The verb ser means to be. In Spanish, there are two verbs that translate as to be, ser and estar. The differences will be discussed later, but shown below are some examples of the use of ser, including nationality, permanent qualites of people or objects, and occupation.

Ser is an irregular verb. It's form must therefore be memorized.

Because Ud., él, and ella have the same conjugation, they are often grouped together in congugation tables. The same goes for Uds., ellos, and ellas.

In many cases, you will see the subject pronoun is not used in Spanish. Because the conjugation form of the verb is unique for most subject pronouns, it is often only included for clarification or to stress who the subject of the verb actually is.

The present indicative is used in constructions such as I am running, I run, or I do run.

To negate a sentance in Spanish, add a no before the verb. For example: Él no es Cubano.

Telling time is a good use of the verb ser. To tell the time use either: es la una or son las dos/tres/cuatro... Note that es la is only used if it is followed by one.

To say five past ten, use diez y cinco. To say five to ten, use diez menos cinco.

The numbers beyond thirty are all pretty regular. A few things to watch out for though, note that y is not used after the hundreds or thousands as the English one hundred and twenty. After one hundred, ciento is used in place of cien which is only used for an even one hundred. The -o on ciento changes to -a when refering to feminine nouns.