Verbo Estar- No estás solo.

Verbs Ser and Estar are very confusing for many foreigner students. In many other languages there is not a real different between ser and estar.  For instance ,  In English is just to be , in Dutch  verb zijn, in German is the verb  sein but in Spanish they are  two different  verbs. Many Spanish students struggle trying to understand the rules, specially that one which says that ser is for permanent characteristics and estar is used to talk about temporal characteristic. But have you, Spanish learner students, thought that everything is clearer if you study it in a real context? Yes, rules are importants but they are not the only way to learn a language. You need to get an approach to the language in a real setting. That is the reason in this post I would like to share with you this lyric ( at the bottom you will find a link to watch the video). This lyric belongs to a song called " No estás solo"( you are not alone). The latin singers, Carlos Vives and Ruben Blades dedicated this song to all those people who are sick with Covid-19 (be sick- estar enfermo) 

Capurganá.Foto : SSClasespañol

No estás solo - Canción de Carlos Vives y Ruben Blades

Hay vainas* que se aparecen cuando uno menos las piensa
Llegan y aunque no las quieran se quedan por unos día'
Nos dicen que estás enfermo y venidos para animarte. Un malestar no es eterno, y menos si se comparte

Y aunque interminable parezca la noche
Al final se irá con la luz del día
No pierdas la fe
Siempre ten presente

No estás solo, esa vaina se quita
No estás sola, ten paciencia y verás
No estás solo, y aunque eso mortifica
No estás solo, te vamos a cuidar
No estás solo, aquí están tus amigos
No estás sola, tu familia aquí está
No estás solo, y aunque eso mortifica
No estás solo, te vamos a cuidar

Pay attention: Ser una persona solitaria Vs Estar solo. When you want to express a person for some reason (maybe is introvert, don´t like to be surranded by people or has a problem with socializing) doesn´t like to have company or doesn´t enjoy company,  we say in Spanish: " él / ella es una persona solitaria ". Pay attention to the way to built the sentence : Ser+ artículo (una) + noun (persona) + adjetive (solitario/a) .

But when you say in Spanish: " Luis está solo" could mean two things: 1) Luis is alone in a literally way :  Luis is alone, There is noone else around him  or in his life . Or a more methaphoric meaning, Luis feels lonely.

See what I mean? it is not only about permanent o temporaly, you , as a speaker, need to have clear the situation and what you really want to express.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. I read your comments. 

Vocabulary: Vaina*: it is  a very coloquial expression using in  multiple ways. it is used to replace a thing or situation that is already known by the speaker. In this song is used to refer to the sick person´s problem. The sickness he/she  is dealing with. 

video:https://www.musica.com/letras.asp?letra=2510621

Remember : Read newspapers, magazines in Spanish. Listen music or watch TV in Spanish . You will learn  a more realistic Spanish. 

NOTE: English is not my native language, please if you find any mistake, please let me know and I will correct it. Thanks. 

SSClasespañol by Sirle Sarabia is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0