Forget permanent against temporary. It fails on death, on a party and on being married, which is why people are still searching this in their third year. Run the sentence through this instead.
"What the thing is" covers identity, job, origin, material, ownership and the clock — the facts you would put on a form. "Where it is or how it is right now" covers location, health, mood, taste, weather and anything ending in -ndo. The third branch is the one that trips people: an EVENT takes ser even though it is describing a place and a time, because "la fiesta es en casa de Lucía" is saying the party HAPPENS there, not that the party is sitting there. A thing is located with estar; an event is held with ser.
Every use, with a line you would actually hear
| What the sentence is saying | Word | A line you would hear in Mexico |
|---|---|---|
| Who or what somebody is | ser | Mi hermana es doctora |
| Where somebody is from | ser | Ella es de Guadalajara |
| What something is made of | ser | Este vestido es de algodón |
| Who owns it | ser | El libro es de mi mamá |
| The day, the date or the time | ser | Hoy es martes |
| What somebody is like, as a person | ser | Mi papá es muy serio |
| Where and when an event happens | ser | La fiesta es en casa de Lucía |
| Where a thing or a person is | estar | ¿Dónde está el baño? |
| How somebody feels or is doing | estar | Mi abuela está bien |
| A mood today, not a character | estar | ¿Por qué estás tan serio hoy? |
| How something tastes or looks now | estar | La sopa está muy rica |
| The result of a change | estar | La tienda está cerrada |
| Married, single, divorced | estar | Ana está casada |
| Something happening right now | estar | Está lloviendo |
Seven rows each, which is the honest split: neither verb is the default and neither is the exception. The two rows that beat the permanent-and-temporary rule are the event row and the married row — a party's address does not move and it still takes ser, while being married is meant to last and it takes estar. Read the left column as the question the sentence is answering, and the choice stops being a memory test. The cleanest single check for an adjective is whether you could put "today" in the sentence: estás serio hoy works, eres serio hoy does not.
Twenty sentences, marked as you go
Nothing is recorded and nothing is sent anywhere. Close the page and the score is gone.
Question 1 of 20 · 0 right so far
Mi hermana ____ doctora.
Pick one to see the rule.
The choices are the conjugated forms rather than the infinitives, because that is the choice you actually make: nobody stands in a taquería deciding between ser and estar, they decide between es and está with their mouth already open. Two adjectives appear twice, once with each verb — serio as a character and serio as a mood — so the drill teaches the difference rather than hiding it. Pick a word and the rule appears at once, which is the point of doing twenty of these instead of reading the table again.
The adjectives that change meaning, not just tense
These are not mistakes to avoid. They are six extra things you can say, and using them is how a sentence starts sounding like a person rather than a course.
Ser aburrido is boring, the person. Estar aburrido is bored, right now.
Ser listo is clever. Estar listo is ready.
Ser rico is wealthy, or a rich recipe. Estar rico is delicious, tonight.
Ser malo is a bad person or a bad thing. Estar malo is ill, or gone off.
Ser verde is green, the colour. Estar verde is unripe, or new at something.
Ser guapa is a statement about somebody. Estar guapa is about tonight, and in Mexico it is the warmer of the two.
The mistakes that mark a beginner
Soy aquí. The single commonest error an English speaker makes, because "I am here" uses one verb in English. Location is always estar: estoy aquí.
Es frío for coffee. The coffee is cold now, so it is está frío. Ser frío about a person means cold-hearted.
Estoy estudiante. A job or a role is what you are, so it is soy estudiante.
Es lloviendo. Anything ending in -ndo takes estar, with no exceptions worth learning: está lloviendo.
Está las tres. The clock takes ser: son las tres.
What to say when you are stuck
Guess by the question you are answering. If the sentence would fit on a form — name, job, nationality, date, owner — say ser. If you could add "right now" or "today" to it, say estar.
If neither feels true, say estar and keep going. Estar carries the states, and a wrong estar sounds like somebody describing a moment, which is rarely offensive and always understood.
Where the lessons on this site fit
The other two choices that stall learners at this point are por vs para and preterite vs imperfect; the mood question that comes after all three is the subjunctive.
Ser and estar are not one lesson on the Grammar deck; they are two verbs that appear in almost every lesson on it, which is why a drill does more here than a page of rules. Speak has them inside real dialogue, which is where the choice eventually stops being a choice.
Key takeaways
- Drop permanent against temporary. It fails on events, on marriage and on death, which is why the rule outlives its own usefulness.
- Ser is WHAT it is: identity, job, origin, material, owner, the clock, and an event's time and place.
- Estar is WHERE it is and HOW it is now: location, health, mood, taste, results of change, and anything ending in -ndo.
- An event takes ser even for a place. La fiesta es en casa de Lucía, but el baño está allí.
- If "today" fits the sentence, use estar. Estás serio hoy works; eres serio hoy does not.
- Six adjectives change meaning across the two, led by listo, which is clever with ser and ready with estar.
- Soy aquí is the commonest beginner error in the language. Location is always estar.