Tips 009: Para Ser – In Order To Be

In this episode of the Real Fast Spanish Tips Podcast you will get to hear a fresh approach to an old problem.

Words such as ‘ser’ vs ‘estar’ and ‘por’ vs ‘para’ tend to cause a lot of confusion. One of the reasons that I believe these words tend to cause so much confusion is that they are always taught side by side. Meaning that when you learn these words you tend to be given a list of situations that ‘ser’ should be used and another set of situations where ‘estar’ should be used at the same time and then later you need to recall these two lists in order to apply the right word.

When you reach a higher level of Spanish these words tend to become more intuitive, so in this episode I’m going cover these words in a different way in an effort to help you get to an intuitive level faster.

Rather than list them side by side with a set of rules, in this episode we introduce only ‘ser’ and ‘para’ and a set of common expressions that will allow you to express your ideas without the need to refer to a set of rules.

I will cover ‘estar’ and ‘por’ in a later episode.

So for this tip you will learn:

• Some common expressions for using para
• Some common expressions for using ser
• Some expressions that combine Spanish-English cognates and a passive voice with ser
• How to state your country of origin and a tip for working out the gender of your country.

Mentioned in this episode:

– For more information on the etymology for ‘ser’ and ‘estar’ in Spanish and ‘to be’ in english have a look at this interesting article on Wikipedia on ‘Romance Copula‘

– A reference to the Spanish-English cognates post – 1001 Spanish-English cognates

– For the gender exercise head over to https://translate.google.com/ and use the sentence “She is American” or replace american with your country of choice to determine the proper gender of your country.

Expression examples from the episode:

For me – Para mí

For you – Para ti

It’s for me – Es para mí

It’s not for your, it’s for me – No es para ti, es para mí

It’s not for him, it’s for me – No es para él, es para mí

It’s not for her, it’s for me – No es para ella, es para mí

The food is not for her, it’s for me – La comida no es para ella, es para mí

I have food for you – Tengo comida para ti

I have something for you – Tengo algo para ti

I have food for you for tonight – Tengo comida para ti para esta noche

It’s possible – Es posible

It’s interesting – Es interesante

It’s horrible – Es horrible

It’s important – Es importante

For me it is interesting – Para mí es interesante

For me it is not necesario – Para mí no es necesario

For me it is interesting – Para mí es interesante

In order to have money – Para tener dinero

In order to have money you need to find a job – Para tener dinero necesitas encontrar un trabajo

In order to find a job you need an education – Para encontrar trabajo necesitas una educación

In order to speak Spanish you need to practice – Para hablar español necesitas practicar

In order to have a conversation you need to practice – Para tener una conversación necesitas practicar español

The man leaves for the restaurante – El hombre sale para el restaurante

The man leaves for Madrid – El hombre sale para Madrid

I’m Australian – Soy Australiano

I’m from Australia – Soy de Australia

I’m American – Soy Americano

I’m American (female) – Soy Americana

I’m from the United States – Soy de Estados Unidos

I’m Japanese – Soy Japonés

I’m Japanese (female) – Soy Japonesa

I’m from Japan – Soy de Japón

He is English – Él es inglés

She is English – Ella es inglesa

I’m a teacher – Soy maestro

I’m a doctor – Soy medico

In order to be – Para ser

I study in order to be a teacher – Estudio para ser maestro

I study in order to be a doctor – Estudio para ser medico

Quote from this podcast episode:

“No hay mejor momento para ser feliz que ahora mismo” – Unknown Author

How can you use ‘ser’ y ‘para’?

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