1563 Forms of "to be"

[QUOTE=greatscott]When I was learning Spanish one thing that was difficult for me was the different forms of "be". Some words implied a permanent state, and others were
a semi permanent state. Things started to get into cultural viewpoints, for example death being used as a semi permanent state. Just curious if Italian has
this as well.[/QUOTE]

Oh, good, so after I've fallen off my twig I can come back after a while and scare everyone witless!!

Seriously, though, I've not come across this distinction in Italian. Leastways, if it does exist no-one has ever explained it to me. You will be aware of course of essere and stare, but you can also use avere in the sense of to be. For example, I am hungry translates as ho fame, literally I have hunger. And there's many other examples: aver ragione (to be right); aver sete (to be thirsty); aver freddo (to be cold); aver caldo (warm, hot), and so on. Do these examples equate with a semi-permanent state? I wouldn't like to say; it's certainly a very interesting question.

I've probably been of no darn help at all!!

Thank you Peter, this does help.

I just remember using one of the verb forms of to be, either " estoy or soy " (don't remember which) and being told about exceptions to the general rules because I said something using the wrong one (form of to be) in communicating an idea and my thought came out meaning something different than I meant to say. I was wondering if this might be something I need to watch out for in learning Italian since the languages have some similarity.

These are examples of semi permanent and permanent states using the different verbs of to be in Spanish and how using the wrong one can change the meaning of what you are trying to say:

# Estoy cansado, I am tired. Soy cansado, I am a tired person.
# Estoy feliz, I'm happy now. Soy feliz, I am happy by nature.
# Está callada, she's being quiet. Es callada, she's introverted.
# No soy listo, I'm not a quick thinker. Estoy listo, I'm ready.

(Excerpt from 'Ser' or 'Estar,' That Is the Question From Gerald Erichsen,
Your Guide to Spanish Language.)

" One way of thinking about it is to think of ser as being roughly equivalent to "equals." Another way of thinking about it is that [I]estar often refers to a temporary condition, while ser frequently refers to a permanent condition. But there are some exceptions.[/I]"

"Among the major exceptions to the above way of thinking is that ser is used in expressions of time, such as "Son las dos de la tarde" for "It's 2 p.m." Also, we use estar to indicate someone has died — quite a permanent condition: Está muerto, he is dead."

After considering it for a few minutes, I don't think there is anything similar to the Spanish distinction of the two forms of "to be" in Italian.

"Sono stanco" means simply "I am tired". To reinforce the idea and make it a permanent status you simply add "always" and in "Sono sempre stanco".

With regards to the use of the verb "avere" - "to have" in Italian - to mean I am hungry, I am thirsty, I am sleepy you'll notice that it is usually followed by a noun and not an adjective:

ho fame
ho sete
ho sonno

if the verb is followed by an adjective then you have:

sono affamato
sono assetato
sono assonnato

I hope this helps...

Thank you very much Eliana, this is wonderful news! Putting together sentence structure seems much easier in Italian than in Spanish. Spanish with it's Latin base seems to be a good starting point for learning Italian though (when I read Italian I can pull out similar words and figure out what it says most of the time).