48 Expressing emotions

Emotions with estar

El verbo estar significa “to be”, pero solo para expresar emociones and location. It has its own conjugation, and most forms have the stress in the last part of the word. Nosotros is the only that doesn’t have stress on such place:

• Yo estoy
• Tú estás
• Él/ella/usted está
• Nosotros/nosotras estamos
• Ellos/ellas/ustedes están

La emoción goes right after the verb. With estar, the person identifies oneself with the emotion, and it needs to agree in gender with the person experiencing the emotion. You add an A for a woman and an O for a man. If the emotion ends in an E originally, it keeps the same for both genders.

Examples:

• Yo estoy cansada=I am tired (if the speaker is a woman)
• Yo estoy cansado=I am tired (if the speaker is a man)
• ¿Estás cansada?=Are you tired (if “you” is a woman)
• Estamos cansadas=We are tired (if a group of women including the speaker is tired, and the speaker is a woman too)
• Ellos están cansados (if some all male group are tired)
• Ellas están cansadas (if some all female group are tired)

Non-binary gender can just take an E for everything in theory, yet this is not commonly used. People usually pick one, the one that feels most transgressive,. For example, a born male may pick the girly endings to show non-binarity.

Never use an emotion that picks estar with tener. “Yo tengo aburrido” is a NO!

Feelings with tener

There are OTHER SET OF EMOTIONS that are expressed with tener. Such emotions imply that the emotions are something you have, not something that identifies you as a person. It’s like having a lift to carry. They are usually emotions impacting the body. They shouldn’t agree with the person.

• Tener frío=lit. to have coldness, idiom. to be cold
• Tener calor=lit. to have heat, idiom. to be hot
• Tener sueño=lit. to have sleepiness, idiom. to be sleepy
• Tener hambre=lit. to have hunger, idiom. to be hungry
• Tener sed=lit. to have thirst, idiom. to be thirsty
• Tener pereza=lit. to have laziness, idiom. to feel lazy
• Tener miedo=lit. to have fear, idiom. to be fearful

You need to conjugate “tener” as always:

• Tengo sueño (=I’m sleepy)
• Tienes sueño (=you’re sleepy)
• Tiene sueño (=she/he is sleepy)
• Tenenos sueño (=we’re sleepy)
• Tienen sueño (=they are sleepy)

It doesn’t matter if you refer to man or woman, you keep the thing you have as feeling always the same: “ella tiene frío” / “él tiene frío”. It doesn’t change with plural: “Nosotros tenemos frío”, “Nosotros tenemos frío”, “Ellos tienen frío”, “Ellas tienen frío”.

Sample conversations:

Timing for feelings

Talk about the time of day you usually experience certain feeling.

A: ¿A qué hora tienes _________ (add feeling)?

B: Yo tengo _________ (add feeling) a las ______ de la ________.

Feelings: hambre (=hunger), sueño (=sleepiness), calor (=heat), frío (=cold)

Examples of times of day: siete de la mañana, ocho de la mañana, once de la mañana, una de la tarde, tres de la tarde, once de la noche, tres de la mañana

Coping with emotions

A: ¿Qué haces cuando estás _____________ (add any emotion)?

B: Cuando estoy ____________ (repeat emotion), yo _____________ (add action conjugated in the present indicative).

A: ¿Qué haces cuando tienes ___________ (add frío/calor/sueño/hambre/sed)?

B: Cuando tengo ______________ (repeat frío/calor/sueño/hambre/sed), yo ________________ (add action conjugated in the yo form, present indicative).

Coping actions: hablar por teléfono (=to talk over the phone), llorar (=to cry), soñar (=to dream), escuchar música (=to listen to music), tomar agua (=to drink water), visitar al médico (=to visit the doctor), gritar (=to scream), fumar (=to smoke), jugar videojuegos (=to play videogames, juego=I play, U ot UE stem changing verb), correr (=to run), usar un abrigo (=wear a coat), ponerse un gorro / una bufanda / una cobija (=to put a hat/scarf/blanket, pongo=I put, me pongo=I wear), prender el ventilador (=to turn on the fan)

Coping with boring activities

A: ¿Qué te gusta hacer cuando ______________ (add boring action in the present indicative, tú form)?

B: Cuando ___________ (repeat boring action in the present indicative yo form), me gusta _____________ (add coping action in the infinitive).

Boring actions: estudiar, trabajar (=to work), leer (=to read), limpiar (=to clean), arreglar la cocina (=fix the kitchen), lavar la ropa (=to wash clothes), organizar la comida (=to organize the food), doblar las medias (=to fold the socks), escuchar “Despacito” (=to listen to “Despacito”), ver Friends (=to watch Friends)

Coping actions: cantar (=to sing), bailar (=to dance), hablar por teléfono (=to talk over the phone), llorar (=to cry), soñar (=to dream), escuchar música (=to listen to music), imaginar algo (=to imagine something, state what), me voy (=I depart myself).