Confusingly for English speakers, Spanish has two verbs which both mean 'to be' - ser and estar, and so two ways of saying 'he/she is' es and está. (See the basic grammar).
Normally, ser is used to describe someone's personality. So you would use es 'he/she is' followed by the appropriate adjective. If Fred is a boring person, in Spanish, he would be described as es aburrido 'He is boring'.
But Ser is only used to describe the usual characteristic of a person. If Fred isn't a boring person, but happens to be bored at that particular moment, estar is used giving Está aburrido. Estar is being used to describe a transient state (estado) of affairs.
A few more things:
Simpático means more than 'nice', and there isn't a direct English translation for this. If someone is simpático they are open, charming, likeable, pleasant. Similar in a way to the old-fashioned 'He's a brick'.
Chistoso and gracioso mean 'funny' in the sense of making people laugh, as opposed to 'funny' as in 'weird' for which raro is used.
And just to be confusing sensible means 'sensitive'.
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| He/she is ... | Es ... |
| affectionate | cariñoso/a |
| boring | aburrido/a |
| closed (in mind etc) | cerrado/a |
| considerate | considerado/a |
| dishonest | tramposo/a |
| fault finder | criticón |
| lazy | flojo/floja |
| frank,open,comradely | campechano/a |
| funny | chistoso/a |
| funny | gracioso/a |
| honest | sincero/a |
| immature | inmaturo/a |
| mature | maturo/a |
| nice | simpático/a |
| open (in mind etc) | abierto/a |
| optimistic | optimista |
| pure, chaste | honesto/a |
| polite | cortés |
| quiet | callado/a |
| sensitive | sensible |
| shy | timido/a |
| silly | tonto/a |
| sly | astuto/a |
| stingy | tacaño/a |
| thoughtful | atento/a |
| unpleasant | antipático/a |
A few general example phrases illustrating the above :-
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| He/she is (a) boring (person) | Es aburrido/a |
| He/she is strange | Es una persona rara/a |
| You are strange (informal)! | ¡Que rara eres! |
| They are lazy (men) | Son flojos |
| They are lazy (women) | Son flojas |