SPANISH-ENGLISH
| Es para tí. | "It's for you." |
| ¿Qué hora es? | "What time is it?" |
| Son las cinco. | "It's five o'clock." |
| Es tarde. | "It's late." |
| Pero es necesario ir. | "But it's necessary to go." |
| Es evidente. | "It's evident." |
2.estar "be" is used to express a temporary condition, location, and also as the auxiliary of the progressive tense:
| ¿Cómo está Ud.? | "How are you?" |
| ¿Dónde está el libro? | "Where's the book?" |
| Está sobre la mesa. | "It's on the table." |
| Ellos están en Chile. | "They're in Chile." |
| ¿Quién está hablando? | "Who's speaking?" |
| El niño está jugando. | "The child's playing." |
| Ella está enferma. | "She's sick." |
a)In order to determine whether to use ser or estar when the predicate is an adjective, the following rule should be kept in mind: ser is used when the predicate adjective indicates the nature of an object or an inherent characteristic (1, below); estar is used when the predicate adjective indicates a temporary condition (2, below):
| (1) | La lechuga es verde. | "Lettuce is green." (by nature) |
| (2) | La fruta está verde. | "The fruit's green ." (a state of the fruit) |
| (1) | María es pálida. | "Mary's pale." (by nature) |
| (2) | María está pálida. | "Mary looks pale." |
| (1) | Es un hombre raro. | "He's a queer man." |
| (2) | Está muy raro hoy. | "He acts very queer today." |
b)estar should never be used with a predicate noun.
c)ser should never be used with the past participle except to form an unequivocal passive voice:
| La ventana está abierta. | "The window's open." |
| La ventana fué abierta por María. | "The window was opened by Mary." |
| La casa está bien construida. | "The house is well built." |
| La casa fué construida en 1945. | "The house was built in 1945." |
3.haber never means "have" in the sense of "possess". This meaning is rendered by tener: el tiene el libro "he has the book".
a)When haber is not used as an auxiliary verb to form the compound tenses, it is an impersonal verb corresponding to English "there is, there are, there was, there were", etc, and as such has the form hay in the present tense:
| Hay tres libros sobre la mesa. | "There are three books on the table." |
| Hay un hombre en la habitación. | "There's a man in the room." |
16
