Voted Best Answer
Jun 04, 2014 - 09:37 AM
Hi Fabrice,
Don’t worry! While these tiny little words really cause a lot of trouble, with a lot of practice and patience even they become manageable. Your question really mixes up two things here: the difference between “ser” and “estar” and the difference between the preterite and the imperfect.
So let’s look at these in turn. As you’ve all mentioned we use “ser” to talk about more permanent characteristics such as innate qualities or origins whilst “estar” is used for more temporary states such as emotions or physical sensations. This difference between “ser” and “estar” becomes a lot clearer in the present tense. Think of the questions:
¿Cómo está él? – How is he?
¿Cómo es él? - What is he like?
The first one asks for his sensation at the moment whilst the second one asks for his innate qualities. If you think about it “estar” is maybe a bit more subjective given that the person most able to answer this question would be “él” whilst “ser” is a lot more objective – a lot of people could give you their opinion about him - probably even more so than he himself.
So taking this idea let’s apply it to your question “How was your trip?”. In Spanish?
¿Cómo fue tu viaje?
Or:
¿Cómo estuvo tu viaje?
Yes, in this case, both options are possible. Great job @Banjolover47!! Applying our idea of before: the first one is asking for a description of the trip. So we kind of want an objective assessment of the overall quality or nature of the trip itself.
“Estuvo” on the other hand is a bit more subjective and asks for your opinion or perception about how the trip was. So it’s maybe also a bit more informal but there may be regional variances with this as you can see from @DannyR’s comment.
That cleared up let’s look at the past tenses here. First of all, the forms - “ha sido” and “ha estado” – (so that present perfect) are really mainly used in Spain and even there not everywhere. It’s used to talk about the recent past. So if you were referring to a trip that you have just recently returned from then in some parts of Spain you would use “ha sido” or “ha estado”. But don’t worry too much about it as it’s not a form that is commonly used outside of (some areas of) Spain. So that one excluded let’s look at the difference between imperfect and preterite. And again, well done @Banjolover47! It really makes much more sense to use the preterite here. Remember that we use the preterite to talk about completed actions in the past and the imperfect for repeated or ongoing actions. Since your trip was a single “action” that is concluded it would be the preterite. It’s very difficult to think of a scenario where the imperfect would apply. You would have to have gone on a very long trip that is maybe still continuing and maybe has changed in the way you would describe it. So maybe if you really wanted to force an example in the imperfect it would be:
My trip used to be great but now it’s not.
Mi viaje era / estaba genial pero ahora no.
So, in summary:
You could use both “ser” and “estar” here depending on whether you wanted a more objective (ser) or subjective (estar) description of the trip. The tense that is most appropriate here would be the preterite because the trip was a single action in the past that is concluded. I hope that makes it a little clearer.
Don’t worry! While these tiny little words really cause a lot of trouble, with a lot of practice and patience even they become manageable. Your question really mixes up two things here: the difference between “ser” and “estar” and the difference between the preterite and the imperfect.
So let’s look at these in turn. As you’ve all mentioned we use “ser” to talk about more permanent characteristics such as innate qualities or origins whilst “estar” is used for more temporary states such as emotions or physical sensations. This difference between “ser” and “estar” becomes a lot clearer in the present tense. Think of the questions:
¿Cómo está él? – How is he?
¿Cómo es él? - What is he like?
The first one asks for his sensation at the moment whilst the second one asks for his innate qualities. If you think about it “estar” is maybe a bit more subjective given that the person most able to answer this question would be “él” whilst “ser” is a lot more objective – a lot of people could give you their opinion about him - probably even more so than he himself.
So taking this idea let’s apply it to your question “How was your trip?”. In Spanish?
¿Cómo fue tu viaje?
Or:
¿Cómo estuvo tu viaje?
Yes, in this case, both options are possible. Great job @Banjolover47!! Applying our idea of before: the first one is asking for a description of the trip. So we kind of want an objective assessment of the overall quality or nature of the trip itself.
“Estuvo” on the other hand is a bit more subjective and asks for your opinion or perception about how the trip was. So it’s maybe also a bit more informal but there may be regional variances with this as you can see from @DannyR’s comment.
That cleared up let’s look at the past tenses here. First of all, the forms - “ha sido” and “ha estado” – (so that present perfect) are really mainly used in Spain and even there not everywhere. It’s used to talk about the recent past. So if you were referring to a trip that you have just recently returned from then in some parts of Spain you would use “ha sido” or “ha estado”. But don’t worry too much about it as it’s not a form that is commonly used outside of (some areas of) Spain. So that one excluded let’s look at the difference between imperfect and preterite. And again, well done @Banjolover47! It really makes much more sense to use the preterite here. Remember that we use the preterite to talk about completed actions in the past and the imperfect for repeated or ongoing actions. Since your trip was a single “action” that is concluded it would be the preterite. It’s very difficult to think of a scenario where the imperfect would apply. You would have to have gone on a very long trip that is maybe still continuing and maybe has changed in the way you would describe it. So maybe if you really wanted to force an example in the imperfect it would be:
My trip used to be great but now it’s not.
Mi viaje era / estaba genial pero ahora no.
So, in summary:
You could use both “ser” and “estar” here depending on whether you wanted a more objective (ser) or subjective (estar) description of the trip. The tense that is most appropriate here would be the preterite because the trip was a single action in the past that is concluded. I hope that makes it a little clearer.