Hello in Spanish

Learning how to say hello in Spanish is the first step of many you will take when learning Spanish the path will definitely become harder but these early basic greetings are the food and water of any
language and their importance can never be understated.

Do not worry about the formation and the grammar of these early phrases just relax and concentrate on the sound that each of the following phrases makes as you say them, greetings are the first impression you will make when speaking to a Spanish speaker so practice saying them regularly.

When you want to say ‘Hello!’ in Spanish you use the word “¡Hola!

In Spanish the ‘h‘ is silent so you would pronounce ‘Hola‘ as ‘olla‘. This greeting is widely used as in English so you will gain lots of experience using it.

There are of course more formal greetings:

Good Morning which is “Buenas días“.

This is pronounced as ‘bwenas deeas‘ The ‘ue’ is pronounced as a ‘w’ and the accented i in “días” as an emphasized ‘ee‘

Good Afternoon which is “Buenas tardes“.

‘Tardes‘ is pronounced ‘tarrdais‘ with a very slight roll on the ‘r’.

Good Evening or Good Night is “Buenas Noches“.

“Noches” is pronounced ‘notchais‘

If you would like to ask someone how they are you would say:

“¿Cómo estás?” – How are you?

You could also use “está” if you were asking someone you did not know as a sign of respect, however, apart from asking VIP’s, this form is rarely used nowadays.

Another more informal way of asking someone this is to say:

“¿Qué tal?” – How’s it going? or How are you?

When you want to say goodbye to somebody you would say:

“¡Adiós!” – Good bye

Now, not to confuse you too much, it is important should you ever hear it being used in this manner, but “adiós” is also used frequently to say hello in Spanish, but only when passing someone very briefly

——————————————————————————————

If you would like to learn more Spanish the best way of doing so is with a learn Spanish software program. These programs will help you learn Spanish simply and quickly and you can find reviews of the three most popular programs by following the following  link  Learn Spanish Software Reviews

Spanish Verb Conjugator: Do You Need One?

Spanish Verb Conjugator

A Spanish verb conjugator should be high up on the list of training tools a student requires when they start to learn Spanish, in fact many consider it to be the ONE tool that they couldn’t do without! Why? It is simply because the modern Spanish verb conjugator has not only made learning difficult verb conjugations much easier and quicker to do but, more importantly, has improved the success rates for students completing Spanish courses.

Learning Spanish verb conjugation has always been a major stumbling block for a lot of individuals who harbour dreams of speaking Spanish fluently, so much so that many of them fail to complete their studies…modern day verb trainers, or conjugators, can definitely help with this problem.

The Spanish Verb Conjugator Trainer – The Nemesis of Irregular Spanish Verb Conjugation

All students of the Spanish language will recognize that learning, indeed the complete mastery of, the conjugations of irregular Spanish verbs is probably the single most difficult area of their studies yet it was an area of language study that was pretty much left unimproved for years. For many years the only way to learn the dreaded Spanish verb conjugations was to use the good old fashioned and trusted verb conjugation book; with the help of these books and endless hours of memorization and repetition Spanish verb conjugation was indeed mastered…eventually!

Unfortunately, the endless hours of learning when using the verb tables in these books was never the most enjoyable task to undertake and it doesn’t take long before the tedium of this type of studying produces casualties in the form of students giving up on any hope they once had of being able to speak Spanish confidently.

Although Spanish verb conjugation books are still a required tool in the bag of all students, they are no longer considered to be the best way to learn Spanish verb conjugation and are better suited for use as a resource tool. The modern online Spanish verb conjugator is an absolute ‘must have‘ for students nowadays as it can slash the time it previously took to learn Spanish verbs and make the task of learning them considerably more enjoyable.

Forget the many free conjugators that you will find online, they are little more than computerized versions of those books I have previously mentioned, what is required to achieve excellent results is a high quality, state-of-the-art, Spanish verb conjugator training program and if you are truly serious about getting the best results you can possibly achieve then you have got to consider purchasing the Verbarrator Spanish verb trainer.

I personally own a copy of this software program and have provided an honest review of it on my main site that you can read here, VERBARRATOR REVIEW, it gives a detailed account of the program, what it contains, it’s history and development.

