Spanish is somewhat similar. Scared isn’t something you are, it’s something you have (tengo miedo, lit. ‘I have fear’). Emotions are also ‘put on you’ instead of making you a certain way. Ex: me puso feliz translates as ‘it made me happy,’ but literally is ‘it put happiness on me.’
Also, Spanish has two main verbs for “to be”. There’s “ser”, which is used for things that are inherent (e.g.: “Yo soy de Mexico” means “I am from Mexico”). But then there’s also “estar”, which is used for the current state of things, or a temporary status (e.g.: “Yo estoy enfermo” means “I am sick (in my current state)”).
Don’t know, both would be ok, depeding on context.
Dónde está la biblioteca?
es aquí
Is totally fine, except if you are in a complex of buildings, or something like a mall or refering to the city (or similar) where the library is, then «está aquí» is the correct one.
And then locations and buildings come to fuck up that way of remembering it, because la biblioteca está allí, not la biblioteca es allí.
True that. I guess maybe it’s because a building’s location isn’t necessarily part of its essence. Or how it feels more natural with respect to a person, e.g.: “yo estoy en la biblioteca” makes sense cause a person moves from place to place. I guess technically buildings can be moved but it’s still a bit confusing.
The library is a thing, not a person. That’s why you say está, because there’s nothing inherent about a library, it’s just an outer description. In general location descriptions are described with está, no ser.
Estoy triste: I am sad right now
Soy triste: I am a sad person, in general.
La biblioteca está genial: the library is awesome right now (maybe due to an event or special decoration or because it was recently cleaned).
La biblioteca es genial: the library is awesome in general.
Tengo hambre: I am hungry
Soy hambre: I am hunger/(a hungry person)
Native speaker of German here: Both “ich bin hungrig” (I am hungry) and “ich habe Hunger” (I have hunger) are valid German. The latter is more common though, the adjective “hungrig” is more often used as an attributive adjective.
That’s why I said somewhat similar and gave different examples than the ones in the OP. The non-literal language involved in talking about emotions being different between language groups in some situations was interesting to me.
I believe this is just about which word a language uses to say that an adjective applies to a noun. While ‘to be’ is very popular for this, ‘to have’ is quite common too. Mandarin uses ‘very’.
It’s a bit deeper - in Spanish and other Romance languages, emotions and physiological states are typically conveyed by a noun, not by an adjective*. Like in Catoblepas’ example “tengo miedo”, it’s literally “I have fear”; miedo is a noun. You could use one of the two copulas by forcing an adjective, but it’ll change the meaning:
soy miedoso - you’re a scaredy-cat, you’re often afraid
estoy miedoso - I’m not a native speaker** so my intuition might be wrong, but it sounds like you’re going through hard times and you’re currently afraid of random stuff.
*there are exceptions, like “feliz” (happy; adjective).
**my native language does something similar, but the verbs don’t match well.
It isn’t something you’d expect people to say; like, “hoy estoy miedoso, pero mañana estaré valiente” sounds weird as fuck. But it isn’t agrammatical, the oddity there is semantic.
Spanish is somewhat similar. Scared isn’t something you are, it’s something you have (tengo miedo, lit. ‘I have fear’). Emotions are also ‘put on you’ instead of making you a certain way. Ex: me puso feliz translates as ‘it made me happy,’ but literally is ‘it put happiness on me.’
Also, Spanish has two main verbs for “to be”. There’s “ser”, which is used for things that are inherent (e.g.: “Yo soy de Mexico” means “I am from Mexico”). But then there’s also “estar”, which is used for the current state of things, or a temporary status (e.g.: “Yo estoy enfermo” means “I am sick (in my current state)”).
“ser” is a cognate of “essence”, “estar” of “state” :D
Ahh. I knew about “estar” but I never knew that about “ser”. Very good to know!
This little nugget would have come in handy when I was learning Spanish
And then locations and buildings come to fuck up that way of remembering it, because la biblioteca está allí, not la biblioteca es allí. 😩
Did you know that Spanish speaking kids don’t do spelling bees, they do grammar competitions? Not hard to see why, haha!
Don’t know, both would be ok, depeding on context.
Is totally fine, except if you are in a complex of buildings, or something like a mall or refering to the city (or similar) where the library is, then «está aquí» is the correct one.
That’s good to know, thank you!
True that. I guess maybe it’s because a building’s location isn’t necessarily part of its essence. Or how it feels more natural with respect to a person, e.g.: “yo estoy en la biblioteca” makes sense cause a person moves from place to place. I guess technically buildings can be moved but it’s still a bit confusing.
Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, but differ on those kind of things. We say “a biblioteca é ali” (though “a biblioteca está ali” is also used).
We also don’t use “me fez feliz” (it made me happy) as much as they say “me puso feliz”, normally you say “fiquei feliz” (i became happy)
The library is a thing, not a person. That’s why you say está, because there’s nothing inherent about a library, it’s just an outer description. In general location descriptions are described with está, no ser.
Estoy triste: I am sad right now Soy triste: I am a sad person, in general.
La biblioteca está genial: the library is awesome right now (maybe due to an event or special decoration or because it was recently cleaned).
La biblioteca es genial: the library is awesome in general.
Tengo hambre: I am hungry
Soy hambre: I am hunger/(a hungry person)
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German (if I’m remembering right from my high school language class days), does the same thing as well. It’s not ‘I am hungry’, it’s ‘I have hunger’.
(If there’s any actual German readers/speakers and I misspoke, I apologize. This was almost 15 years ago at this point!)
Native speaker of German here: Both “ich bin hungrig” (I am hungry) and “ich habe Hunger” (I have hunger) are valid German. The latter is more common though, the adjective “hungrig” is more often used as an attributive adjective.
Same in spanish, but we tent to use the “i have” way more, the other implies that you are reeeeaaaallyy hungry
Yes but it is “I am sad”
…no? In the literal examples given in the post, they would be translated as english
I’m sad: estoy triste I’m anxious: estoy ansioso/a
That’s why I said somewhat similar and gave different examples than the ones in the OP. The non-literal language involved in talking about emotions being different between language groups in some situations was interesting to me.
I believe this is just about which word a language uses to say that an adjective applies to a noun. While ‘to be’ is very popular for this, ‘to have’ is quite common too. Mandarin uses ‘very’.
It’s a bit deeper - in Spanish and other Romance languages, emotions and physiological states are typically conveyed by a noun, not by an adjective*. Like in Catoblepas’ example “tengo miedo”, it’s literally “I have fear”; miedo is a noun. You could use one of the two copulas by forcing an adjective, but it’ll change the meaning:
*there are exceptions, like “feliz” (happy; adjective).
**my native language does something similar, but the verbs don’t match well.
“Estoy miedoso” is not correct.
It isn’t something you’d expect people to say; like, “hoy estoy miedoso, pero mañana estaré valiente” sounds weird as fuck. But it isn’t agrammatical, the oddity there is semantic.
Yes, in that sentence yes, it works.
Def the sentece is gramatically correct but without the «pero mañana…» is semantically void
*miedoso/a
Idk what medroso is but isn’t Spanish.
Fixed - thanks for pointing it out. (Portuguese.)