# Spanish: If You Mess Up Por/Para, Ser/Estar

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-if-you-mess-up-por-para-ser-estar/679481>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 22, 2014, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-if-you-mess-up-por-para-ser-estar/679481 "2014-01-22T22:12:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-if-you-mess-up-por-para-ser-estar/679481/21 "2014-01-24T17:50:13Z")

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> [@jtur88](#):
>
> Spanish speakers are much less inclined to grammatical or syntactical errors, and the kind of poor “ain’t got no” language that is so commonplace in America would never be tolerated. Even the most undereducated Spanish speakers speak the language better than the average American speaks English.
> 
> Whether people correct your or not depends on the manners of the listener.

Touché! So much for the sentiment that English should be the world language–as poorly as it is commonly spoken. ☹

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**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-if-you-mess-up-por-para-ser-estar/679481/22 "2014-01-24T17:53:42Z")

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> [@jtur88](#):
>
> Spanish speakers are much less inclined to grammatical or syntactical errors, and the kind of poor “ain’t got no” language that is so commonplace in America would never be tolerated. Even the most undereducated Spanish speakers speak the language better than the average American speaks English.

wut

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-if-you-mess-up-por-para-ser-estar/679481/23 "2014-01-24T18:01:55Z")

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> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> And “faire” in French. You sometimes hear French speakers say things like “I need to make laundry” in English.

Let’s do love! 😉

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**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-if-you-mess-up-por-para-ser-estar/679481/24 "2014-01-24T18:19:29Z")

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> [@dougie\_monty](#):
>
> I stand by my assertion. I took a course in Spanish at the local college (El Camino, in Torrance, CA) and the professor used that as an illustration of the difference of meaning between _estar_ and\* ser. :)\*

That doesn’t mean he was correct; among other things, his example would have been bad theology. Oh, and the phrase for “I am going to Hell” is exactly the same as “I’m going to jail”: _estoy condenado_.

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**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-if-you-mess-up-por-para-ser-estar/679481/25 "2014-01-24T18:32:56Z")

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I had a professor in college explain that we shouldn’t use _cosa_ as in her native country it was extremely sexual slang. After a year or so, it occurred to me that she just didn’t want us falling back on it when we couldn’t think of the noun we wanted.

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