Romance copula
The copula in some of the Romance languages, the equivalent of the verb to be in English, is relatively complex compared to its counterpart in many other languages. A copula is a word that links the subject of a sentence with a predicate. Whereas English has one main copula verb some Romance languages have more complex forms.
Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and some other Romance languages have more than one copula verb. This is because the verb or verbs meaning "to be" in the Romance languages are derived from three Latin verbs:
- ' "to sit".
- ' "to be" The verb esse was an irregular, suppletive verb, with some of its forms taken from the Proto-Indo-European verb *bʰuH- meaning "to become".
- "to stand" or "to stay".
The reduction of three separate verbs into just one or two appears to have occurred as follows:
- The irregular infinitive was remodeled into.
- and forms sounded similar in Latin once the latter reduced to, and sounded even more similar after stress shifted in Spanish infinitives to the penultimate vowel. As a result, parts of the conjugations of erstwhile were subject to being integrated into conjugation paradigms associated with, eventually.
- itself remained a separate verb, but and were similar in some meanings, so that, especially in the Western Romance languages, evolved into a second copula, with a meaning of "to be "; was then narrowed to mean "to be ".
- In Italian, the infinitive essere continues Latin as existential 'to be', while stare has the primary meaning "to stay" and is used as a copula only in a few situations: to express one's state of physical health ; to form progressive aspects ; and with the meaning of "to be located", although a distinction can be expressed in most varieties of Italian: è in cucina 'it's in the kitchen ' versus sta in cucina 'it's in the kitchen '.
- In Old French, the verb ester < still had the original Proto-Romance meaning of "to stand, stay, stop". In modern French, this verb has almost totally disappeared, although the compound rester "to remain" still exists, and some parts of the conjugation of ester have become incorporated into être "to be" <. As a result of this complex evolution, even though French has a single verb for "to be", its conjugation is highly irregular.
History
In English, it is possible to say "there stands..." instead of "there is..." in certain contexts. In Latin, too, it became common to eschew SVM in favour of STO and say where things "stood" instead of where they "were". With time, it became common to use this verb to express other states.Today, Spanish, Galician, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian commonly use two copulas, one from each of the Latin verbs. The others use just one main copula, from SVM.
There is also a notable tendency for a derivative of the supine of STO to replace the past participle of verbs deriving from SVM. Examples:
- Italian has stato as the past participle of not only stare but also essere, instead of the expected essuto.
- Standard Catalan has estat as the past participle of not only estar but also ésser. However, many people use forms such as sigut or sét, which are considered also standard for colloquial speech.
- French has été as the past participle of être, instead of the expected étu. Été developed as follows: STATVM → stato → estat → esté → été.
- Following the standard practice, Latin verbs are quoted here in the first person singular of the present indicative. In other words, SVM is literally "I am", rather than "to be". Their infinitives were ESSE and STARE.
- Although it is normal to use lower case when writing Latin in modern times, this article, dealing as it does with etymology, presents Latin in the capital letters used by the Romans, and modern innovations such as J, U, ligatures, macrons, and breves have been avoided.
- Only the basic simple tenses are given in the conjugation tables, but all languages [|below] have also numerous compound tenses.
- The asterisk indicates an incorrect or unattested form.
Spanish
Spanish copulas
The Spanish copulas are ser and estar. The latter developed as follows:The copula ser developed from two Latin verbs. Thus its inflectional paradigm is a combination: most of it derives from SVM but the present subjunctive appears to come from SEDEO via the Old Spanish verb seer.
E.g. derivation from SEDEO:
Derivation from SVM:
The infinitive could have derived from either or both:
In the early part of the second millennium, in texts such as the Cantar de Mio Cid, ser was still used mostly as in Latin, and there was little place for estar; sentences like Es pagado, e davos su amor, "He is satisfied, and he gives you his favour" are found, where modern Spanish might have Queda contento, or Está satisfecho, y le da su favor.