I do not hide the fact that I promote and fully endorse the Verbarrator verb trainer and I can also tell you that you can buy it directly from the developers and elsewhere online…what I will offer though to anyone who does wisely decide that the Verbarrator is a tool they definitely need to complete their Spanish studies successfully is a copy of each of my Spanish verb conjugation books: ‘2000+ Spanish Irregular Verbs 2nd Edition‘ and ‘50 Most Commonly Used Regular Spanish Verbs’, whenever a purchase is made through any of the links found on my site, including those within the banners above and below this post.

For more information about Spanish verbs why not visit my previous blogposts; El verbo gustar and Ver conjugation

Learn Spanish Like Crazy

Learn Spanish Like Crazy Review

Why is Learning Spanish Like Crazy one of my Top 3 Online Spanish courses?

Compared with my other two choices, Rocket Spanish and Visual Link the ‘ Learning Spanish Like Crazy ’ program offered little in the way of interactivity and written courseware until recently and as a result was not in my considerations for a top three slot.  Not so long ago, Learning Spanish Like Crazy was purely an audio course but they must have seen this as a stumbling block when compared to their competitors and have added a whole lot of bonus material that I will cover shortly.

However, even without the added material, the initial course does provide the student with exceptional benefits with its ability to teach and improve the use of everyday Spanish in everyday situations, although it must be noted that the Spanish taught in this program is Latin American Spanish rather than the more traditional formal Spanish, so for my non American review readers, unless you specifically want to learn Latin American Spanish you would probably be better considering the two courses above!

Personally, I think that this audio course is excellent for improving the use of everyday Latin American Spanish in everyday situations and not the formal ‘textbook’ Spanish that most courses teach. The best way to explain what I mean by this is to use a few lines from the ‘Learning Spanish Like Crazy’ homepage:

- My friend from Latin America explained to me that when he first arrived in the U.S., a learning-English course taught him to ask “How do you do?” in order to ask about someone’s health or when meeting someone for the first time.

But in his thirteen years of living in the U.S. no one ever asked him “How do you do?” It was either “How are you?” or “How you doing?”
And you know what?? He was 100% correct!! I had definitely been using the “How Do You Do?” type of Spanish –

An Overview of Learning Spanish Like Crazy

The course was initially only an audio course which comprised of 30 lessons per volume. Volume one, which I am reviewing, takes the student from beginner level to intermediate, volume 2 comprises of 60 lessons and will help the student reach an advanced level and level 3, when released, will take the student to complete fluency.

As stated above the first level has had an additional 5 bonus products attached which are:

• FSI Programmatic Spanish Level One
• FSI Programmatic Spanish Level Two
• FSI Spanish Level Three (Advanced Spanish)
• FSI Spanish Level Four (Advanced Spanish)
• FSI Fast Spanish Course

For specifics on these bonus products I suggest visiting http://www.learningspanishlikecrazy.com/.

Learning Methods

Learning Spanish Like Crazy was developed to allow for natural learning, the way babies and children learn their native languages. The program is based on several principles of ideal linguistic learning: complete immersal, developing ideal habits, and having the correct attitude.

The way we learn language as a baby and small child is by complete immersion. Whatever the native language, we are exposed to that language all the time. Our parents speak to us continually, we hear others speak, the television, radio and music all assert the primary language and thus, we learn to speak. Only later do we learn to read and write in that language.

Learning Spanish Like Crazy makes use of that important rule of thumb. Do not attempt to read or write a language until you are comfortable speaking. The way you become comfortable speaking is by listening to native speakers constantly; watching Spanish TV, listening to Spanish radio in the car, and listening to the lessons over and over.

Practice Makes Perfect Learning Spanish Like Crazy Review

Developing the right habits is also a part of the Learning Spanish Like Crazy program. The program asserts that you must practice, practice, practice. The only way to become comfortable with a second language is to use it and hear the sound of your own voice speaking it. It is also crucial to imitate native accents and inflections, so that true fluency can be attained. Using Spanish constantly is a habit that must be learned.

The last part of the Learning Spanish Like Crazy program is the mental component. The correct attitude must be fostered or success will not be attained. After the complete immersal and assuming the right habits, you must believe that you will succeed. It is important to visualize yourself at the end goal of fluency.

Conclusions:

This program will definitely help you learn the Spanish language the way it was meant to be learned: through speaking and listening. I found the lessons to be fun, and the speakers in the audio are fun and engaging. The cost is not prohibitive, and is much less than comparable “popular” courses such as the Rosetta Stone series and Pimsleur.

