être

See also: etre and étre

FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle French estre, from a merger of two verbs:

Old French ester, from Latin stāre (“stand”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-. The forms with initial ét- derive from this verb.
Old French estre, from Vulgar Latin *essere, from Latin esse (“be”). This verb was irregular also in Latin, and derives from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- for the forms beginning with f-, and *h₁es- for the remainder.

See cognates in regional languages in France: Bourguignon étre, Champenois ètre, Norman ête, Gallo ête, Picard ète, Franco-Provençal étre, Occitan èsser and estar, Corsican essè.

PronunciationEdit

IPA^(key): /ɛtʁ/
Audio (France, West)
(file)
(Quebec) IPA^(key): [aɛ̯tχ]
Audio (Quebec, Montreal)
(file)
(Louisiana) IPA^(key): /ɛtrə/, /dɛt/
Rhymes: -ɛtʁ
Homophones: aitre, aitres, aître, aîtres, êtres, hêtre, hêtres
Hyphenation: être

VerbEdit

être

to be
Vous devez être plus clairs.
You must be clearer.
(auxiliary) Used to form the perfect and pluperfect tense of certain verbs (including all reflexive verbs)
Après être allé au yoga, je suis rentré chez moi.
After having gone to yoga, I came back home.
(auxiliary) to be (Used to form the passive voice)
Il peut être battu ce soir.
He could be beaten this evening.

ConjugationEdit

Conjugation of être (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive
present participle		étant /e.tɑ̃/
past participle		été /e.te/
simple		être
compound		avoir + past participle
gerund¹
simple		étant /e.tɑ̃/
compound		ayant + past participle
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	suis /sɥi/	es /ɛ/	est /ɛ/	sommes /sɔm/	êtes /ɛt/	sont /sɔ̃/
	imperfect	étais /e.tɛ/	étais /e.tɛ/	était /e.tɛ/	étions /e.tjɔ̃/	étiez /e.tje/	étaient /e.tɛ/
	past historic²	fus /fy/	fus /fy/	fut /fy/	fûmes /fym/	fûtes /fyt/	furent /fyʁ/
	future	serai /sə.ʁe/	seras /sə.ʁa/	sera /sə.ʁa/	serons /sə.ʁɔ̃/	serez /sə.ʁe/	seront /sə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	serais /sə.ʁɛ/	serais /sə.ʁɛ/	serait /sə.ʁɛ/	serions /sə.ʁjɔ̃/	seriez /sə.ʁje/	seraient /sə.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior²	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	sois /swa/	sois /swa/	soit /swa/	soyons /swa.jɔ̃/	soyez /swa.je/	soient /swa/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	fusse /fys/	fusses /fys/	fût /fy/	fussions /fy.sjɔ̃/	fussiez /fy.sje/	fussent /fys/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	sois /swa/	—	soyons /swa.jɔ̃/	soyez /swa.je/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
¹ Only usable with preposition en.
² In less formal writing or speech, the past historic, past anterior, imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive tenses may be found to have been replaced with the indicative present perfect, indicative pluperfect, present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses respectively (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).