As the centuries went by, estar spread in use. Today, ser is used to express the fundamental nature, identity or characteristics of something – what it really is, while estar expresses the state something happens to be in. Indeed, ser is etymologically related to the English words "essence" and "is", and estar with "state", "status", "standing", "stance" and "stay".
The verb quedar is often used in a similar way to estar. It derives from the Latin QVIETO, "to rest".
;Ser
;Estar
† Archaic.
†† Estar is usually made reflexive in the imperative.
††† Spanish spoken in the Rio de la Plata
Nuance
With adjectives referring to beauty and the like, ser means "to be", and estar means "to look".The differentiation between "nature" and "state" makes sense when talking about the states of life and death: Él está vivo, Él está muerto. Estar is used for both alive and dead, since they are both states, although being dead is considered a permanent state.
Ser is used when stating the stage of life at which a person is. The old, the young, etc. are seen as groups that one can belong to. It is a question of identity:
However, age can also be presented not as a matter of identity but a state:
The use of estar gives a certain special nuance to some verbs. For example, estar guapa, though it has the sense of "to be beautiful", also emphasizes the use of make-up and clothes to create a beautiful look. Ser sucio instead of the more usual estar sucio means to be the sort of person who is likely to be dirty.
The adjective loco is always used with estar in Spain, as the implication is that the person "has gone mad". It is possible to give it a permanent nuance, but only by using it as a noun: Él es un loco, "He is a madman". Ser loco is used in certain regions in Latin America, however, meaning a permanent insanity as opposed to estar loco meaning have gone mad or acting crazy.
The expression como una cabra is used with estar to mean "mad as a hatter", "crazy as a loon". Ser como una cabra would literally mean, "to be like a goat".
Ser is used with adjectives of fundamental belief, nationality, sex, intelligence, etc. The use of estar with francés would sound quite odd to native Spanish speakers, as though it meant, "to feel a bit French". Similarly, no estar católico does not mean, "to no longer be Catholic", but is a colloquial expression meaning "to feel under the weather".
It is often stated that the difference between the two verbs corresponds to "permanent" versus "temporary", but it is more accurate to describe the distinction as one of "essential nature" versus "state or condition". The "essential nature" of things does sometimes change, and this is reflected in the language. For example, someone who had been depressed for a prolonged period, and then had a life changing experience like a new career or long-term relationship, might say ahora yo soy feliz, meaning, "now I am happy".
Specific constructions requiring ''ser''
A special use of ser, which expresses neither a nature nor a state but an action, is the formation of the passive voice:Specific constructions requiring ''estar''
Past participles
Estar is usually used with adjectives that derive from past participles of verbs since the use of ser would sound like a verb in the passive voice. Such adjectives in any case generally refer to states:A special example of this tendency is what happens with words indicating prohibition and suchlike. If an adjective not deriving from a verb were used, then the meaning would definitely require ser. To say the same thing with a past participle, estar is required, in order to differentiate it from the use of ser with a past participle implying an action expressed in the passive voice:
This fine nuance is not encountered in other Romance languages, which do not go to such lengths to distinguish between passives and similar-sounding phrases.
Location
Estar is used to refer to physical location. In Spanish, location is regarded as a state, and therefore is indicated with estar, even in those cases when one might think that it is something so permanent and fundamental that it could be logical to use ser. The use of estar for location may be easier for English speakers to grasp if they recall that it is derived from Latin STARE, "to stand."With immobile things, quedar is sometimes used instead of estar, especially when there is a reference to a length of time, or a remaining distance, e.g.:
However, ser can sometimes occur with words such as aquí, which can mislead learners into thinking that physical location can be expressed with ser. In fact, the verb in this case identifies the place rather than expressing where it is. For example, one might say to a taxi driver the following phrases, to indicate that one has arrived:
The difference becomes clear if aquí is changed to esta calle:
Es aquí and es esta calle express the idea that "this is the place", a concept quite different from what is expressed by estar.
