It's best to think of these two verbs as completely separate in Spanish even though they both translate as 'to be'. SER You should keep in your mind that this is for more 'permanent' thingse.g. Descriptions, Occupations, Characteristics, Time, Origin, and Relationships (these spell out 'doctor')Example: 'soy moreno/ingles' (I am brown haired/english), 'es profesor' (he/she is a teacher) etcESTARYou should use conjugations of this verb for more 'temporary' things, or for the 'states' that things are currently in. ('State' sounds kind of similar to 'estar')e.g. Position, Location, Action, Condition, EmotionExample: 'estoy en la biblioteca' - (I am in the library) (the library is a place).Going through examples where the gap needs to be filled in for what verb should be used can really help with this! Once you get the idea of them, the rule doesn't change much! :)