Ficar: the other verb for to be

Every course teaches you that Portuguese has two verbs for to be, ser and estar, and then quietly leaves out the third. Ficar is not officially a verb for to be at all. Its dictionary meaning is to stay. But listen to Brazilians for an afternoon and you will hear it doing exactly the jobs English hands to be, get and become, often in places where a learner fresh from the ser and estar chapter would reach for estar and get it slightly wrong.

The short version: ficar is the verb of staying put and of changing state. Once you see that those are the same idea from two ends, the whole verb falls into place.

Use 1: to stay, to remain

This is the dictionary meaning and the easiest one to use:

Eu fico em casa hoje. - I am staying at home today.

Fica aqui. - Stay here.

Vamos ficar num hotel perto da praia. - We are going to stay in a hotel near the beach.

Note the hotel. English says I am staying at a hotel and a learner is tempted to translate staying with estar, because estar is the verb for where you are. But estou num hotel mainly says where you are right now. Ficar makes it clear you are lodging there. It is the verb for where you are for a while, by choice.

Use 2: to be located, for things that do not move

Ask a Brazilian where the bathroom is and you will most likely hear ficar (or a plain onde é), rather than estar:

Onde fica o banheiro? - Where is the bathroom?

O banheiro fica ali. - The bathroom is over there.

A escola fica perto do rio. - The school is near the river.

The tendency is clear. Buildings, streets, towns, countries, rooms: things that stay where they were put usually take ficar. People, cars, keys and phones, anything that could be somewhere else tomorrow, take estar:

Onde está o carro? - Where is the car?

Onde fica o hotel? - Where is the hotel?

Both translate as where is. Portuguese hears the difference between a question about where something happens to be and a question about where it permanently sits. This is also a point where Portuguese and Spanish lean different ways: Spanish mostly reaches for estar in both (quedar does the ficar job in much of Latin America, but estar is the safe default), so speakers of Spanish tend to carry the estar habit across.