Brazilian and European Portuguese: What is the Difference?
SER and ESTAR can be called as the be-verbs of Portuguese. It means that they show existence. Both these verbs mean “to be” The question arises, if both the verbs have the same meaning in English, we did we need to have two different verbs in Portuguese?
For example, “I am a student” is translated as “Eu sou estudante” in Portuguese where the word “sou” means “am”. The word “sou” is a conjugation of the “Ser” verb. On the other hand, “I am happy” is translated as “eu estou Feliz.” In this case also, the meaning of “estou” is “am” which is a conjugation of the verb “estar.”
So, if both “sou” and “estou” mean “am” in English, where shall we use “sou” and where “estou”? The broader question then becomes where can we use the verb SER and where can we use ESTAR? Or are there some situations in which both SER and ESTAR can be used? Linguapol will answer all the questions in this article. Linguapol is a foreign language institute that provides online Portuguese language courses and customized Portuguese language classes to learn Brazilian and European Portuguese. If you are interested to learn Portuguese as a beginner or even if you are an intermediate, you can book a free demo class with our expert teachers online and offline.
Before we begin, get this fact etched into your mind “SER verb will be used for permanent situations and ESTAR verb will be used for TEMPORARY situations.”
Let us now take a look the examples again. In the first example, we are talking about an identity – I am a student. Identity is permanent. It cannot really change overnight. Hence, we use the “ser” verb in this situation. Whereas in the second example, we are actually talking about an emotion “I am happy”. Emotions are temporary. It can change anytime. Hence, we use the “Estar” verb in this situation. We will now take a better look at the situations when we shall use SER and the other situations where we shall use ESTAR.
As mentioned above, we will use the SER verb in permanent situations. It can be mostly related to indentity (name, occupation, race, nationality, place of origin, religion, etc.), characteristics or physical features (of human beings or objects), any kind of relationship (between people or objects), while telling time, while talking about numbers and while stating any general truth.
If that is too much for you to remember, we have a cute acronym for you. You can just remember the word D.O.C.T.O.R and most of the situations will be covered. Here’s how –
D stands for Description. For example, Eu sou alto, A minha mãe é muito bonita, Os carros deles são maravilhosos, A comida aqui é deliciosa, etc.
O stands for Origin. For example, Este vinho é de Porto, Eles são de Brasil, Nós somos de índia, etc.
C stands for Characteristics. The ser verb will be used while describing the nature or inherent qualities of a person. For example, o meu irmão não é muito amigável, mas ele é honesto.
T stands for Time. For example, é uma hora na tarde, são treze e quinta horas, etc.
O stands for Occupation. For example, Eu sou uma professora, Nós somos médicos, Eles são estudantes, Você é a recepcionista?, etc.
R stands for Relationship. For example, ela é a minha professora, eles são os filhos de Sra Luz, nós somos primos, etc.
As mentioned above, the ESTAR verb will be used in temporary conditions. It will used in sentences where we talk about the location (of movable objects), emotional or physical state and in cases of present progressive tense. Let us now look at an acronym to remember this better – P.L.A.C.E.
P stands for Position. For example, o livro está na mesa, as frutas estão na cozinha, o gato está debaixo de cama, etc.
Note – Estar verb will be used only when we talk about the position of movable objects and not in case of immovable objects. Let us look at an example of immovable object where we cannot use estar – A minha casa é ao lado da escola (we can also use the verb “ficar” in case of position of immovable objects like this).
L stands for Location. For example, eu estou no mercado, as crianças estão na escola, onde você está?
A stands for Actions in continuous tense. Example, a Andrea está dançando, nós estamos comendo.
C stands for Condition (physical or emotional state). For example, Eu estou cansada.
E stands for Emotions. For example, os filhos estão muito animados, ele está nerveso para o reunião com o gerenete, A Lara está muito confiante para sua exame.
It is not enough to just know the differences between SER and ESTAR. It is also important to use these verbs in their correct form of conjugation and form correct sentences with them. You will become confident in where to use SER and where to use ESTAR once you do a lot of exercises and explore different situations with the help of exercises.
If you are learning Portuguese on your own, drop us an email at info@linguapol.com describing your question on a particular topic and get a complimentary class from our expert Portuguese language trainers to clear your doubts.
