22: Estar (and the magic wands)

It's time to learn the verb esthard.

Join us on a rigorous step-by-step journey to fluency.

I'm Timothy, and this is LearnCraft Spanish.

Today, we're going to start learning our second verb, and it's going to be really helpful

because so far on the podcast, there have, of course, been a lot of 2B situations where

you weren't allowed to use sad.

All those situations where is, were, and am didn't translate to es, eran, and so on.

Well, it's time to learn some of the words that you can use in those situations.

The verb that we're about to learn, the name of the verb, the infinitive, is esthard.

Esthard is a translation of the English verb to be, but it's used specifically in the sense

of how or where something is, not what it is.

So you use sad for what something is, esthard means where or how it is.

Of course, we can pretty easily think of all kinds of situations where you'd use esthard,

because you'd use it in a lot of the places where we haven't been translating to be, as

sad.

But one of the easiest ways to use it is simply to refer to a place.

Check out this sentence template, that is here.

Obviously we're not using sad here, because we're not saying what that is, we're saying

where it is.

So this would not be es, es here, using a conjugation of sad, instead it would be es, esthard here.

So this is our first conjugation of esthard.

The translation of is, the third person singular, is esthard, spelled est, a with an accent

mark.

Let's talk for a second about what's coming after the word is.

We have the word here, which is not a noun, it's a type of word that we call an adverb.

In fact, as a general rule, a conjugation of esthard will never be directly followed

by a noun, but it's very often followed by adverbs.

So here's the sentence entirely in Spanish.

Eso está aquí.

Let's also look at some modifications of this sentence template by replacing the word here

with some longer phrases that represent places.

That is at the park.

Eso está en the park.

Eso está en el park.

That is with my friends.

Eso está con my amigos.

Eso está con mis amigos.

That is by the path.

Eso está por the path.

Eso está por el camino.

All of these phrases at the park, with my friends, by the road, are phrases that start

with prepositions, specifically prepositions that refer to location.

That's one of the main ways that the verb esthard can be used.

But perhaps the easiest way to use esthard is simply by putting the word here after it.

So I'm going to go ahead and give you the word for here, which is aquí, spelled A-Q-U-I

with an accent mark.

We're going to practice using aquí right after conjugations of esthard throughout this

episode.

This will help us form lots of sentences entirely in Spanish.

Now let's learn some present tense conjugations of esthard using a memory palace.

So remember the memory palace that we used for the present tense of Ser, where you were

at an indoor carnival getting ready to go to a bouncy house.

The store owner was on the left side.

Your close friend was across from you.

The pandas were on the right.

And your group of friends was around you yourself at the bottom of the scene.

We'll use a different scene for esthard, a different place, but still laid out in the

same general format.

Also, all the people will be the same except for one.

So instead of a carnival house run by a discriminatory snake, we now have a gimmicky magic shop where

an eccentric lady sells magic wands.

The lady standing on the left side of the scene is wearing a star-shaped hat that's supposed

to have magical properties.

It effectively just makes her look like the statue of liberty, but you don't tell her

that.

Meanwhile, you and your friends have found some items lying around in the store.

You have picked up something that looks like a big fake yellow cardboard star.

Your close friend, the curly haired freckled one on the air ray hovercraft, is showing off

that he knows how to juggle.

But the magic wands that he's demonstrating with look very sharp, plus he's perched

precariously on the hovercraft, so this seems a bit dangerous.

He's throwing and catching them over and over, shouting, toss, toss, toss, toss.

The sharp wands almost stab one of the nearby pandas in the eye.

You tell your friend, hey, that's cool and all that you can juggle, but you're awfully

close to people to be throwing around those sharp objects.

But the thing is, when you tell him this, you're thinking about the fact that he's tossing

them in the air and saying, toss, toss, toss.

So when you say, you are near people, you say, you esthass, near people.

This word esthass, esthass, with an accent mark, means R as in UR, specifically for the

verb esthass.

So you would use this when talking to a friend about where or how they are.

Meanwhile, the toy that you're holding represents the word esthoy, with a stress on toy.

So to say, I am here, you would say, esthoy aquí.

But to say, you are here, you would say, esthass aquí.

Meanwhile, the lady who owns this place is wearing this star-shaped hat and looking very

smug.

One of your friends asks her about the hat and she responds, I would think you would

be honored that a star would be among you.

Apparently, she thinks that wearing this star-shaped hat makes her a star.

But she pronounces it with a very fake accent that she's clearly putting on and so instead

of a star, it sounds like esthass.

The word esthass means is as in he is, she is, or it is.

This is the most common conjugation and it's used for singular third person subjects as

well as for usted.

So in a formal voice, you are here would be usted esthass aquí.

Before we learn the other two words in this scene, let's go ahead and practice these.

Remember who is where and who's holding what.

So how would you say, the guy is here?

El chico está aquí.

El chico está aquí.

How about you are around here?

I am not with the friends.

No estoy con los amigos.

Alright, let's learn a couple more words.

In the serr scene, we used a group of pandas who were standing at a window to the right

and they taught us the word son.

In this scene, those same pandas are standing to the right, but it's kind of dark and they're

standing on a toy sword.

Their word is esthann with a stress on esthann like standing.

