ABSTRACT
Thi s chapter is i n essence concerned wi th constructions which i n Eng l i sh involve the verb 'be' . There are two kinds o f difficulties the user may experience. The first is that in Ca ta l an more than one verb corresponds to Eng l i sh 'be': these are p r imar i ly ser (or esser) and estar, but haver-hi also needs to be ment ioned. The second is that in some contexts the preference for ser o r estar differs according to dialect; and in some contexts non-standard usage favours estar where normat ive grammar recommends ser. Be low we dist inguish several syntactic or semantic contexts. The problematic contexts are discussed i n 30.3 ( location) and 30.5 (adjective/participle complements). The remainder are largely straightforward. The related concept 'become' is treated in 30.6.
