CurlySue91 Bilingual Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 3209 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*, Russian*, French Studies: Japanese, Spanish
| Message 1 of 5 25 December 2015 at 8:59pm | IP Logged |
Hi all,
So when I took Spanish classes, I was taught to say "tener miedo", similar to "avoir
peur" in French. (I learned French first and was already fluent in it when I started
learning Spanish.)
Recently, though, I was reading a book in Spanish and saw the word "asustado", which I
had to look up in a dictionary.
My question is, what is the difference between the two (tener miedo vs estar
asustado)? Is there one?
Thank you for your help.
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Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6542 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 2 of 5 26 December 2015 at 2:01pm | IP Logged |
estar asustado is more temporary, but there's no direct "*ser asustado" counterpart.
I think you can even use them in the same sentence, for example: No tengo miedo a los perros, pero estoy muy asustada ahora mismo. I'm not a native though, this may be incorrect.
In Russian I believe it's бояться vs быть напуганным. Although we use бояться in the "temporary" sense too.
You should be able to find some good answers by googling btw.
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James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5320 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French
| Message 3 of 5 26 December 2015 at 2:58pm | IP Logged |
Think of tener miedo as the situation where you are sitting on the edge of your seat with your heart pounding simply being afraid that something bad might happen to you. Estar asustado is then when someone then sneaks up from behind you and yells "BOO."
That's just what I've picked up so there could, of course, be better explanations.
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Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6542 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 4 of 5 26 December 2015 at 7:27pm | IP Logged |
Yeah, asustado is when something has already happened, or is happening.
I guess it's also similar to be afraid/fear vs be/get scared.
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CurlySue91 Bilingual Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 3209 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*, Russian*, French Studies: Japanese, Spanish
| Message 5 of 5 27 December 2015 at 8:37pm | IP Logged |
Thanks, everyone!
That's kind of what I suspected, that "tener miedo" is mrre long-term and often
innate/permanent, e.g. a phobia, while "estar asustado" would be more in-the-moment and
having a particular cause.
It also seems like "tener miedo" is somewhat more common, but again, it depends on the
context.
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