The most common Spanish verb forms:
Copular

The verb forms in this list are all from one of the two copular verbs ser and estar, which are both usually translated by English (to) be.

When to use ser and estar?

As a rule of thumb:

• estar is used to indicate location of physical people or objects, or with an adjective to indicate the condition or state of something, or a perception (such as how something tastes);
• estar is also used with a present participle-- these are forms ending in -ndo and are the equivalent of English -ing forms-- so for example, from pensar (to think), está pensando means he is thinking;
• ser is gnerally used in other cases: to indicate a characteristic or definition, to indicate the location of an event, to tell the time, and in other 'functional' uses including the passive.

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