The only case in which true location is expressed by ser is when an event rather than a physical thing is referred to:
Words requiring ''ser''
Ser is always used when the complement is a noun or pronoun, regardless of whether the speaker intended to express a fundamental essence :However, it is not always easy to know what is a noun. For example, pez is a noun meaning "fish", but estar pez is a colloquial expression meaning "not to have a clue" or "to be at sea" at a given activity.
Words requiring ''estar''
Estar must be used when the complement is bien or mal, no matter what meaning is intended.Total change of meaning with specific adjectives
Many adjectives change in meaning entirely depending on the verb used, sometimes meaning almost the opposite. In each case, the meaning which is more of a "nature" goes with ser and the meaning which is more of a "state" goes with estar.| adjective | with estar | with ser |
| aburrido | bored | boring |
| bueno | tasty, sexy | good |
| cachondo | aroused | sexy, funny person |
| cansado | tired | tiring/tiresome |
| listo | ready | clever, smart |
| rico | delicious | rich, wealthy |
| seguro | sure/certain | safe |
| vivo | alive | lively, bright |
Happiness
Although "sadness" is expressed straightforwardly with estar triste, "happiness" is a little trickier. The quality of being joyous, lively and happy is expressed with ser alegre. This can describe people, music, colours, etc. Estar alegre expresses the state of being merry, which in practice may sometimes mean "drunk", "tipsy".A person who is fundamentally happy in life is said to ser feliz; indeed la felicidad is that "happiness" for which humans strive. This happiness often turns out to be a transitory state, a person may nevertheless declare yo soy feliz as a statement of optimism that goes beyond the description of today's mood that is expressed by any phrase with estar. As for such moods, they can be expressed with estar feliz.
When not a state but a change of state is referred to, the expression is quedar contento or alegrarse: Ella quedó muy contenta cuando yo le dije que ella había ganado = "she was very glad when I told her that she had won"; Yo me alegro de que vosotros hayáis llegado = "I am glad that you have come".
In the excerpt from the Cantar de Mio Cid above, one can see that "to be happy" a thousand years ago was ser pagado.
Portuguese
Portuguese copulas
The Portuguese copulas are ser and estar. As in Spanish, estar derived from Latin STO / STARE:The copula ser developed both from SVM and SEDEO. Thus its inflectional paradigm is a combination of these two Latin verbs: most tenses derive from SVM and a few from SEDEO. E.g. derivation from SEDEO:
E.g. derivation from SVM:
;Ser
;Estar
† Mostly literary.
†† Some authors regard the conditional as a tense of the indicative mood.
Usage
The distinction between the two verbs is very similar to that of Catalan. Compared to Spanish, estar is a little less used. The main difference between Spanish and Portuguese lies in the interpretation of the concept of state versus essence and in the generalisations in some constructions. There is perhaps a little more of a concept of permanent versus temporary, rather than essence versus state. For example, unlike Spanish, Portuguese does not require estar with past participles; in this case, it follows the general rule regarding state/essence.The word feita, "made", is usually omitted.
The same applies to sentences expressing interdictions:
However, there are some nuances in these verbs in the passive voice. In this case, the use of ser or estar depends on the tense of the verb. E.g.: to say that somebody is not allowed to smoke, only estar can be used in the present tense:
In past tenses, both ser and estar can be used, conveying a different meaning:
Portuguese counts location as permanent and fundamental, and accordingly uses ser, or the more specific secondary copula ficar, from Latin FIGO, "to place/set":
but:
Nuance
With adjectives referring to beauty and the like, ser means "to be", and estar means "to look".As in Spanish, the differentiation between "nature" and "state" makes sense when talking about the states of life and death: Está vivo ; Está morto.
Notice the important difference between ser morto and estar morto :
Louco can be used with ser or estar, giving different connotations:
Ser is used with adjectives expressing:
- fundamental belief: Não sou católico "I am not a Catholic";
- nationality: És português "You are Portuguese";
- gender: É um homem "He is a man";
- intelligence: Somos espertos "We are clever", etc.
Apart from this exception, due to its different meanings, estar cannot be used for nationality, gender, or intelligence, but one can say Estou abrasileirado or Estás americanizado.
