When do we use esta / ésta / está ???

I am really confused about them .
 

Hope this clears things up a bit for you:
- For the verb estar, use "está": mi casa está aquí​.
- When used as an adjective, use "esta": esta casa es mía.
- When used as a pronoun, use "ésta": ésta es mi casa.

It's all in the context.

Great explanation! I actually only know two out of three. Thanks.

I remember how frustrating this was for me when I started. At first, I think all of the lessons used está...to be. Then a few lessons along I began noticing esta. At first I thought it was a typo. Then it slowly dawned on me that the presence or lack of an accent mark made a difference in the usage of the word. I think I spent nearly an entire day researching this. It ended up being an important lesson for me; one of those "¡eureka!" moments that made me think I might actually learn this language some day.

This is a very helpful discussion!

Steven, am I correct in thinking your three examples translate as follows:
My house is here. (verb)
This house is mine. (adjective)
This is my house. (pronoun)

Those translations are correct.

I'm only in the 3rd section of lessons on level 1, but this conversation has helped me understand the language a little better. I've not spoken with some friends, who are native speakers or some family members who are living in Mexico just yet, but hope to do so soon.
Adios!

Hi!!

I am not here to make things more difficult, but technically speaking, "ésta" does not longer have an accent mark. These were part of the corrections from the RAE back in 1959. You can use them in case of ambiguity, which almost never happens... I personally am old fashion, I like writing the accent mark, I think it makes it easier to understand...

Thank you Marie. I guess I don't have to learn the accents, just learn what part of the sentence it is being used.

Marie: if this is the case, then lesson 4.1 needs to be revised. In at least two places ésta is used in the conversation transcript. Maybe other places as well. In fact, it has been awhile since I have studied those early lessons but I think there is a discussion of ésta, esta, and está in one of them.
 

Thanks Dan! Yes, it's already fixed. I mean, you can still use it, and it wouldn't be considered a grammatical error; but the RAE recommends not to use it... I personally disagree with this change but oh well...

Regards!

Thanks for the clarification Marie. I was watching a video over at LightSpeed Spanish and Cynthia (from Spain) made the same comment about sólo/solo. Apparently RAE changed to either include or exclude the accent mark no matter the usage of the word, which she disagreed with.

I can see where in written Spanish using the accent could be helpful in understanding the context.

Hola amigos,

I agree with Marie, since I also use the ésta with an accent mark, it just makes it easier to differentiate :) Saludos!

Exactly, there would not be a need of reading a context if you just add that little accent mark right there... I think it was simpler and clearer before; but after all, these are languages, and they evolve with time, but it seems that sometimes, they don't evolve for the better hehehe