Answers
Mar 21, 2012 - 03:05 PM
Estar is used for such things as location, health, temporary qualities. "No sè donde està el museo." but "El museo es un edificio grande."
Mar 21, 2012 - 03:17 PM
Fair comment as far as it goes, but on DVD 2, exercise 16, in "repeat", what one is supposed to repeat is: "no se donde es el museo".
Mar 21, 2012 - 04:39 PM
I saw the exact same thing yesterday on the same lesson and was slightly confused. I honestly think it is a mistake. I checked with a friend of mine who teaches highschool spanish and she said it was inconsistent.
Mar 25, 2012 - 12:15 PM
My understanding is there are cases where either is correct. In this instance, where the museum is located is an inate property of the museum, the same as it is gray or it is tall. So that would mean one could use ser. The rule of usting estar for place, I think, refers to situations when someone or something is in a particular place, but later might be somewhere else. It is a transient condition, therefore estar. With regard to Robert's comment, which is correct, in this case the location of the museum is not a temporary quality.
Mar 25, 2012 - 03:44 PM
I believe you are correct in your assertion James. The problem is that it is inconsistent with the rest of the program, which makes it especially confusing for beginners.
Mar 27, 2012 - 11:17 AM
You will actually hear "es" or "está" used in a sentence like this because it's a little ambiguous. If you use "es" you are saying you don't know where the museum "exists" rather than where it is "located." A little strange, but in Spanish you will hear both. Generally, though, it is safe to stick to the location definition in using "estar".