#estar and ser

[landwriter]

Sooo I wrote this while half-asleep like a week ago and wanted to read it over in the morning before sending (to see if it, you know, made any sense), and then I forgot about it until coming across it on my notes today, so here it is now:

Remembered another thing: having two different verbs for "to be" ("ser" and "estar"). This isn’t exclusive to Portuguese (I know it exists in Spanish, at least), but it's something that English doesn't have and that can give trouble to English speakers learning Portuguese (partly because we suck at coming up with simple general rules for when to use which that cover every last usage of "to be" and why in many cases only one is acceptable. I’ve explained it as “ser” is for things that are permanent, that are part of the subject’s essence – only for someone to promptly point out that you must use “ser” for professions, and people change profession all the time and someone’s work is hardly part of their essence. So Idk, if anyone’s read a really good explanation please send me a link so I have something to refer people to).

The lack of this distinction doesn’t seem, to me, to make English more ambiguous. At least I’m hard pressed to come up with an example where despite the context I couldn't tell if an "is" meant "é" or "está".

Out of context though.

"It's cold here where I live." Well is it cold now in particular, or is it a generally cold place?

"I'm happy." Is this a general statement about the overall condition of your life, or are you experiencing the feeling of happiness at this moment?

But while in context it's not ambiguous, I feel like it's a distinction that English speakers don't really make inside their minds. Like, they’re using the same word, not two different verbs which just happen to sound the same and have the same spelling. I certainly don't think about it when speaking English. But when speaking Portuguese, it's inscribed into the language.

Anyway, I just thought it’s a neat difference you might like to know about. I don't really have a way to work this into a fic. Maybe a situation where Hob wants to underline that something "não é", it merely "está"? Or the opposite? Eu estou triste, mas eu sou feliz? Mais do que estar feliz com você, eu sou feliz com você?

Or some wordplay? Ele está sonhando, em um certo sentido, mas, mais do que isso, ele é o próprio sonhar. He is (está) dreaming, in a sense, but more than that, he is (é) the dreaming itself. (fun fact, we use the infinitive, not the gerund, when we want to use a verb as a noun).

There's potential in the breaking of the rules, I suppose. Like, species is a "ser" case. Always. I am (sou) human. Buuut Dream being Dream, he isn't (não é) human. But maybe he can be (estar) human, in the time he spends with Hob. (Now I've entered playing with language territory. I wouldn't risk something like this in, say, a college admission essay or a Portuguese test).

Unrelated to any of the above, Flower King!!! Thank you for writing it. It is utterly breathtaking and so inspiring I spent an entire afternoon working on a new fairy tale WIP instead of working on the WIP I meant to work on. Like, I wrote two paragraphs of it and then opened a new document and spent hours just doing a new thing instead.

!!!! This is incredible, and I love love love your examples. There are SO many beautiful possibilities in breaking the rules and wordplay in a given language - that's one of my favourite sort of uses of language, is using grammar or any other form of linguistic, like, expectations and structure to say something. What a great case of something that (to me) is so elegant in the source language and can only be translated with tonal emphasis or extra words in English. I innately understand your example of Dream's relation to being human - I remember debating over capitalization for the same ends: his waking body vs his Waking body. Is love (He is in love, I am in love with you, It is love, etc.) a case that can use both? Can you use ser vs estar to distinguish between, say, an act of seduction versus a permanent state of being seduced by someone? Can you write shit like 'I was seduced; I was seduced.' or analogs? Because that's SO fucking sexy.

I feel like it's a distinction that English speakers don't really make inside their minds. Like, they’re using the same word, not two different verbs which just happen to sound the same and have the same spelling.

For me, at least - one representative of 400 million native speakers, and ppl's minds most certainly work differently around language, caveat, caveat, etc - I do sometimes feel a distinction between a specific & general state of being. Especially re: feelings. It comes out in tone, but I also think we use a lot of things that might not seem like obvious context in low context situations. These are probably super regional too (See how Canadians say yes by saying "No, yeah" and no by saying "Yeah, no", but also say yes by saying "Yeah, no, [yeah]" or any other positive marker. "Yeah, no, for sure." and "No, yeah, totally" are both agreements. Very intuitive!!) But take "I'm happy." - the context there is usually in the grammatical form used in the question - if you ask how's it going?, it's a now-in-particular answer. If you use present perfect or whatever the fuck it's called, you know, the auxiliary verb nonsense, and ask how's it been going? it's an in-general answer. It's also in the answers: I'm good is something you say when you've just fallen over and people are concerned, vs. I've been good when you've just seen friends for the first time in months and they're concerned. But that only comes up to the present and doesn't necessarily imply a future of good-being - I'm not sure if ser is different in that respect.

Are the two verbs used liberally to distinguish between temporary versus non-temporary emotional states like in your first example? Is it a common mode of expression to use both in one sentence? Can you use language like and instead of but? Is it seen as inherently contradictory like a transliteration would be in English? Because I'm absolutely feral for this. I love how effectively it holds meaning - to be able to say 'I'm shitty (right now) but I'm happy (in general) with nothing more than a different verb instead of having to add context. I wonder if it affects or enables a different mode of emotional expression?

Here, when people ask how you are and things are temporarily crap - in a banal way, like job stress or home repairs or exams - you instead generally make these insane understatements that serve to provide implicit subtext (things are actually shit), and also underscore the perspective that your emotional state now is not the same as your outlook on life (but you're still chugging along). i.e. "Oh, it's been [intentional pause]...busy."; "Not six feet under!"; "Things have been a little tough!". If you just said "I'm not happy," that would actually stop people dead in their tracks. Often we sub out the subject (I) when mentioning the less positive emotion and then stick it back in for the positive one we're couching it in. It softens things: "It's been stressful, but I'm stoked for winter break." We're trying to navigate the good and the bad in a linguistically and culturally acceptable way. What's it like in Portuguese? I would sort of love it to be both linguistically elegant and culturally normal in English to just communicate the complexities of our lives within the scope of a short exchange. We're not a country with loads of "It's bad and it's good and I'm here" idioms. But I know they're out there! Somewhere!

