Estar is the verb of the current moment. While ser tells you what something fundamentally is, estar tells you how it is right now — its passing states, its mood, the weather at this instant, and where a movable thing or person happens to be. If the information could change in an hour, you almost certainly want estar.
The forms
Estar is irregular and worth memorizing right away.
| Subject | Present (full) | Colloquial (informal) |
|---|---|---|
| eu | estou | tô |
| você / ele / ela | está | tá |
| nós | estamos | tamo |
| a gente | está | tá |
| vocês / eles / elas | estão | tão |
Mind the accents: está and estão carry accents; tô, tá, tão keep theirs in the reduced forms. We'll cover the reduced column in detail below — it is everywhere in spoken Brazilian Portuguese.
Temporary states and conditions
Use estar for how someone or something is at the moment — tiredness, hunger, a state that will pass.
Eu estou muito cansado, dormi mal hoje.
I'm really tired, I slept badly last night. (temporary state)
A gente está com fome — vamos almoçar?
We're hungry — shall we have lunch? (note: estar com for hunger)
Brazilian Portuguese expresses many physical sensations with estar com + noun rather than an adjective: estou com fome (I'm hungry, lit. "I'm with hunger"), estou com sono (I'm sleepy), estou com pressa (I'm in a hurry).
Emotions and moods
Feelings at a given time take estar. This contrasts sharply with ser: ela é alegre describes a cheerful personality; ela está alegre describes her good mood today.
Estou muito feliz hoje, recebi uma boa notícia.
I'm really happy today, I got some good news. (current mood)
Por que você está tão quieto? Aconteceu alguma coisa?
Why are you so quiet? Did something happen? (current state)
Location of movable things and people
Where a thing you could pick up and move — or a person — happens to be takes estar. This is the opposite of the event-location rule for ser.
O livro está em cima da mesa.
The book is on the table. (location of a movable object)
Onde você está? Já cheguei no restaurante.
Where are you? I'm already at the restaurant. (location of a person)
As crianças estão no quarto.
The kids are in the bedroom.
Remember the contrast with fixed buildings, which prefer ficar: o restaurante fica na esquina (the restaurant is on the corner — it never moves), but o garçom está na cozinha (the waiter is in the kitchen — he moves around).
Current weather
Use estar for the weather right now, as a passing state of the moment.
Está frio hoje, leva um casaco.
It's cold today, take a jacket. (weather right now)
Está um dia lindo lá fora!
It's a beautiful day outside!
estar vs. fazer for weather
Brazilian Portuguese has two ways to talk about weather, and the difference is subtle but real. Estar describes the weather as the current state of this moment; fazer describes it as a climatic fact or generalization. Both are correct — they frame the same temperature differently.
Está frio agora, mas mais tarde melhora.
It's cold right now, but it'll get better later. (momentary state — estar)
No inverno faz muito frio aqui.
In winter it gets really cold here. (climatic generalization — fazer)
Current condition (with past participles)
A past participle used as an adjective describes the resulting state of something, and takes estar: a window that has been opened is open — está aberta.
A janela está aberta — você pode fechar?
The window is open — can you close it? (resulting state)
A loja está fechada aos domingos.
The store is closed on Sundays.
The progressive: estar + gerúndio
To say something is happening right now, Brazilian Portuguese uses estar + the gerund (-ndo). This is the everyday "-ing" construction.
Está chovendo, melhor esperar um pouco.
It's raining, better to wait a bit. (progressive)
O que você está fazendo? Estou estudando português.
What are you doing? I'm studying Portuguese. (progressive)
Note that Brazilian Portuguese uses the gerund -ndo form (chovendo, estudando, dormindo) — unlike European Portuguese, which prefers estar a + infinitive. The gerund is the standard, neutral form across Brazil.
The colloquial tô / tá forms (informal)
In everyday spoken Brazilian Portuguese, estar is almost always reduced: the initial es- drops away entirely. These reduced forms are completely normal in conversation, texting, and music, but you would not write them in a formal letter or essay.
Eu tô cansado, vou dormir cedo.
I'm tired, I'm going to bed early. (informal — tô = estou)
Tá frio aí também?
Is it cold there too? (informal — tá = está)
A gente tá chegando, espera mais cinco minutos.
We're getting there, wait five more minutes. (informal — tá = está, with a gente)
You will also hear tamo (= estamos, "we are") and tão (= estão, "they are") in casual speech. A learner should recognize all of these immediately, since they dominate real conversation, and use them freely in informal settings — just switch back to the full estou/está/estamos/estão (formal) in writing and formal speech.
Common Mistakes
❌ Eu sou cansado.
Incorrect — tiredness is a temporary state, so use estar.
✅ Eu estou cansado.
I'm tired.
Sou cansado would suggest "I'm a tiresome person" — a permanent trait. Tiredness right now is estar.
❌ Eu tenho fome.
Unnatural in Brazil — use estar com for sensations like hunger.
✅ Eu estou com fome.
I'm hungry.
English "I have hunger" doesn't map directly; Brazilian Portuguese says estar com fome. (You'll hear ter fome in some other varieties, but estar com is the natural Brazilian choice.)
❌ Está chover lá fora.
Incorrect — the progressive needs the gerund, not the infinitive.
✅ Está chovendo lá fora.
It's raining outside.
English speakers who learned European Portuguese sometimes try está a chover; in Brazil it's está chovendo with the gerund.
❌ O restaurante está na esquina.
Off — a fixed building's location is more naturally ficar in Brazil.
✅ O restaurante fica na esquina.
The restaurant is on the corner.
Use estar for movable things and people; reach for ficar for buildings rooted in place.
Key Takeaways
- Estar marks the current moment: temporary states, moods, weather right now, current conditions, and the location of movable things and people.
- Many sensations use estar com
- noun: estou com fome / sono / pressa.
- For weather, estar = right now, fazer = climatic fact (está frio vs. faz frio).
- The Brazilian progressive is estar + gerúndio (está chovendo), not estar a
- infinitive.
- The reduced tô / tá / tamo / tão forms (informal) are everywhere in speech — recognize them, use them casually, and switch to full forms in writing.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Ser, Estar, Ficar: The Three 'To Be' VerbsA1 — How Brazilian Portuguese splits the single English verb 'to be' across three verbs — ser for essence, estar for current states, and ficar for change and permanent location.
- Ser for Identity and EssenceA1 — When to use ser in Brazilian Portuguese — identity, profession, origin, material, possession, defining traits, time and dates, and the location of events.
- Ser vs Estar with Adjectives: Meaning ChangesA2 — How the same adjective shifts meaning depending on whether it follows ser (a defining trait) or estar (a current state).
- EstarA1 — Full conjugation and usage reference for 'estar' (to be) — one of Portuguese's two 'to be' verbs, highly irregular, used for temporary states, location, and the progressive.
- Present Indicative of EstarA1 — How to conjugate estar in Brazilian Portuguese, when to use it for states and locations, and the standard tô/tá/tão contractions of everyday speech.
- Gerund with Estar (Progressive)A1 — A focused drill on the gerund half of the Brazilian progressive — which gerund form pairs with estar, and how the construction works across every tense.