Learning Spanish has never been easier

Written by Maria Fernandez

¿estás de vacaciones?

'Estar de vacaciones' means to be on vacation, to be on holiday. Expressions with the verb 'estar' generally refer to temporary situations, activities or states of mind, rather than permanent ones, as you can see in the expressions below.

Many expressions with 'estar' come with an adjective or describing words, for instance:

estar loco - to be mad

In those cases, the describing word has to agree with the person or thing it describes. Compare these two sentences:

el profesor está loco - the teacher is mad

mis tías están locas - my aunts are mad

To find out more about how describing words work in Spanish, go the grammar movies in Lessons 6, 7, 12 and 13.

Here are ten useful Spanish idioms and expressions with 'estar', together with their English translation and an example:

estar de viaje - to be travelling

mis padres están de viaje - my parents are travelling

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