frustrated when you don't reach those impossible and tricky goals. WHAT I OFFER? Creative assignments. Student lesson history page. Very detail feedback. Follow up after lessons. What is a creative assignment? Imagine you are learning new grammar, you can use it to tell a story about your favourite character from Game of Thrones or your Hogwarts house! Or, create your own story! MY STORY: I have been teaching online since 2012, in my last year of Colleage (I have a Business Administration degree). It was a suggestion of a teacher and I planned to do it until I graduate, but I fell in love with the profession and keep being a teacher after graduation! WHY CREATIVE ASSIG...
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