As someone who is generally Hob-levels of delighted (by life, my community, my friends, the mountains, a good tea or a bird, etc.,) but recently totalled my car which genuinely fucken bites, this bizarre little dance has been coming up a LOT at holiday get-togethers these past couple weeks hahaha. How have I been? I am* stressed to the tits, I am** happy. Happy to see you, happy to be here, happy. It is a part of the subject's essence! I WANT TWO VERBS! Please!!! *estar **ser

I'm so in love with the power of this - even if they've got rules that baffle Anglos - the way you've at least generally explained it is SO cool to me. I love the examples!! It's SUCH a neat difference. Am constantly delighted and humbled by the knowledge you guys bring to my ask box. Thank you for this rad Christmas Eve gift, dude. <3

Also thank you so much re: Flower King - that's exactly how I wrote it too so I'm glad it's contagious hahaha! Thank you so much for reading it. It's my pleasure to write and share stuff <3<3<3 I look forward to your fairy tale (and would love to hear more about it!)

[locodavi]

[samijey]

Whoever in WWE production changed camera angles as soon as Jey took Sami's hand owes me millions in emotional damages but at least the beaming smile from Jey immediately after was caught in 4K

[ignorvnte]

conectar en piel y alma es simplemente un privilegio

[desorden-en-letras]

Todos necesitamos de malos momentos, eso suelen decir, pero entonces... ¿Yo los necesito siempre? Ya necesito estar bien, todos merecemos ser felices.

Mabel-llin

[angeles-y-demonios-terrenales]

Debemos aceptar el hecho de que solo nos tendremos nosotros para toda la vida, y hay que aprender a estar bien con eso.

— Caótica.

[hiyuki]

ꕥ CHISATO ♡ TAKINA ꕥ

▷ Lycoris Recoil ▹ COMIC MARKET 101 Cover Art + My edition

[elbiotipo]

Hay uno acá que se llama patriota argentino no sé que y vas a su blog y lo único que tiene es conspiroparanoia de Trump y antivacunas. Hay cada uno.

En serio que mierda les pasa a los yanquis con las vacunas.

[last-rain-b]

Tengo ganas de escribirte y preguntarte cómo estás. Pero, ¿Sabes? Rompí el contacto 0 tres veces y en ninguna de ellas tú preguntaste por cómo me sentía yo.

[kirikuki]

Torturate con agua

cuando sientas hambre toma 2 vasos de agua y espera unos minutos. si sigues con hambre toma 3 vasos con agua, y asi cada que tengas hambre el agua te llenara al punto de querer vomitar por tanta agua que hayas tomado y no querras comer nada.

[serendipia03]

Esta bien no saber que quieres hacer.

[mirkobloom77]

Fuck you *gives @nirdoesnothing ‘s serizawa an esquite*

(shameless link to my Comissions for 🇵🇸🍉)

[mariposaoculta]

¿Qué pasa si pasa y que pasa si no?

No vas a saberlo si no estás ahí para cuando pase.

[ignorvnte]

Algo que he comprendido es que, la otra persona no siempre te puede ofrecer una respuesta completa, aún así se puede comprometer con tu realidad. Hay respuestas que te alivian, que te dicen: "no te entiendo, pero te acompaño". De eso se trata el amor, de estar más allá de la comprensión absoluta.

[quererme-bonito]

Hay días que siento que nadie está a mi lado en los momentos que duelen. Y cuando todo queda en silencio, no tengo con quien desahogarme. En esos días, tengo miedo.... por qué al final solo estoy yo para mi y no quiero eso.

Quererme-bonito

[raiberryz]

Es gracioso pensar que a Gouenji se le mira de cierta forma, se le considera del tipo edgy frío, debido a lo que dicen los Inatubers (que al final solo dan su opinión), y luego te das cuenta por el IE Everyday, IE SD, HonoSuto y los 4komas que él no es NADA como lo describen los youtubers, sino todo lo contrario.

Gouenji Inatubers: Cool y gran delantero, pero un personaje plano al que la trama endiosa.

Gouenji CANON: Chismoso, metiche, solo tiene dos neuronas que le funcionan para el fútbol, le asustan los fantasmas, quiere ir a la derecha y se va a la izquierda, le desagrada y a la vez le da miedo su club de fans, es estricto porque le frustra ver que todos en el Raimon original eran flojos; le gusta dormir, los estudiantes piensan que es cool hasta que abre la boca y se dan cuenta de que es un niño normal, complejo de mamá. Le gusta ayudar, sobre piensa lo mínimo, no quiere preocupar a los demás porque siente que puede llegar a ser una carga; bueno en repostería, bromista, cuenta chistes terribles, quiere a Endou más de lo que puede decir, espió la confesión de Aki y también anima a Natsumi con sus sentimientos; lengua venenosa sin querer, no nota cuando dice algo que no debía. Se ocultó bajo la capa de Kidou para no mojarse, Kidou le regaña merecidamente, le preocupa más la boda de su hermana que la suya propia, hermano amoroso, hermano y amigo un poco celoso. Ansioso, introvertido, medio depresivo, socialmente inepto ¿le sigo?, porque hay más 😂

Fandom que habla español difunde la palabra: Gouenji es un meme andante.