The same applies for the difference between É um homem "He is a man" and Está um homem, meaning, "He has grown up to be a man".
Ficar, apart from its use as "to stay", and the use mentioned above as a copula translated as "to be located", is extensively used for a change of state, being translated as "to get" or "to become":
Catalan
Catalan copulas
The Catalan copulas developed as follows:The last three forms of the first verb survive in modern Catalan. Ésser is considered the most standard, followed by ser and, distantly, esser. The verb seure remains as a distinct verb and is not considered a copula.
;ser
;Estar
Usage
In Catalan, ésser and estar work in a way intermediate between those of Italian and Portuguese. A complete description of its rules of usage is as follows:- When referring to inanimate objects, ser is used to tell about either permanent conditions inherent to the object, unfinished qualities, or non-permanent conditions when there is no implication that there has been or there will be a change in state Ser is used to talk about a quality of an inanimate object in a given moment or exactly the opposite: a quality of an inanimate object which is expected to be true in all moments of the existence of said object. Most uses of past participles as adjectives fall into this category when referring to inanimate objects.
- When referring to inanimate objects, estar is used to tell about non-permanent conditions when there is an implication of a finished change of state, an implication of a state in a known point of an evolution, or a temporal condition which is expected to change. In some way, estar introduces an adverbial sense to adjectives Thus, both using ser and estar is correct in many contexts, but there is a difference in nuance.
- When referring to animate objects, ser is only used to tell about permanent conditions Things traditionally thought of as permanent conditions also fall under this category, most notably ser casat/da, "to be married", and related terms. Ser is also used with the past participle of some unaccusative verbs such as néixer, which in medieval and dialectal Catalan made their compound tenses with ser.
- When referring to animate objects, estar is only used to tell about non-permanent conditions
- With fixed prepositional locutions, estar is most often used
- When referring to location, ser is used when no time context is given
- When referring to location, estar is used when there is a sense of permanence or of a concrete time lapse In this case, pronominal particles might be added to the verb to emphasise the sentence
- Estar is always used with modal adverbs.
- Estar is used to form the present continuous form estar + gerund, although some linguists think this is not a genuinely Catalan form, even though it is found on Medieval literature, for example that of Ausiàs March. Another undoubtedly genuine but perhaps too literary form is ser a + infinitive.
- Estat is used as the past participle of not only estar but also èsser/ser by many speakers, and this is considered the universal form. However, many other speakers use a traditional regular past participle of èsser/ser: sigut, which is also accepted as standard in Central Catalan, although many linguists and speakers see it as colloquial. Another accepted form is sét, unlike the Valencian form segut, which causes confusion with the past participle of the verb seure, "to sit."
- Ser is always used to apply adjectives to inanimate objects except if there is a cause or a time lapse given for the condition of the adjective.
- Estar is always used to apply adjectives to animate objects if it is not a permanent state or characteristic of such animate object. However, some things that nowadays can be changed but before could not work like permanent characteristics Of course, even those can be expressed with estar if the animate object is acting as if they were his characteristics but they are not, or if the characteristics are more emphasised than usual. For example, és molt socialista, "she/he's a convinced socialist" vs. estàs molt socialista!, "you are being very socialist!"; és molt maca, "she is very beautiful" vs. està molt maca, "she looks very beautiful", as in "better than usual"; és mort, "he is dead" vs. està com mort, "he is acting as if he were dead."
- Ser is always used for locations except if there is a time lapse given or if the location actually means that someone works or lives in the indicated place.
- Estar is always used with modal adverbs and equivalents like fixed prepositional locutions.
- Estar is always used to express a point of an evolution or scale
Italian
Italian copulas
The Italian copulas did not undergo the same development as in other languages, having preserved the Vulgar Latin forms essere and stare.;Essere
;Stare
Usage
Essere is the main copula. Stare refers to state rather than essence, but more narrowly than in Spanish. Essere is used for almost all cases in which English uses "to be". It therefore makes sense to concentrate on the few uses of stare.- Stare means "to be", "to be feeling", or "to appear" with bene, male, meglio, come?, etc.: Come stai? "How are you?", Sto bene "I am well."
