The Difference Between “Ser” and “Estar” in Brazilian Portuguese

The fact that there are two words in Portuguese that mean “to be”, ser and estar, can baffle some English speakers at first. How am I supposed to know the difference? you may wonder. First off, don’t get aggravated about it because every language has its own special characteristics that don’t seem reasonable. After all languages are not exact sciences. Therefore, here are some tips on how to differentiate ser and estar but again they’re not written in stone.

Ser indicates permanent situations, as in the following examples.

• sou brasileiro / sou brasileira – I am Brazilian
• ele é enfermeiro – he is a nurse.
• são muito inteligentes – they are very smart

Ser is used to identify someone or ones self, for professions and nationalities/origin, personality and physical traits, possession, time (São duas da tarde – It’s 2PM), and impersonal expressions (É bom viajar – It’s good to travel)

Estar, on the other hand, describes temporary conditions.

• estou com frio – I am cold
• ela está doente – she is sick
• estamos atrasados – we are late

Estar is used for location, emotions and temporary physical states, and with the progressive tenses (estou comendo – i’m eating).

Pay attention to the nuances:

Eduardo é doente – Eduardo is a sick man (maybe mentally sick in a crazy way, or he has had a persistent disease for all his life

VS.

Eduardo está doente – Eduardo is sick (now, he caught a cold or something)

Sou optimista – I’m optimistic (it’s my nature)

VS.

Estou optimista – I’m optimistic (right now, about a particular thing situation)

ALSO:

In Brazilian Portuguese, the word “estou” is very often shortened to just tô, and the word “esta” becomes tá.” In this blog, I will often give examples in written sentences where I use the shortened forms tô and tá just because it sounds more natural to me.

So, if you’d like to sound as a Brazilian, follow this table (the second column is the correct grammar, the third column is the way we speak) :

eu	estou	tô
vocêele/ela a gente	está	tá
nós	estamos	tamos
vocêseles/elas	estão	tão

Examples:

• Como você tá? – How are you?
• O que Francisco tá fazendo? – What is Francisco doing?
• Tá Ligado?