"to be" in seven languages
Meaningto be
Spanish
/seɾ/
other 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.
French
/ɛtʁ/
inherited
Old French estre: spoken Latin *ESSERE, with a t slipped in between s and r; the circumflex marks the lost s.
Italian
/ˈɛssere/
inherited
Portuguese
/seh/
other source · probably Latin SEDĒRE 'to sit' (Old Portuguese seer) for the infinitive; most forms (sou, é, era, fui) come from ESSE
Romanian
/fi/
other source · Latin FIERĪ 'to become'
Only the infinitive is from FIERĪ; sunt, ești, este continue ESSE.
Catalan
/se/
inherited
The fuller ésser is the traditional written form; speech says ser.
English
/bi/
native English · Old English bēon
'Is' is a textbook distant cognate of Latin EST (PIE *h₁es-), and 'be' of Latin FUĪ (PIE *bʰuH-).
The Latin ancestor
ESSE (spoken Latin *ESSERE)‘to be’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
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.
English relatives: essence, essential, absent, present (from forms of ESSE)
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- 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.