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From Spanish Dictionary:
<pre>El baño está a la derecha de la sala. (The bathroom is to the right of the living room.)
Estamos en el café ahora y estarémos en el cine en 20 minutos. (We are at the café right now and we will be at the movie theatre in 20 minutes.)
Mi abuelo está en la luna. (My grandfather is out of it/lost.)
Exception for Parties
This is a big one: The location of an event or party is described using SER. Not ESTAR!
La fiesta es en mi casa. (The party is at my house.)
</pre>
It makes sense to me because the location never changes, since the event only happens once in all of time.
I doubt that ser/estar can always be simplified to whether something is temporary or permant. For example: "Dónde está España?" "España está en Europa". Spain's geographical location is permanent (for all practical purposes) yet está is still used.
I just said I thought it makes sense, because that's how I remember that case. Although it generally is true that "ser" corresponds to permanence, and that location is a predictable exception. A native speaker could weigh in here, but it does seem to be true that "ser" is used for specific events in time because of that reason.
Well, borders sometimes change. Look at the history of Hungary and Poland for example - they moved a lot (or rather expanded and shrunk).
Ser generally refers to a property of a noun while estar refers to situation or circumstance.
My dictionary says 'la sala' is a large room, living room if 'sala de estar.' "Sala" is often followed by 'de + something" to be conference room, waiting room, etc. 'Salon' is living room, lounge, and modified to be beauty parlor, dance hall. Pretty close.
I didn't try using "salon" in my English translation here, but it really should be a valid translation of Spanish "salón", I'd think.
English translation salon worked here for me. My thought was the party is in the salon. Another correct translation was the living room so now I don't where the party is. Beauty parlor or living room? Either way it must have been one hell of party because I am now lost.
"Salon" in English for something like "living room" or "hangout room" long pre-dates its use as a beauty parlor.
But, that was funny, so I gave you a lingot. :-)
living room is correct but sitting room is not. In british English 'sitting room' is definitely correct (and is the preferred usage, it's what the Queen would say at least)
But Duolingo uses American English. The British/American differences have been spotted in various other sentences too.
A hall is kind of a tight space to have a party. That's what I went off of and because of this I used the alternate: living room.
Architecturally, a hall is a large room. In North America, a corridor (hallway) is often shortened to 'hall', but they are not the same thing.
A hall is by definition not a tight space, unless it's crowded with people. Halls are usually specifically designed for large gatherings. Have you ever been to Carnegie Hall?
I put ' the party is in the living room' Duolingo says it's in the meeting room. I don't have a meeting room, so I've had to cancel the party
One Duo suggested translation is ' in the living room' , but it doesn't accept it!!
Lily, Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I am not surprised that there is an exception for las fiestas because party giving and party going is such a dominant feature of Latin American society. (Just don't know enough about Spain to comment.)
Some trivia - pre WWII, in the US the living room was the parlor. After the war, magazines like Good Housekeeping promoted the term 'living room' instead. Why? first because they wanted it to be used more (more housekeeping!) for 'living' and because the parlor was traditionally where deceased relatives were 'laid out' prior to burial. So 'living room' vs. 'dying room.'
I put the festival is in the living room and it said it was wrong and that the correct answer was meeting room, but when I hover over the word “salon”, it doesn’t say meeting room
To also backup the use of living room, I've translated salon as living room on other translations and it accepted it so I'm extra confused why now its wrong
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Ironically, I didn't translate fiesta and was marked wrong. In my opinion, fiesta has been adopted into American English to the point where it doesn't need to be translated, in a similar way that salsa and kindergarten and sauerkraut and mensch et cetera. That little bit of Latin at the end of that list is a lovely bit of an awesome use of language on my part. Q.E.D. Nailed it!
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Sadly I cannot get this right as "living room' and "hall" are not among the choices offered. Onward and downward.
'At the hall' implies a separate building, such as a dance hall, at a different location altogether. 'In the hall' denotes a specific location within the building under discussion. It's somewhat like the distinction between 'at the barn' and 'in the barn', or 'at the beach' and 'on the beach'.
I wrote "the party is in the main room" and I got it wrong. For me a native spanish speaker, -I am from Honduras by the way, living room is "la salà", "el salón" would be like a big place, especialized in partys, like quinciañeras, bautizos, bodas, bailes, etc.
Sitting room should be accepted. I never use the word 'living room' or 'lounge' - so 'non-U', don't you think (there should be an emoticon for 'mock poshness'! Anyway, reported 8/8/14
In Australia we use the term loungeroom, but this is marked incorrect here.
"Ser" is used for the location of events. Just one of the quirks of the language.
I believe that ESTAR is always used when referring to the location of something. I've never found anything pertaining to locations of events.
Sad but true. As others have already said, SER is always used for the location of events.
So help me out, estar is for location and condition and -events- , ser is for characteristic, time, and what other (two) things?
So help me out, estar is for location and condition and -events- , ser is for characteristic, time, and what other (two) things?
Ser is for : characteristics, occupation, nationality, identification, description, time and dates. (Examples of description are color, size, and age).
I used sitting room, To me living room is the room you use for daily activities. The sitting room is for relaxation and guests, but got it wrong
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"The party is in the function room" was marked wrong, yet function room is in the drop down, and where I live if you're going to throw a decent party you hire a function room, that's what they're for!!
Dear Sir/Madame the phase to say should be: La fiesta esta en el salón Since it is defining a location 'the living room'. Therefore I think it the verb should be 'esta' not 'es' Sincerely, Brian Pritchard
Mr. Pritchard : I believe that the Duolingo translation is correct. It is true that 'estar' is used to refer to locations. However, one of my Spanish textbooks states that 'ser' is used to state the place and date of an event. In that sense, 'ser' is used to mean 'takes place' or 'is held in'. In other words, the meaning of the sentence in English would be that the fiesta is taking place in the living rom. This is a very fine distinction.
See the explanation above : 'ser' is used to state the place and date of an event. In that sense, 'ser' is used to mean 'takes place' or 'is held in'. In other words, the meaning of the sentence in English would be that the fiesta is taking place in the living rom. This is a very fine distinction.
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I'm really trying to improve my listening skills so I blur my eyes so I can't see the text and only listen... this is a question for a more advanced Spanish student or a native speaker... It sounds to me like he said "La heersta es en la salon"... I would never have decyphered "fiesta" ... Is the problem with me and my beginner listening skill level, or is the poor audio the issue? Thanks much...
