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'On holiday', 'in mourning': 'estar de' + noun

To say where someone is in life right now, such as on holiday, away on a trip, on strike or in mourning, Spanish often uses estar de followed by a noun without an article: estar de vacaciones, estar de viaje, estar de huelga, estar de luto. There is no article and no adjective in between, just de and the noun.

English speakers trip over this because English uses a whole range of prepositions here: on holiday, in mourning, away on a trip. Translating them one by one produces sentences like estar en vacaciones or estar sobre huelga. The simple fix is to learn these as fixed chunks with de.

Word list
fiestafA1 party estar de fiesta = to be partying vacacionesfA1 vacation estar de vacaciones = to be on holiday (always plural) estar de acuerdoA2 to agree estoy de acuerdo contigo = I agree with you (+ con + person) estar de pieA2 to stand estamos de pie = we are standing modafA2 fashion estar de moda = to be in fashion paseomA2 walk estar de paseo = to be out for a walk viajemA2 travel estar de viaje = to be away on a trip bromafB1 joke estar de broma = to be joking de modaB1 fashionable está de moda = it's in fashion estar de bromaB1 to kid ¿estás de broma? = are you kidding? vueltafB1 return estar de vuelta = to be back acuerdomB2 agreement estar de acuerdo = to agree (not estar en acuerdo) estar de dueloB2 to mourn está de duelo por su esposa = is grieving over his wife (+ por + person) estar de lutoB2 to mourn está de luto por su madre = is grieving over their mother (+ por + person) excursiónfB2 excursion estar de excursión = to be on an outing huelgafB2 strike estar de huelga = to be on strike lutomC1 mourning estar de luto = to be in mourning
How it works

The pattern is always the same: a form of estar, then de, then a noun with no el, la or un. The whole chunk describes a temporary situation or activity that someone is in the middle of, so it naturally goes with estar rather than ser.

Where English changes its preposition from phrase to phrase, Spanish keeps de throughout. Rule of thumb: if the English is on/in/away on + noun and describes a passing state, check whether Spanish has an estar de chunk for it.

Keep in mind that this is a set of conventional expressions, not an open rule. You cannot put just any noun after estar de, so learn the expressions below as vocabulary.

The words
Trips and time away

The most frequent group is about being away from home or work: vacaciones, viaje, excursión and paseo. Note that vacaciones is always plural here.

Mi jefe está de vacaciones hasta el lunes.
(My boss is on holiday until Monday.)
Mis padres están de viaje por Italia.
(My parents are away on a trip in Italy.)
Los niños están de excursión con el colegio.
(The children are on a school trip.)
Ahora no puedo hablar, estoy de paseo con el perro.
(I can't talk now, I'm out for a walk with the dog.)
Celebrating and coming back

Estar de fiesta means to be partying or celebrating, and estar de vuelta (from vuelta) means to be back.

Los vecinos están de fiesta otra vez.
(The neighbours are having a party again.)
Ya estoy de vuelta en casa.
(I'm back home now.)
Work and public life

Workers who have stopped working are de huelga.

Los médicos están de huelga desde el martes.
(The doctors have been on strike since Tuesday.)
Mourning

Both luto and duelo work here. Estar de luto and estar de duelo both mean to be in mourning. Add por to name the person being mourned.

La familia está de luto por el abuelo.
(The family is in mourning for their grandfather.)
Él todavía está de duelo por su esposa.
(He is still grieving for his wife.)
Jokes, fashion and posture

Estar de broma (from broma) means to be joking. Things that are in fashion are de moda, from moda. Estar de pie means to be standing, where English uses no preposition at all.

¿Estás de broma? ¡No me lo creo!
(Are you kidding? I don't believe it!)
Las faldas largas están de moda este año.
(Long skirts are in fashion this year.)
En el autobús tuve que estar de pie todo el trayecto.
(On the bus I had to stand the whole way.)
Watch out
No article

Adding one breaks the chunk. Say está de viaje, not está de un viaje. If you want to be more specific, add information after the noun: estoy de viaje de negocios (I'm on a business trip).

Regional variation

You will hear estar en vacaciones in some regions, and estar en huelga is also common. Still, estar de vacaciones and estar de huelga are the broadly safe defaults.

Other verbs

The same bare noun often appears with other verbs: ir de vacaciones (to go on holiday), irse de viaje (to go away on a trip), ponerse de moda (to come into fashion), pasar de moda (to go out of fashion).

More chunks

Other common ones are estar de buen humor, estar de mal humor, estar de guardia (to be on duty or on call) and estar de paso (to be passing through). Estar de acuerdo (to agree) has the same shape, but it expresses an opinion rather than a situation, and it takes con: no estoy de acuerdo contigo.

Summary

When English says someone is on holiday, away on a trip, on strike, in mourning or joking, Spanish usually says estar de + noun without an article: estar de vacaciones, de viaje, de huelga, de luto, de broma. Keep de, leave out the article, and learn each chunk as a fixed expression rather than translating the English preposition.