Click Here to Visit ‘Learning Spanish Like Crazy’ for more information

Ver Conjugation: Ver Tenses Conjugated

Ver Conjugation:

Ver Conjugation

The Spanish verb VER, which translates as ‘to see‘ or ‘to watch‘ in English, does not cause that many problems for most students, however it has certain irregularities that will need to be mastered, the most important being those that affect the present tense conjugation. Below you will find each tense Ver conjugation with the irregular forms highlighted in red.

Gerund:
viendo - seeing

Past Participle:
visto - seen

Present Tense of Ver – presente:

• yo veo – I see
• tú ves/vés – you see
• él/ella ve/vé- he/she sees
• usted ve/vé – you see (polite)
• nosotros/as vemos – we see
• vosotros/as véis- you see (plural)
• ellos/ellas ven/vén - they see
• ustedes ven/vén- you see (polite plural)

Preterite Tense of Ver – pretérito:

• yo vi – I saw
• tú viste – you saw
• él/ella vio – he/she saw
• usted vio – you saw (polite)
• nosotros/as vimos – we saw
• vosotros/as visteis – you saw (plural)
• ellos/ellas vieron – they saw
• ustedes vieron – you saw (polite plural)

Imperfect Tense of Ver – imperfecto:

• yo veía – I used to see
• tú veías – you used to see
• él/ella veía – he/she used to see
• usted veía – you used to see (polite)
• nosotros/as veíamos – we used to see
• vosotros/as veíais – you used to see (plural)
• ellos/ellas veían – they used to see
• ustedes veían – you used to see (polite plural)

Future Tense of Ver – futuro:

• yo veré – I will see
• tú verás – you will see
• él/ella verá – he/she will see
• usted verá – you will see (polite)
• nosotros/as veremos – we will see
• vosotros/as veréis – you will see (plural)
• ellos/ellas verán – they will see
• ustedes verán – you will see (polite plural)

Conditional Tense of Ver – condicional:

• yo vería – I would see
• tú verías – you would see
• él/ella vería – he/she would see
• usted vería – you would see (polite)
• nosotros/as veríamos – we would see
• vosotros/as veríais – you would see (plural)
• ellos/ellas verían – they would see
• ustedes verían – you would see (polite plural)

Present subjunctive Tense of Ver – presente del subjuntivo:

• yo vea- I see
• tú veas- you see
• él/ella vea- he/she see
• usted vea- you see (polite)
• nosotros/as veamos- we see
• vosotros/as veáis- you see (plural)
• ellos/ellas vean- they see
• ustedes vean- you see (polite plural)

Imperfect subjunctive Tense of Ver – imperfecto del subjuntivo:

• yo viera/viese – I saw
• tú vieras/vieses – you saw
• usted/él/ella viera/viese – he/she and you saw
• nosotros/as viéramos/viésemos – we saw
• vosotros/as vierais/vieseis – you saw (plural)
• ustedes/ellos/ellas vieran/viesen – they or you (polite plural) saw

Ver Imperative – imperativo:

• (tú) ¡Ve! or ¡Vé! - See!
• (usted) ¡Vea! – See!
• (nosotros/as) ¡Veamos! - Let’s See!
• (vosotros/as) ¡Ved! – See!
• (ustedes) !Vean! - See!

There are three other verbs that use the exact conjugation patterns as ver but they are not used that often but are worthwhile noting, they are: entrever ‘to partially see‘ or ‘to make up‘, prever ‘to predict‘ or ‘to preview‘ and rever ‘to review‘.

If you are struggling with learning Spanish verb conjugation, (and heaven knows most of us do!) check out my first hand review of the verbarrator verb conjugation training software program, an excellent program and one, I hasten to add, that has helped me and others I know immensely!

Buy Rocket Spanish…Do You Want to Know Why?

BUY ROCKET SPANISH PREMIUM

Deciding upon which Spanish course to use can often be a dilemma for many people as there are so many Spanish language courses to choose from nowadays but, as is often the case, popularity provides guidance, hence why so many people choose to buy Rocket Spanish. Rocket Spanish is definitely one of the most popular online Spanish courses currently available and for two very good reasons.

The Reasons Why You Should Buy Rocket Spanish

Reason 1:

Many globally known Spanish courses exist such as those provided by Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur, these courses are generally of excellent quality but, unfortunately, this quality normally comes at a price which, of course, puts a lot of people off making any initial investment in them. Rocket Spanish, however, fares much more favourably as it is a very reasonably priced course making it far more attractive to the vast majority of people who would rather not break the bank purchasing a more expensive course.

