« to be » en sept langues
Sensto be
Espagnol
/seɾ/
autre source · probably Latin SEDĒRE 'to sit' (Old Spanish seer) for the infinitive — some derive it from *ESSERE; most forms (soy, es, era, fui) come from ESSE
Ser is for identity and lasting traits; location and passing states take estar.
Français
/ɛtʁ/
héréditaire
Old French estre: spoken Latin *ESSERE, with a t slipped in between s and r; the circumflex marks the lost s.
Italien
/ˈɛssere/
héréditaire
Portugais
/seh/
autre source · probably Latin SEDĒRE 'to sit' (Old Portuguese seer) for the infinitive; most forms (sou, é, era, fui) come from ESSE
Roumain
/fi/
autre source · Latin FIERĪ 'to become'
Only the infinitive is from FIERĪ; sunt, ești, este continue ESSE.
Catalan
/se/
héréditaire
The fuller ésser is the traditional written form; speech says ser.
Anglais
/bi/
anglais natif · Old English bēon
'Is' is a textbook distant cognate of Latin EST (PIE *h₁es-), and 'be' of Latin FUĪ (PIE *bʰuH-).
L’ancêtre latin
ESSE (spoken Latin *ESSERE)‘to be’
Les six sœurs en descendent, sauf indication contraire ci-dessous.
L’histoire
Classical ESSE was too short and too odd for an infinitive, so spoken Latin regularized it to *ESSERE — hence être and essere. Spanish probably took its infinitive from SEDĒRE 'to sit' (Old Spanish seer; disputed), but the conjugation is still mostly ESSE.
Parents anglais: essence, essential, absent, present (from forms of ESSE)
Lois phonétiques à l’œuvre
L’apprendre
Dans une phrase
- esEs muy alta.
- frElle est très grande.
- itÈ molto alta.
- ptEla é muito alta.
- roEa e foarte înaltă.
- caÉs molt alta.
- enShe is very tall.