« to be (located, in a state) » en sept langues
Sensto be (located, in a state)
Espagnol
/esˈtaɾ/
héréditaire
Location (está en casa) and passing states (estoy cansado); ser is for what something is.
Français
/ɛtʁ/
autre source · Latin *ESSERE (ESSE): French has no separate verb for this; Old French ester ← STĀRE 'to stand' survived only in law ('ester en justice')
STĀRE still hides inside être: the imperfect j'étais and the participle été come from STĀBAM and STATUM.
Italien
/ˈstare/
héréditaire
Stare covers states and staying (sto bene, stai zitto, sto mangiando), but plain location usually takes essere (Roma è in Italia).
Portugais
/esˈtah/
héréditaire
Roumain
/fi/
autre source · Latin FIERĪ 'to become' (with forms of ESSE)
Romanian has one verb 'to be'; sta, STĀRE's heir, means 'to stand, stay'.
Catalan
/əsˈta/
héréditaire
Anglais
/bi/
anglais natif · Old English bēon
Native 'stand' is a distant cognate of STĀRE (PIE *steh₂-).
L’ancêtre latin
STĀRE‘to stand’
Les six sœurs en descendent, sauf indication contraire ci-dessous.
L’histoire
Latin STĀRE 'to stand' slowly turned into a second 'to be'. Spanish went furthest (ser vs estar), Italian stopped halfway, and French merged it into être — leaving only fossils like j'étais and été.
Parents anglais: state, station, status, stable, stay
Lois phonétiques à l’œuvre
L’apprendre
Dans une phrase
- esEstoy bien, gracias.
- frJe vais bien, merci.
- itSto bene, grazie.
- ptEstou bem, obrigado.
- roSunt bine, mulțumesc.
- caEstic bé, gràcies.
- enI'm fine, thanks.