Reason 2:

Some would argue that ‘budget priced’ Spanish courses are so called because they do not provide the quality learning material that the more expensive branded programs provide and in most cases this is true, but this is where Rocket Spanish again succeeds, providing first class material that is far in excess of the attached price tag.

These two reasons alone…the price and the quality…sum up why Rocket Spanish is so popular.

Another reason why people often buy Rocket Spanish is the sales pitch that is often given which is that Rocket Spanish WILL have you speaking Spanish fluently in eights weeks. Personally, I believe this to be subjective as it depends very much on how much time and effort someone is willing to put into their studies…eight weeks is entirely possible but should not be taken as a definite bench mark!

If you would like to read my full review of Rocket Spanish that covers, in detail, all of the course materials you can do so on my main site by clicking on this link Rocket Spanish Review. However, if you have made your mind up already why not try out Rocket Spanish before purchasing by signing up for the free 6 day course below.

As an added bonus…should you buy Rocket Spanish through one of my links just send me an email at danny@irregularspanishverbs.com as confirmation of purchase and I’ll gladly send you a copy of each of my Spanish verb conjugation books:

‘2000+ Spanish Irregular Verbs‘ and ‘50 Most Commonly Used Spanish Verbs’ completely FREE!

YES! I want to claim my free instant access to the Rocket Spanish 6 day Learn Spanish course ($27 value).

Your Name:
Your Email Address:
(This is a private and fully protected mailing list. You can unsubscribe at any time).

Me gustaría hablar español

The Spanish Verb Gustar is used a lot in Spanish and the conditional tense is especially useful as it is often preferred to querer, which means ‘to want‘ when requesting something or expressing a wish.

However, before venturing further into an explanation, it is worth explaining that me gustaría means it would please me. Do not forget that gustar although used as the direct equivalent of ‘to like‘, in fact means ‘to please‘ or ‘to be pleasing‘.

The difficulty of this expression is that with it you have to get used to a different order of words from the English. Spanish, as is so often the case, is often subject to this varied word order, depending greatly on the importance of what is referred to.

So, as me is important, it is placed at the beginning of the sentence regardless of the fact it is the indirect object (i.e. it means to me) rather than the subject = I…

The problem of course is that you have to change the indirect object pronouns to suit who is being referred to; here are the indirect object pronouns.

• me - to me
• te - to you
• le - to him, her
• le -  to you (polite)
• nos - to us
• os - to you
• les - to them
• les - to you (polite plural)

The conditional form of gustar, which is gustaría, is the same whether it is used in the singular or in the plural and here is how it is formed.

• me gustaría – I would like
• te gustaría – you would like
• le gustaría – he, she would like
• le gustaría – you would like (polite)
• nos gustaría – we would like
• os gustaría – you would like
• les gustaría – they would like
• les gustaría – you would like (polite plural)

When to Use The Prepositional ‘a‘

When the pronoun le or les is used, it isn’t always clear who is the person that is doing the ‘liking‘. When this is the case, you should add the prepositional phrase a plus the person/s who is ‘liking‘. This is shown in the examples below. It should also be noted that even though the person is mentioned in the sentence the indirect-object pronoun should not be left out. The purpose of using the prepositional phrase is to make clear who the person is that is being referred to and not as a replacement for the indirect object pronoun.

• A Juan le gustaría el coche. – Juan would like the car.
• A Carlos le gustaría los zapatos. – Carlos would like the shoes.
• ¿A ustedes les gustaría el coche? – Would you (plural) like the car?

The use of the prepositional ‘a‘ is not just for use when using gustar in the conditional tense but for whenever there is a need to clarify the person who persons who is ‘liking‘.

For example:

• A Carlos le gusta el café – Carlos likes the coffee (The coffee pleases Carlos)
• A Carlos le gustan los zapatos – Carlos likes the shoes (The shoes please Carlos)

Follow the link for more information about the uses and the conjugation of ‘verbo gustar‘ in the present tense.

If you are struggling with conjugating and using the verb gustar or any other Spanish verb, then check out my Verbarrator Review. The verbarrator is the newest and most up-to-date Spanish verb training software on the market and is well worth considering as it will certainly speed up and enhance your studies.

El Verbo Gustar – Gustar Conjugation

El Verbo Gustar

El verbo gustar (The verb gustar), which literally means ‘to please’ but is translated and used instead as the equivalent to the English ‘to like’, is something of an anomaly to English speakers because it is used totally differently to how we use the English verb it stands for.

