Skip to main content
Back to path

Welcome to a Grasp lesson

Create a free account to keep studying and create your own study path.

Lesson 35

Describing Feelings with 'Estar'

Recommended resources

¡Hola! Welcome back.

In our last lesson, we learned the essential Spanish words for four core emotions: feliz (happy), triste (sad), enfadado (angry), and cansado (tired). This gave you the building blocks for talking about feelings.

Today, we'll put those blocks together to form complete sentences. You will learn how to use the verb estar (to be) to say how you are feeling (e.g., "Estoy feliz" - I am happy) and to describe how your son or others are feeling (e.g., "Él está triste" - He is sad). This is a crucial step toward having meaningful, emotionally aware conversations in Spanish.

1. The Right Verb for the Job: Why We Use estar

In Spanish, there are two main verbs for "to be": ser and estar. We use estar to talk about temporary states, conditions, and feelings. Since emotions change, estar is the perfect verb to use. Think of it this way: you are happy right now, but you might be tired later. It's a temporary state.

To get a clear explanation of this, let's watch a short video.

How do you feel? Talking about emotions in Spanish

The instructor in this Butterfly Spanish video gives a very clear reason why estar is used for emotions. She contrasts it with permanent traits to make the point.

Please watch from 0:56 to 2:00. Focus on the main idea: feelings are temporary, so we use estar.

The key takeaway is: How you feel is not who you are. That's the logic behind using estar for emotions.

2. How to Form Sentences with estar

To use estar, you need to change its form depending on who you are talking about. This is called conjugation. For your conversations, you'll primarily need three forms:

  • Estoy - I am
  • Estás - You are (talking to one person, like your son)
  • Está - He is / She is

Let's watch the same instructor explain these forms.

How do you feel? Talking about emotions in Spanish

This clip quickly covers the essential conjugations of estar that you'll need.

Watch from 3:08 to 3:45. Listen for (Yo) estoy, (Tú) estás, and (Él / Ella) está. You can ignore the other forms for now.

Here’s a summary table for you:

Pronoun estar form Example with feliz Translation
Yo (I) estoy (Yo) estoy feliz. I am happy.
Tú (You) estás (Tú) estás feliz. You are happy.
Él (He) está Él está feliz. He is happy.
Ella (She) está Ella está feliz. She is happy.

Note: The pronouns Yo and Tú are often dropped in conversation because the verb form (estoy, estás) already tells you who is speaking.

3. Putting It All Together

Now, let's combine these estar forms with the emotion words you already know. Remember from last time how some adjectives change for gender?

  • cansad**o** (for a male) / cansad**a** (for a female)
  • enfadad**o** (for a male) / enfadad**a** (for a female)
  • triste and feliz don't change!

Examples for Real Life:

  • When you feel happy: "Estoy feliz."
  • When you see your son yawning: "Estás cansado." (You are tired.)
  • When you talk about your son to a teacher: "Él está feliz en la escuela." (He is happy at school.)
  • If you were talking about a girl: "Ella está triste." (She is sad.)

This infographic is a great visual summary to help you remember. You can even show it to your son!

Spanish Vocabulary: Feelings, Locations, and Weather
This chart clearly pairs the phrase "Estoy..." with emotion words like feliz, triste, and enojado/a. It's a perfect quick reference.

For more examples, take a look at this helpful article.

Feelings and moods in Spanish: Vocabulary and phrases

The article 'Feelings and moods in Spanish' provides clear examples and reinforces the grammar of gender agreement.

First, read the section 'Step 2: Choose your feeling adjective (and modify it if necessary)' to review how adjectives change for gender. Then, look at the list of examples that starts with 'Felipe está contento'. Pay special attention to the sentences using 'triste', 'cansado', and other emotions you recognize. You can even click the little 'Play' icons to hear the pronunciation.

4. Practice Time!

Let's test your understanding. Look at the image below. For each situation described, choose the most logical emotion. This is a great way to see how these phrases are used in context.

Activity: Expressing Feelings with 'Estar'
This activity asks you to match a situation (like a birthday) to an appropriate feeling. Try to figure out the best answer for each of the four scenarios.
Check your answers!

Here are the scenarios and the correct answers:

  1. Hoy es tu cumpleaños por eso hoy estás muy... (Today is your birthday, that's why today you are very...)
    • Answer: contento (happy/content). Feliz would also be correct.
  2. No he dormido en toda la noche. Hoy estoy... (I haven't slept all night. Today I am...)
    • Answer: cansado (tired).
  3. Mañana tengo un examen muy difícil, por eso estoy un poco... (Tomorrow I have a very difficult exam, that's why I am a little...)
    • Answer: nervioso (nervous).
  4. Mi amigo no me ha invitado a su fiesta, por eso estoy... (My friend didn't invite me to his party, that's why I am...)
    • Answer: triste (sad).

Conclusion

¡Excelente trabajo! You've made a big leap from knowing single words to forming meaningful sentences about feelings.

Key Takeaways:

  • Use the verb estar for temporary states like emotions.
  • The key forms for you are: estoy (I am), estás (you are), and está (he/she is).
  • Combine these forms with emotion words to describe feelings: Estoy feliz, Él está cansado.
  • Remember to match the ending of adjectives like cansado/a to the gender of the person.

Next Steps

Now that you can state how someone is feeling, the next logical step is to learn how to ask. In our next lesson, we will cover the essential questions ¿Cómo estás? (How are you?) and ¿Qué te pasa? (What's wrong?), opening the door to real back-and-forth conversations with your son.

¡Hasta la próxima