So you're like, hey, they're on a sword over there.

To say they are on a sword, you would say esthann on a sword.

Meanwhile your group of tall and short friends around you gets in trouble.

The main theme of this shop is magic and stars, and apparently the store owner has left

a pile of little star-shaped stamps on the floor of the store.

She asks, where are my star stamps?

Wait, are you guys stamping on my stamps?

You look down.

It turns out that you and all your friends have indeed stepped into the pile of stamps,

and now your feet and legs are covered with these little star-shaped stamps.

The word for we are, represented by your group of friends, is esthann moss with the stress

on sthann, which sounds kind of like stomp or stamp.

Once again, picture this scene in your mind, recall each of the five different persons

or groups of people, and remember what they're doing and what word it represents.

We still have lots and lots of conjugations to learn of both said and esthann, as well

as many more verbs, so you want every single conjugation that we've learned to be as distinctly

vivid as possible in your spatial memory.

So before we go on to today's final quiz, I'm going to start with some simpler quizzing.

Your task is simply to come up with the right conjugation of the right verb.

First of all, what is the esthann word for you are?

That's esthass.

And what's the ser word for they are?

That's son.

What's the ser word for I am?

Soy.

What's the estharr word for he, she, or it is?

Esthann.

How about the ser word for he, she, or it is?

Es.

What's the estharr word for we are?

Estamos.

What's the estharr word for I am?

Estoy.

How about the ser word for you are?

That's Eres.

What's the estharr word for they are?

Esthann.

And then what's the ser word for we are?

Somos.

Okay, now we're going to get some practice doing the same thing, but in some very simple

sentence contexts.

In each case, start by determining whether to use ser versus estharr.

Then find the right personal conjugation.

Then make sure you can say the entire sentence in Spanish.

First example, I am here.

In the next one, the friend is feminine.

It isn't the friend.

No es la amiga.

In the next one, the friend is masculine.

The friend is here.

El amigo está aquí.

The boys are friends.

Los chicos son amigos.

You are here.

Está aquí.

Now in this one, use a formal voice.

You are here.

Usted está aquí.

In the next one, the friends are feminine.

We are with the friends.

Estamos con las amigas.

I'm the girl.

Soy la chica.

They are not here.

No están aquí.

You aren't the guy.

No eres el chico.

We are the girls.

Somos las chicas.

How did you do on that?

I know it's a lot to juggle right now, but choosing the right way to translate to be

is core to retraining your brain to think in Spanish.

If you need more work on this, you can get some more practice with the free materials

at lcspodcast.com slash 22.

Meanwhile to wrap up this episode, we're going to practice ser and estar, along with a bunch

of other things we've already learned using today's quiz.

But first, a quick note about the infinitive, the word estar itself.

Just like the infinitive ser, you can use this word to start off phrases that can be used

as nouns.

For example, we can take the sentence I like food and turn it into I like being here or

I like estar aquí.

Me gusta estar aquí.

You're going to see this kind of thing in increasingly complex sentence structures.

Here's one that I resisted putting on today's quiz.

The problem was that being here was a difficult thing.

This sentence uses ser and estar in a variety of ways.

The problem was that being here was a difficult thing.

So I'll just give you the answer.

The problem era que estara aquí era a difficult thing.

Don't worry, I've decided not to include anything quite that complex on today's quiz.

Let's start off with some simpler examples.

In this first one, the friends are masculine.

We were friends.

We were friends.

Are you here?

Estar aquí?

In the next one, use a formal voice.

Why aren't you here?

Why aren't you here?

Why aren't you here?

I'm the guy that found him.

Yo soy el chico que lo encontró.

In the next one, use a formal voice and everybody is feminine.

They are the girls that know you.

They are the girls that know you.

In the next one, everyone is masculine.

They did it in order to be your friends.

They did it in order to be your friends.

They did it in order to be your friends.

In the next one, the friend is feminine.

I was the friend.

Yo era la amiga.

In the next one, use a formal voice and everyone is masculine.

You and they are here.

That's why I'm here.

Por eso estoy aquí.

Were you the boy?

In the next one, everyone is masculine.

They aren't friends, but we are.

Ellos no son amigos, but nosotros los somos.

In the next one, the friends are feminine.

Why were they friends?

Por qué eran ellas amigas?

She isn't my friend, but you are.

Ella no es mi amiga, pero tú lo eres.

In the next one, use a formal voice and everyone is masculine.

That's why they found you.

Por eso ellos lo found.

Por eso ellos lo encontraron.

I'm with the boys.

In the next one, the friends are feminine.

We are here because of being friends.

Estamos aquí por ser amigas.

The problem was that she wasn't a friend.

The problem was that she wasn't a friend.

Being here is a good thing.

So she was the girl.

Ella era la chica.

Are you with the girls?

Tomorrow, we'll start putting a star in the past,

plus we'll learn some very common nouns that are really handy to use with this verb.

This show is brought to you by LearnCraftSpanish.com.

The Spanish voice in this episode was our coach Michael Aguadelo.

Our music was provided by the Seattle Marimba quartet,

and I'm Timothy, encouraging you to do the hard work of learning Spanish.

acquiring a second language is one of the most fulfilling things you can do.

So start your fluency journey today at lcspodcast.com.