El verbo ser (tiempo presente)

The verb ser is one of the most common and useful verbs in the Spanish language.

ser – to be (tiempo presente)

	singular	plural
first person	yo soy	nosotros somos
second person	tú eres	vosotros sois
third person	él/ella/usted es	ellos/ellas/ustedes son

The verb form and the subject must always agree.

Since the verb form for each person is different, it is not always necessary to include the subject pronoun. In fact, it is extremely common to drop the pronoun, especially in first and second persons, both singular and plural. In your own speaking and writing, you should be aware of this and not insist on always including the pronoun. Dropping subject pronouns occurs in Spanish, which, as you can note, is a difference between Spanish and English.

Also, it is important to note that Spanish doesn’t have the equivalent of the English subject pronouns “it.” Thus, while in English you have to use the pronoun “it” followed by the verb, in Spanish you won’t have any stated subject pronoun.

Más sobre concordancia en oraciones con el verbo ser

As you learned, adjectives agree with the nouns they modify, and subjects and verbs agree. In the following sentences with the verb ser, take note of the agreement:

grammar diagram for el es guapo

grammar diagram for nosotros somos altas

In example A (arrow 1), you can observe the agreement between the subject and the verb form. The subject pronoun él is third person singular, so you will use the third person singular conjugation of ser : es. In example B (arrow 1), the subject pronoun Nosotras is first person plural; therefore, you will use the first person plural of the verb ser: somos.

Arrow number 2 points out the agreement that occurs between the subject and the adjective. In example A, él is masculine singular, therefore the adjective must also be masculine singular (guapo). The subject in example B, nosotras, is feminine plural, thus the adjective must also be feminine plural (altas).

Practice the vocabulary from this module using the Quizlet flashcards below. You can select “Choose a Study Mode” in the lower right corner to study the terms in a variety of ways.

Oraciones negativas

So far, all of the examples you have seen and heard in this lesson are positive statements. You also need to know how to make negative statements, which can be done by simply placing the word no immediately before the verb.