Problem
I get that tu is informal, the same as the French tu. However, when do you use es and when do you use estas?
One is temporary and one is permanent? What does that mean? Even after I learn that estas is temporary and es is permanent, I forget which one is which.
Then I realised that como estas is how are you. That means, how are you right now, or how are you today. Estas - at this moment in time.
'Es' is 'is'. He is a boy, permanently, unless he has a sex change. Therefore, to say you are a happy person, you use es.
To ask are you happy now you've had supper, you use estas.
As a memory aid for myself, I keep one alphabetical list of words from Portuguese to English, to recognize Portuguese when reading it. Then I create an English-Portuguese list, alphabetically, to help me think in English ten translate into Portuguese. I know you should not thin, in English and then translate, but learn to think in a foreign langauge, But I am nowhere near that level, yet.
I get that tu is informal, the same as the French tu. However, when do you use es and when do you use estas?
One is temporary and one is permanent? What does that mean? Even after I learn that estas is temporary and es is permanent, I forget which one is which.
Then I realised that como estas is how are you. That means, how are you right now, or how are you today. Estas - at this moment in time.
'Es' is 'is'. He is a boy, permanently, unless he has a sex change. Therefore, to say you are a happy person, you use es.
To ask are you happy now you've had supper, you use estas.
As a memory aid for myself, I keep one alphabetical list of words from Portuguese to English, to recognize Portuguese when reading it. Then I create an English-Portuguese list, alphabetically, to help me think in English ten translate into Portuguese. I know you should not thin, in English and then translate, but learn to think in a foreign langauge, But I am nowhere near that level, yet.
I can use the free app, Memrise, to keep a record of my word associations and memory aids.
Portuguese - English
como - how / like / as
como estás? - how are you (right now)
és - are you (situation in general)
tu - you (my friend/ you, dear) informal, familiar person
English - Portuguese
are you - és (situation in general)
how / like / as - como
how are you (right now) - como estás?
you (my friend/ you, dear) informal, familiar person - tu
https://www.memrise.com/home/
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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