soy vs estoy in Spanish please
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From google: Soy is used to express stable qualities that tend not to change, while estoy implies that a particular state or condition is temporary.
Soy means “I am” in a permanent way. I am tall. I am named Jaime.
Estoy means “I am” in a transitive way. I am cold, I am happy, I am over here.
I think of soy as “I am” and estoy as “I am being”.
It’s not quite temporary versus permanent, although that often works as a short hand.
Ser is for innate qualities and estar is for acquired or extrinsic qualities. In some cases you can use either one and they are both grammatically correct:
Estoy triste: i am sad (right now)
Soy triste: I am a sad person (I have depression)
I think the permanence/ impermanence thing can throw English speakers in certain cases like “Muerte” / “dead”
Spanish uses estar because death, while permanent, is not an innate quality of being.
Here’s something that helped it click for me.
“Estar” comes from the Latin word “stare”, which is where the words “state” and “status” come from in English (and also the word “estado” in Spanish). So you use “estar” to describe somebody being in a particular state or status — like a state of joy, a state of disrepair, an animated state, etc. The nature of different states / statuses is that they are temporary, they can change.
“Ser” comes from the Latin word “esse” which is related to the English word “essence”. These are things that do not change.
So use “estoy” to describe your state — *estoy feliz* (I am happy), *estoy cansado* (I am tired), *la ropa esta sucia* (the clothes are dirty). Use “ser” to describe things that are the essence of something (and not a temporary state) — *soy alto* (I am tall), *el es un extraterrestre* (he is an extraterrestrial)*, la ropa es demasiado grande* (the clothing is too large).
Soy means equals. Yo soy hombre- I am equal to man. If it’s not your identity it’s not soy. Identity here may be a bit different than how we think about it in America, but it’s close.
Estoy means “state of being”. Yo estoy feliz- I’m in a happy state.
To really be able to tell what things go under each one takes experience and examples, but this is the way I think about it.
If you get it wrong in a real conversation you probably won’t cause major confusion; more likely it will be noticable from context and at most humorous. It’s grammatically important, but not offensive to get wrong.
Ser refers specifically to permanent characterisistics of an object.
Estar refers specifically to characteristics of an object that change.
“Yo so humano” is something that can never change, so “yo estoy humano” only makes sense if you are a shape shifter and you were a cat or something a moment ago. Outside of poetry or sci fi, this is never going to work.
Likewise, “Yo estoy en Los Angeles” is something temporary because you are at that place at that moment. But a person from there can say something like “Yo soy de Los Angeles” and that’s an unchanging thing–it’ll always be their origin city even if they live in Paris.
Is it the same as with “essere” and “stare” in Italian?
‘Soy’ is something about yourself that can’t be changed: Soy de Phoenix. Soy una mujer. Soy alta.
‘Estoy’ is a temporary quality or condition. Estoy muy frio. Estoy triste. Estoy estresada.
Soy= something you are permanently (like I am a woman)
Estoy= something you are in the moment (like I am happy)
One simple rule which is rarely mentioned: estar is always intransitive whereas ser can be transitive or intransitive. That means estar can never have a direct object. This is why you could never say “estoy el último” or “ella está doctor”.
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