I’m ser.
I’m estar.
I’m ir.
And we’re the 3 enemigos!
Hola, soy Jordan and this is a Spanish Quickie--fast, easy Spanish lessons from somebody who speaks
your language.
Today, as you just saw, we’re going to go over, what I call the 3 enemigos (or enemies)....
the words “ser”, “estar” and “ir”.
“Ser” and “estar” should be familiar by now, and “ir” means “to go”.
I remember vividly, when I started studying Spanish.
I was living in Holland with a bunch of people from Spain.
I had my little grammar book, and there were conjugations being thrown around left and
right.
Present tense, two past tenses, future tense.... but things weren’t making sense to me.
In fact the day in question, I was pretty much beside myself with confusion.
Luckily, I had already met Manuel, from Spain.
Over the last 13 years, there have been countless people instrumental in my Spanish learning,
but none more than Manuel.
And this was the day it all started.
I charged up to Manuel’s room.
Manuel, can you do me a favor please.
He smiled, he saw that I was frustrated and very uppity.
Sure.
Can you please conjugate “ser”, “estar” and “ir” on one piece of paper, so I can
see it all in one place in the present tense, the two past tenses and the future tense.
Still with a smile, he probably thought I was just being overly emotional, he said sure,
not really understanding why or the significance of my problem.
I thanked him and left him to his task.
I don’t remember if it was 15 minutes later or two hours, but shortly after I left him,
Manuel found me, paper in hand, but with a completely different smile on that cute little
face of his.
He laughed and said “now I see why you wanted me to do this.
This is fucking crazy!”
F**king crazy.
Indeed it was.
The 3 Enemigos were born.
13 years later, I still don’t understand why I have never, in my life, seen these 3
words taught together.
Usually “ser” and “estar” aren’t even introduced together which I consider
a sin, but I have literally seen these 3 words presented together zero times.
Until now.
Now, the true horror of these words doesn’t present itself until later.
Today we’re just going to focus on the present tense, things start to get really confusing
in the past tense.
But it’s still valuable to see these three words together because there are definitely
some patterns.
Let’s just get to it.
First is “estar”.
Remember that means “to be”.
To conjugate a verb, we take off the er/ar/ir at the end, leaving us with the root of the
word.
If that doesn’t make sense, you need to watch the video called The Infinitive and
Conjugation.
This is what “estar” looks like when it’s conjugated in the present tense.
Estoy.
Estás.
Está.
Estamos.
Estáis.
Están.
Since “estar” means “to be”, “I am” with “estar” is “Yo estoy”.
“You are” is “Tu estás”.
“He is” is “Él está”.
“We are” is “Nosotros estamos”.
“You both are” is “Vosotros estáis”.
And “they are” is “Ellos están”.
If you aren’t familiar with “yo”, “tu”, “el”, “nosotros”, etc, you need to
watch the video called Personal Pronouns.
Next, let’s go over “ir” then we’ll end with “ser”, cause it’s crazy.
“Ir” means “to go”.
That’s a very important word.
Obviously, we do a lot of going in life.
I’m going to the store.
I’m going to work.
But we also use that word in other ways...
I’m going to eat.
I’m going to be in school.
We use “to go” a lot.
“Ir” is just a crazy word in the present because if you take of the ir, you’re left
with nothing.
So for “ir” specifically just use the letter v for the root.
“Ir” is conjugated like this.
Voy.
Vas.
Va.
Vamos.
Vais. Van.
So “I go” is “Yo voy”.
“You go” is “Tu vas”.
“She goes” is “Ella va”.
We go is “Nosotros vamos”.
“You both go” is “Vosotros Vais”.
And “they go” is “Ellas van” (that’s two girls because I said ellas not ellos).
Recognize “vamos”?
You might hear that (or the closely related “vamanos”) a lot in music, songs, commercials
etc.
It means “we go”...but in practice it means more “Let’s go!”
Okay, let’s take a look at “ir” and “estar” together.
Look!
They follow the same pattern exactly without any exception, once you’ve got the root
for “ir” of just v.
So take off the est from all these conjugations and the v from all these conjugations and
you’re left with all the same endings.
So once you know how to conjugate “estar”, you can conjugate “ir” perfectly.
No so bad, right?
Well “ser” is a little trickier because the root isn’t constant.
With “ser”, if you take off the er, you’re just left with S... which we’ll use in some
cases, but not others.
It kind of sucks, but I promise, if you just memorize this, and start using it, it’ll
become second nature real quickly.
Here’s the conjugation for “ser”.
Soy.
eres.
es.
somos.
sois.
son.
So “I am” is “Yo soy”.
“You are” is “Tu eres”.
“She is” is “Ella es”.
“We are” is “Nosotros somos”.
“You both are” is “Vosotros sois”.
Then “they are” is “Ellos son”.
Notice we use the s everywhere except the singular second person and the singular third
person.
It gets a little confusing because the word “ser” starts with s but is then conjugated
as “tu eres”... which at the beginning looked like “tu estas” to me, which is
how you conjugate “estar”.
See why I present these together?
“Ir” and “Estar” conjugate exactly the same, that’s nice to see.
“Ser” and “estar” look different in the infinitive but sometimes quite similar
once conjugated.
It can be confusing.
Making things worse, remember both “ser” and “estar” mean “to be”.
So these conjugations both mean the same thing in English, you just have to choose which
to use based on the situation.
If you aren’t familiar with that, go back and watch the video called Ser vs Estar.
Okay, don’t get too wrapped up on the significance of all this stuff.
For now, just focus on memorizing these conjugations.
To make it easier, I supply you with these blank conjugation charts.
If you don’t know how to use this, make sure you watch the video called The Conjugation
Strategy.
Now, calling these three words the 3 enemigos is fun, funny and accurate but not completely
so.
The truth is, “estar” and “ir” specifically are also kind of Spanish Angels--that’s
why I’ve chosen to teach them to you right now--they’ll help us avoid a lot of conjugation
at the beginning but still allow us to speak correctly in the past, present and future.
It’s actually quite beautiful--I wish they taught this to me in high school...or ever.
But you can gain from my pain and in the next couple videos, using the conjugations you
learned in this video, I’m gonna teach you a few tricks that are going to blow your mind
and increase your Spanish-speaking ability tenfold.
If you’re not on the Gringo Espanol Newsletter, I’m telling you right now, you can’t count
on seeing these videos on your newsfeed every time.
The only way to make sure 100% that you don’t miss out on the upcoming tricks and all future
videos is to get the newsletter.
The link is below this video or go directly to gringoespanol.com
Until the next time.
Hasta luego.