Word
Cuando estoy cansado de leer, escucho un audiolibro en español.
Meaning
When I am tired of reading, I listen to an audiobook in Spanish.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Cuando estoy cansado de leer, escucho un audiolibro en español.
yo
I
en
in
leer
to read
estar
to be
Questions & Answers about Cuando estoy cansado de leer, escucho un audiolibro en español.
Why is it estoy cansado and not soy cansado?
In Spanish, ser describes essential, permanent characteristics, while estar describes states or conditions that can change.
- Estoy cansado = I am (feeling) tired right now / at this time (temporary state).
- Soy cansado would sound like I am a tiring person or I am someone who tends to get tired easily (a kind of inherent trait), and is rarely used.
In this sentence, you’re talking about how you feel at certain times (when you’re tired of reading), so estar is correct: estoy cansado.
Why cansado and not cansada? Does the adjective have to agree with the speaker?
Yes. In Spanish, adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun or pronoun they describe.
Here, cansado refers to the implied subject yo (I).
- If the speaker is male (or identifies with masculine grammar), they say estoy cansado.
- If the speaker is female (or uses feminine grammar), they say estoy cansada.
So the sentence could be:
Why do we say cansado de leer and not just cansado leer?