This is the fourth lesson in our beginner level Spanish course and we will look at the Spanish verb Ser To Be and how to use it to describe where someone is from.
So far in the course we have learned all about meeting and greeting, countries and nationalities and numbers 1-100. In this Spanish Lesson 4 we will focus on the fundamental Spanish verb Ser To Be which we have already seen this a few times in the course.
What does it mean Ser in Spanish?
Ser is a Spanish verb that means “to be”. As all the verbs in Spanish, Ser must be conjugated for the first, second, and third person, as well as for the singular and plural.
What are Verbs?
Verbs are doing/action words. Every sentence has a verb. In a sentence, verbs describe what something or someone is doing/did/has done/will do/etc. All Spanish verbs finish in either -AR, -ER, or -IR.
In the next lesson in this course, we will look at the Spanish verb Tener (To Have). Other Spanish verbs include: Hablar (To Speak), Pagar (To Pay), Comer (To Eat), Beber (To Drink), Vivir (To Live), Escribir (To Write).
Ser
In our first lesson we used Ser to give our name and in our second lesson we used Ser to state where we are from and our nationality:
(Yo) Soy… (nombre o nacionalidad): I am… (name or nationality)
(Yo) Soy de… (país, pueblo, ciudad): I am from … (country, town, city)
Now, let’s see how to use the Spanish verb Ser To Be with more people than just the first person (Yo/I):
(Yo) Soy: I am
(Tú) Eres: You are
(Él/Ella) Es: He/She is
You will see that Yo, Tú, Él, Ella are all in brackets because using them is optional. For example, “Yo soy” means “I am” and “Tú eres” means “You are”. But equally so, “Soy” means “I am” and “Eres” means “You are”. You can use the Yo, Tú, Él, Ella if you wish with the verb, but you can also omit them. It is up to you.
Let’s practice making some sentences using Ser with describing where we are from and nationalities:
Soy de Japón: I am from Japan
Eres de Los Estados Unidos: You are from USA
Él es de China: He is from China
Ella es de España: She is from Spain
Making questions and negatives in Spanish is easy!
If you want to make questions and negatives in Spanish, it is extremely easy…
Whenever you want to make a sentence negative, you simply add No before the verb.
Let’s see some examples of negative sentences using Ser:
Yo no soy de Japón: I am not from Japan
Tú no eres de Los Estados Unidos: You are not from USA
Él no es de China: He is not from China
Ella no es de España: She is not from Spain
Making questions in Spanish is even easier! You actually don’t have to do anything at all to change your regular/positive sentence apart from putting it in questions marks if you are writing and making the intonation of a question if you are speaking.
Let’s see some examples of questions using Ser:
¿Soy de Japón?: Am I from Japan?
¿Eres de Los Estados Unidos?: Are you from USA?
¿Él es de China?: Is he from China?
¿Ella es de España?: Is she from Spain?
(You will observe that in Spanish we use two question marks to frame our questions.)
That is all for this lesson about the Spanish verb Ser To Be. There was lots of very useful information in this lesson which we recommend that you practice by creating your own similar sentences. In our next Spanish lesson we will practice using another fundamental Spanish verb Tener (To Have).
