"Son estas" [lesson 3.4]

Hi all, One thing I can't get my head round in lesson 3.4 - the phrase "Son estas" in the sentence ¿Son estas maletas suyas?. When "Es" is used (i.e. formal You are, he is, she is), I always take it to also mean "It is" (i.e. Es muy largo in one of the lessons, when used to describe the flight being very logn, or "Es mi casa"). I'd thought the same with "Son" - i.e. it could mean the formal You (plural) are, the girls are, the guys are, and also "They/these are". So what does "Estas" mean? I've assumed it doesn't mean the same as "estás" (with the accent) does it? Or if it does, why are forms of the estar and ser verbs being paired together..? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hola Pedro, I'm not an expert in spanish grammer but I have been studying for over three years and have came across many problems such as this. My understanding is this: Me gusta esta casa. Translation (I like this house) Uses a demonstrative adjective and has no accent. This being the adjective. Me quedo con ésta.Translation( I'll take this one). Uses a demonstrative pronoun and has an accent. Estás is the tú form of estar the verb -to be eg Estás muy delgado.Translation ( You're looking slim). Accents can change the meaning of a word not just as for emphasis. el and él changes from the to he because of the accent. Hope this helps.

¿Son estas maletas suyas? means "Are these bags yours". In this case "estas" is a demonstrative adjective meaning "these". It is plural and feminine because it refers to the plural feminine noun "maletas". You may have seen it as "este" = this. It differs from the verb "estar", which would have an accent over the 'a', as well as a different meaning. estás with the accent over the 'a' means you are. (It took me forever to start learning about which words have accents where, and what they mean. Hang in there!)

Hola amigos! Our good friend jchamb just gave us the right answer! estas is the feminine and plural form of "these". The maletas are a femenine noun. Maleta would be the singular form, so "Esta maleta" would be the expression in.singular. Saludos desde.México

Thanks for all the responses guys, much appreciated! One final point - so "este" (this) can also vary by gender too - I've seen it as "Este fin de semana", but you could also have "esta", as the feminine verson of the word "this" too, is that correct?

este (this) can be este (m) or esta (f) in the singular, and estos (m) or estas (f) when plural. Este fin de semana (this weekend) - in this case "este" is pointing to (el fin) which is masculine, so it would be "este". (which end? this end - if you get my drift). If you had said "this week" it would be "esta semana" because now it's pointing to "semana" which is a feminine noun. Make sense? You could say: este fin de semana (this weekend) OR el fin de esta semana (the end of this week) I find that it is not always immediately obvious which noun is being modified in regular speech, so it takes me a bit of thinking to figure it out. Or perhaps I just think too much... Hope this helps!