Lesson 31

Ser for What and Where From

Language Transfer Complete Spanish is by Mihalis Eleftheriou. Listen to the original audio first; use these notes for revision.

Ser forms

Form	Person
soy	I am (characteristic)
es	he/she/formal is
son	they/you guys are
eres	you (informal) are
somos	we are

The e- prefix pattern: Spain→España, student→estudiante, school→escuela, strict→estricto, spectacular→espectacular, spatial→espacial.

There are only four verbs in all of Spanish that end in -oy: voy, doy, estoy, soy.

De = of / from. Where you're from is a characteristic, so you use ser: ¿De dónde eres? = Where are you from? (Literally "From where are you?" — prepositions don't go at the end in Spanish.)

Ustedes = you guys (plural of usted). In Latin America, this is used for both formal and informal "you plural."

You can work backwards from son (they are) to find somos (we are): take off the n (they marker), add -mos (we marker).

Sentences practiced

Spanish	English
Espacial.	Spatial.
Estricto.	Strict.
Espectacular.	Spectacular.
El humano.	The human.
Soy.	I am. (characteristic)
Yo soy.	I am. (characteristic, emphatic)
Soy estudiante.	I'm a student.
Es posible.	It's possible.
Son.	They are.
Somos.	We are.
Eres.	You are.
Él es.	He is.
Ella es.	She is.
Ellos son.	They are. (masculine/mixed)
Ellas son.	They are. (feminine)
Ustedes son.	You guys are.
Nosotros somos.	We are. (masculine/mixed)
Nosotras somos.	We are. (feminine)
Tú eres.	You are. (informal, emphatic)
¿Cómo está?	How is he/she? (state)
¿Cómo es?	What is he/she like? (characteristic)