I wrote an article some time ago on how to use the verb Gustar and rather than rewite the same information I will post the article here:

—————————————————————–

El Verbo Gustar – Using The Spanish Verb Gustar

In Spanish, there is no exact equivalent to the English verb ‘to like’, actually, the nearest in both meaning and, most importantly, in how it is used, is the verb gustar, ‘el verbo gustar‘, which literally translated into English is ‘to please’.

To emphasize this; if you were to say in English, ‘I like my coffee strong‘, the Spanish equivalent, would translate as ‘Strong coffee pleases me‘.

Using Gustar is quite simple when compared to other verbs in Spanish.

Although, not strictly an irregular Spanish verb, gustar does not follow any of the regularly used Spanish verb patterns, whether they are irregular or regular and it only ever uses the 3rd person forms, irrespective of the tense.

The make-up of a sentence when using the verb gustar is the opposite as it is in English. (To give a grammatical explanation; the English subject becomes the indirect object and the English object becomes the subject.}

Now…to put that explanation into plain English so that everyone can understand!

Consider this phrase: ‘I like my coffee strong‘, in this sentence ‘I‘ is the subject and ‘coffee‘ is the object, Compare that with this sentence, ‘Strong coffee pleases me‘, where ‘coffee‘ is the subject and ‘me‘ is the indirect object.

As I have said, gustar is always used in the third person and this happens because it relates to what is liked, instead of whom or what likes it.

If what is ‘liked‘ is singular or, if it’s an action that is ‘liked‘ gusta is used, if, however, what is ‘liked‘ is plural you would use gustan.

Gustar Conjugation of the present tense in the singular and plural

:

• Me gusta/gustan – I like…or, I like it
• Te gusta/gustan – You like…or, you like it
• Le gusta/gustan – He/She/You like…or, he/she/you like it
• Nos gusta/gustan - We like…or, we like it
• Os gusta/gustan – You like…or, you like it
• Les gusta/gustan – They/you like…or, they/you like it.

Here are some examples:

• Me gusta el deporte. – I like sport.
• Nos gusta el colegio. – We like school.
• A Carlos le gusta hablar. – Carlos likes talking

Gustar in the plural:

• Me gustan los coches. – I like cars
• Nos gustan los trenes. – We like trains
• Les gustan los perros – They like the dogs.

Gustar isn’t the only Spanish verb that is formed like this, encantar ‘to enchant/love’, apetecer ‘to fancy/crave for’, quedar ‘to stay/remain’, faltar ‘to be missing’, parecer ‘to seem’, and doler ‘to hurt/ache/mourn’ are a few of the commonly used verbs that are used in this way.

—————————————————————

I hope that this will help you understand the use of the Spanish verb gustar a little better. There is another very common way that gustar is used and that is in the conditional tense and you can read about it on my next post but before that you should check out the video below that looks at how gustar is used…it never fails to put a smile on my face!

————————————————————-

————————————————————-

Fantastic video clip, hey!

If you are struggling with the use of gustar or the conjugation and use of any Spanish verbs and it is holding you back in your studies check out my review of the Verbarrator verb training software. It is the best learning aid I’ve ever used specifically aimed at mastering Spanish verbs and their complex conjugations.

In general, the subjunctive is a verb mood that is used to express an action or state of being in the context of the speaker’s reaction to it. It is often the case, although not always, that the subjunctive mood is used in dependent clauses introduced by que (which, that, who). It is common to use a subjunctive verb in sentences that express doubt, uncertainty, denial, desire/wish, commands, reactions or a strong emotional attitude to the sentence containing the subjunctive verb.

Here are some examples comparing the Indicative and Subjunctive:

Indicative:

• Jose almuerza. (Jose is having lunch)

Subjunctive:

• Wish= Espero que Jose almuerce. (I hope that Jose is having lunch)
• Desire= Te ruego que almuerces (I beg you to have lunch)
• Doubt= Dudo que Jose almuerce (I doubt that Jose is having lunch).

• Indicative (statement of fact): Jose almuerza. (Jose is having lunch)
• Indicative (statement of fact): Sé que Jose almuerza. (I know that Jose is having lunch)

• Subjunctive (doubt): No es cierto que Jose almuerce. (It is uncertain that Jose is having lunch.)
• Subjunctive (denial): No es verdad que Jose almuerce. (It is not true that Jose is having lunch)
• Subjunctive (reaction): Estoy feliz que Jose almuerce. (I am happy that Jose is having lunchg)
• Subjunctive (wish): Espero que Jose almuerce (I hope that Jose is having lunch)
• Subjunctive (desire/wish): Prefiero que Jose almuerce (I prefer that Jose is having lunch).

