"Hemos sido muy felices"

Question

I was surprised that this sentence took "sido" and not "estado". As the speaker is talking about their emotional state over a specific time period, rather than their personalities more generally, would "estar" not be used over "ser"?

Silvia Piriz · Accepted Answer

Hola Gareth T.
Great question, you’re absolutely right about the usual distinction between ser and estar.
In this case, the key point is that no specific context was provided in the exercise. Because of that, both interpretations are possible:

Hemos sido muy felices → refers more to happiness as a general experience or life evaluation.

Hemos estado muy felices → focuses more on a temporary emotional state over a period of time.

Since both are valid depending on context, we’ve accepted both options as correct here.
Thanks for raising this, it’s a really nice example of how context affects ser vs estar!
Saludos
Silvia