Lesson 19: How to Make Yourself Clear in Spanish

The title of this video is making it clear, because in the last video on Sir and a Star, we had these two conjugations, es and está, and as we know, these two sounds will cover three angles. He is, she is and it is. All of that is packed into both es and está. Now, it's usually clear based on the context of the conversation who you're talking about, but if it's not, we do have a way of making it crystal clear. What you'll do is just throw in the subject pronoun, so him or her. In Spanish, the words are él and ella. We have used these before when saying things like for him, para él, or for her, para ella. So we'll just add these to our sentences. For example, to say he's a dentist would be es dentista. But of course, this could also mean she's a dentist. So if we wanted to make it very clear that we're saying he's a dentist, then you'll just throw in the word for him, so it becomes él es dentista. So we have he is dentist. Or if you wanted to say that she's a dentist while making it explicitly clear, then it would be ella es dentista. So all we're doing is including this subject pronoun to make it clear. If it's already clear who you're talking about, then leave it out. There's no need for it. This is what native Spanish speakers do. Now, that's really all there is to it. We could end the video here. But, as a side bonus, let's keep going and do some more ser vs estar practice. The word for person is persona. This is a feminine word. So how do you think you would say a kind person? Una persona amable. So we have a person, una persona. Then we have our describing word coming after, amable. Literally, a person, kind. Una persona amable. Now say he's a kind person. Es una persona amable. This might have caught a few of you out. We're going on the side of ser here with es, because this isn't talking about a temporary emotion. We're speaking on a deeper level here. We're saying that, in general, he's a kind person. This is where Spanish will use ser to express this. How would you make this explicit? He's a kind person. Él es una persona amable. What about she's a kind person? Ella es una persona amable. He's here. Él está aquí. She's at home. Ella está en casa. The word for intelligent is inteligente. How would you say I'm intelligent? Soy inteligente. She's intelligent. Es inteligente. He's intelligent and he's a doctor. Make it explicitly clear. She's very elegant. The kitchen in Spanish is la cocina. How would you say I'm in the kitchen? Estoy en la cocina. She's in the kitchen. How would you make it explicit? She's in the kitchen. I'm from Mexico and he's from Spain. Soy de México y es de España. She's a happy person. Es una persona feliz. She's a happy person but she is very tired today. Es una persona feliz pero hoy está muy cansada. If you put hoy on the end, that would be perfectly fine, but it sounds a little bit more natural up here. Es una persona feliz pero hoy está muy cansada. How would you say he's a little sad? Está un poco triste. He's a little sad because she's not here. Él está un poco triste porque ella no está aquí.