When making formal commands the subjunctive is also used:

• ¡Tenga Ud eso! (Have this!)

This is also the case when making informal commands that are negative:

• ¡No almuerces! (Don´t have lunch!)

For commands that mean encouragement:

• ¡Almorcemos! (Let’s have lunch!).

And after impressional statements:

• Es necesario que/ insisto que Jose almuerce... (I insist that Jose has lunch).

For those of you who are strugging to come to terms with the subjunctive in Spanish or with learning Spanish verbs in general, may I suggest reading my review of the verbarrator. The verbarrator is a verb training software program which is, in my opinion, the best program currently available for mastering the complexities of Spanish conjugation… and if you decide to purchase it through one of the many links on my site you will also receive a copy of my conjugation book ‘2000+ Spanish Irregular Verbs‘ completely free!

For more interesting and informative reading check out my previous post about Ser Subjunctive conjugation

http://www.irregularspanishverbs.com/blog/xxx/spanish-subjunctive-ser-subjunctive-conjugation/

This post, however, will provide the irregular conjugation of each of the tenses of the much used Spanish verb Ser in the subjunctive.

Subjunctive Present Tense (Subjuntivo presente)

• yo sea
• tú seas
• él/ella sea
• usted sea
• nosotros/as seamos
• vosotos/as seáis
• ellos/ellas sean
• ustedes sean

Subjunctive Imperfect Tense (Subjuntivo pretérito imperfecto)

• yo fuera/fuese
• tú fuera/fueses
• él/ella fuera/fuese
• usted fuera/fuese
• nosotros/as fuéramos/fuésemos
• vosotos/as fuerais/fuereis
• ellos/ellas fueran/fuesen
• ustedes fueran/fuesen

Just to add to any confusion you may be suffering from, it should be noted that there are two different set of endings for the imperfect tense in the subjunctive both mean the same and either can be used!

Subjunctive Future Tense (Subjuntivo futuro imperfecto)

• yo fuere
• tú fueres
• él/ella fuere
• usted fuere
• nosotros/as fuéremos
• vosotos/as fuereis
• ellos/ellas fueren
• ustedes fueren

Here are some links to other ‘ser‘ related posts:

• Present Tense Conjugation of Ser
• Imperfect Tense Conjugation of Ser
• Ser vs Estar
• Preterite Tense of Ser
• Spanish Subjunctive

…and if you need a full and complete Ser Conjugation chart one can be downloaded and printed from the Ser conjugation page on the main site.

However, if you are one of the many students of Spanish who need more help with learning Spanish verbs, I will suggest that you read my verbarrator review which is, in my opinion, the best verb training program currently available for the study of Spanish verb conjugation…I also offer a copy of my conjugation book ‘2000+ Spanish Irregular Verbs‘ completely free if you purchase verbarrator through one of many links throughout my site, which is a promotion you will not find anywhere else online!

However, before you even learn the conjugation of the irregular Spanish verb ser it is a requirement to understand how it is used, or even if ser is the verb you should even be using! This is because, unlike as in English, Spanish has two verbs that that are used that mean ‘to be‘, and these are, as you probably know already…ser and estar.

The rules surrounding the use of ser and estar may seem complicated at first but do become much easier after continuous and regular use, thus making the ser vs estar question a distant memory very quickly for the majority of students. Unfortunately though, before this can happen, a period of study is required and in order to master this area of Spanish efficiently you will need concise and accurate information that relates to the differences between these two Spanish verbs and also the conjugation of the verb ser… all this information can be found here, on this blog, and on the main website of irregularspanishverbs.com and all the links you will need are listed below:

Present Tense Conjugation of Ser
Imperfect Tense Conjugation of Ser
Ser vs Estar
Preterite Tense of Ser
Ser Subjunctive Conjugation

…and you can visit this link for a full and complete Ser Conjugation chart that can be downloaded and printed.
For those of you who need more help with learning Spanish verbs, may I suggest reading my review of the verbarrator verb training software which is, in my opinion, the best program currently available for studying, and mastering, the complexities of Spanish verb conjugation…I also offer a copy of my conjugation book ‘2000+ Spanish Irregular Verbs‘ completely free when purchasing the verbarrator through my site, a promotion found nowhere else online!