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Katie,

We generally use “estar” for temporary states and emotions and “ser” for permanent actions. For example, “estoy feliz” (I’m happy). This feeling can change so we use “estar”. But, “soy biólogo” (I’m a biologist). Now you may be asking “but you could lose your job or get another one…etc, so how can this be permanent…?”.

Let’s think about it like this. When we say “soy biólogo”, where talking about our identity. It’s like saying “soy Joseph”, “eres Katie”. We’re talking about “who” we are, as opposed to “how we are”. Now, the distinction between “ser” and “estar” is complex, and often takes a while to learn.

To begin, I would suggest listening to the lessons in which “ser” and/or “estar” are lesson topics. If you look at the bottom of the each lesson, you’ll find different tags. By clicking on the tag for this lesson that says “ser”, you can see all the lessons that either contain this topic, introduce it or use it. Here they are:

SER: http://www.spanishpod101.com/tag/ser
ESTAR: http://www.spanishpod101.com/tag/estar

You can also check out the Learning Center and the Grammar Bank there for more materials:
http://www.spanishpod101.com/learningcenter/

Hope this helps. Katie, let’s see if you can make some of these distinctions now. How about a couple of examples?

Be well. ¡Muchos saludos!

Joseph