Why does Spanish have Two Different Words for “To Be?”

[mjootv]

The french "est" looks exactly like the 3rd person singular form of esse in latin

[PatrickLongblkwhtrbbt]

Fun fact: death is considered transient. To say a man is dead, you say "está muerto"

[Turk]

As a native Spanish speaker, I would describe it as
Ser = to exist as
Estar = to be in a state of

[_Epidemic_]

Something I love about TikTok and YouTube Shorts is that you can just film fucking anywhere and nobody will even question it.

[speed]

There's a similar thing in Italian.
Essere (to be) and Stare (to stand, to be in a place/stare).
Come stai? (How you stay to mean "how are you?") Instead of "come sei?" ("How [are] you?")

[luc]

This happens in portuguese as well, and makes the "Dad, I'm hungry/Hi hungry I'm dad" joke not work, since hunger is something you have only in that moment, and not a characteristic, while your name is intrinsic to you

[rinforthewin-ksvk]

This makes my Latin nerd heart happy that I learned something new about Romance languages. Thanks for sharing!

[teacre]

You solved my biggest childhood mystery about why "to be" has such different forms in english! I love etymology

[thomasbarbera]

It’s interesting that we also distinguish “happy” and “joy” in a similar way, where one is an “in the moment” feeling and the other is a longer, more fulfilling feeling

[almightyswizz]

I’ve been studying Spanish for 4 years and I think it’s a neat distinction to have, to be permanently and to be temporarily… also in Spanish I thought it was interesting they have two ways to say for that really confused me but it’s neat as well

Por - for in regards to reason (por que?)
Para - for in regards to whom (para quien?)

Also “por” can mean “through” “mira por las ventanas” “vamos por allá”

“Ando” is a phrase I hear I think it means like to walk or carry yourself or continue in a manner, sometimes people say “andas trabajando allá?” I take it as are you still working there? You would think they would use the word “todavía” or “aún” sometimes rappers say stuff like “yo ando trayendo billetes” I still carry money

Im no expert just some things I’ve learned in person to clear confusion as it initially confused me

[rice-a-roni]

In Pidgin (Hawaiian Creole English), we actually use the word "stay" for "to be" when it's transient as well, like when referring to a temporary state or location! "The water is hot" would be "Da watah stay hot" and "The water is on the table" would be "Da watah stay on top da table". I wonder if this came from influence from a Romance language? Maybe Portuguese rather than Spanish, since there were a lot of Portuguese immigrants from Madeira and the Azores in the late 19th century for work on sugar plantations.

[MoonSS]

Imagine its more like:
"Soy aburrido = im boring"
"Estoy aburrido = im bored"

[idk-]

'estar' originally meaning 'to stand' reminds me of arabic 'sitting'! in some dialects you can use the noun قاعد/ة before a verb to indicate that it's taking place in the current moment, like the present progressive tense. I've seen jokes about how you can be "sitting walking" أنا قاعد بمشي (the intended meaning being: I am walking right now)

[pamelapastor]

As a speaker of the 3 mentioned languages, I appreciate this video because now it all makes sense

[SomebodyAteMyCookies]

Irish has it as well, Tá for things that change eg age and Is for things that are permanent eg eye colour
And I find it cool that emotions aren't permanent like you won't be sad forever

[VietHoangang-sezt]

I think the part about French 'être' is wrong
"Être" comes straight from "esse" in Latin. The spelling in the present tense in French still pretty much remains intact to Latin
(Ego) sum --> Je suis
(Tu) es --> Tu es
(Is) est --> Il est
(Nos) sumus --> Nous sommes
(Vos) estis --> Vous estes --> Vous êtes
(Ei) sunt --> Ils sont

'Esse' in its present form is not a suppletion, nor is it in French, since French just 'copies' Latin in this case. Long story short, the 's' being the first letter for ego, nos and ei is because of vowel reduction (essum --> sum, essumus --> sumus, essunt --> sunt). In general, the irregularities of 'esse' in the present form in the first place are caused by vowel reduction, not suppletion).

However, 'esse' and its various counterparts in Romance languages is still an example of suppletion, but not among the pronouns in the present form, but in its past form. As far as I know, PIE did not have 'to be' in the past form, so Latin solved this by adding the old past tense form of 'fieri' (meaning 'to happen). That is where we got the letter 'f' in Latin, and also in the Romance languages' past forms of 'to be'.

A small anecdote, having 'stolen' the past form of 'fieri', the past form of this word is constructed differently: 'factus/a/um (esse)', which is similar to the passive past tense construct. And would you know, 'fieri' is a semi-deponent verb, meaning the meaning is fully active, the present construct is also active, but the past construct is passive!

[neptuneamaru]

Essere and Stare in Italian staring awkwardly wondering why they weren't mentioned 😂

[jonathanbrett-warren]

I like your more natural talking voice.

[Y]

Seriously one of the best channel on youtube. I love all this info.

[galaxysaga]

It took my spanish teacher a month to teach the difference between ser and estar 🤦‍♂️