- Stare is used to form continuous forms of tenses: sto aspettando "I am waiting", Stavo parlando con... "I was speaking with..."
- Stare's past participle stato has replaced that of essere, and so stato is used for "been" in all senses.
- Starci means "to fit" or "to assent to a proposal."
- Stare can be an alternative to restare "to stay."
- Stare is occasionally "to be located." This is very common in the south of Italy for both transient and durable location, but only for durable location in the North. "Sta a Napoli" means "He/she is in Naples" in the South but "He/she lives in Naples" in the North.
Sicilian
Sicilian copulas
The Sicilian copulas developed as follows:;Siri
;Stari
Notes:
- The simple future is no longer in use.
- The conditional tense of stari has also fallen into disuse.
Usage
- Stari is used in combination with the gerund to form the progressive aspect: staiu parrannu = "I am speaking".
- Stari’s past participle, statu, replaced that of siri and thus statu is used for “been” in all senses.
- Stari has also replaced all other words meaning, "to reside": staiu nnê Stati Uniti = "I live in the United States".
- Stari, in combination with addritta, is also used to mean, “to stand up”.
- Stari in combination with the preposition pi can comport two meanings,
- * 1) when followed by a verb it means “about to” or “ready to”: staiu pi jiri = "I am about to go", "I am leaving"; and
- * 2) in reference to an abbreviation, it means, “to stand for”: «USA» sta pi Stati Uniti di Mèrica = "'USA' stands for United States of America."
- Stari-cci, most likely an Italianism, is sometimes used to mean, “to fit”: stu vistutu mi sta? = "does this suit fit me ?".
Occitan
has just one copula, estre; which is also written èsser, ester, estar in diverse dialects.;Estre
French
Modern French has only one copula. Old French, however, had estre and ester. The latter meant to ‘stand’, ‘stay’ or ‘stop’, and might have been used as a copula in a similar way to other Romance languages. With phonetic evolution, the forms of each verb tended to be confused with one another, with the result that estre finally absorbed ester; around the same time, most words beginning with est- changed to ét- or êt-. The modern form of the verb is être.The only clear traces of ester in the modern copula are the past participle and the imperfect. Instead of the *étu one would expect, we find été – just what we would expect from ester/éter. The same tendency to use past participles derived from STATVM to replace the past participles of the main copula is also seen in Italian and Catalan. The Old French imperfect was iere ; this was replaced in Middle French by the imperfect of ester, which was estois.
The present participle and all imperfect forms of être are regular and correspond to what one would expect for a verb with the stem êt-; however, they could also be considered as deriving from éter since the forms coincide.
All other forms of être are from SVM rather than STO.
Ester also survives in the infinitive in the set phrases ester en justice and ester en jugement, which translate the Latin term STARE IN IVDICIO meaning "to appear in court", "to stand before the court". Ester en justice has come to mean, "to file a lawsuit", i.e. to appear in court as the active party. This is a highly defective verb and only exists in the infinitive.
;Être
† Literary.
Romansh
has just one copula, esser. Star means, "to reside".;Esser
Romanian
A fi, fire is the copula in Romanian. These infinitive forms evolved from the passive verb FIERI, "to become", "to be made":In Latin FIERI was used suppletively as the passive voice of FACERE "to do", "to make". However, in the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken in modern-day Romania, its evolved form fiere replaced essere, maybe due to the similarity between the stems fi- of FIERI and fu- of ESSE.
Other forms of the verb a fi are derived from ESSE: sunt, ești, e, suntem, sunteți, sunt in the present tense and eram, erai, era, eram, erați, erau in the imperfect.
A sta means "to stay" or even "to stand", "to stand still" or "to dwell/reside" e.g. a sta in picioare, as in Italian stare in piedi or unde stai? – "where do you live/reside?"
;A fi
SVM
STO
† Demonstratives used when necessary.For information on the morphological evolution of the Romance copula, see Romance verbs.