Romance copula - Definition


Romance copula - Definition

The copula or copulae (the verb or verbs meaning "to be") in all Romance languages derive from the Latin verbs SVM and STO. The former was the copular verb "to be", and the latter mainly meant "to stand", and was sometimes translatable as "to be". When Latin developed into the Romance languages, the use of STO expanded, and encroached on SVM's territory. This article deals with the exact distinction between the two verbs in the languages in which they exist.

See Copula for information on other languages, including English.

Notes on the use of Latin words:

We have followed the usual practice of quoting Latin verbs in the first person singular of the present indicative. In other words, SVM is literally "I am", rather than "to be". The infinitives are 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. Nor have we used modern innovations such as U, J, ligatures, macrons or breves.

Evolution of meaning

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.

In Castilian/Spanish

Page of the Cantar de Mio Cid. The third line reads:
Es pagado, e davos su amor.

See also Spanish language and Spanish grammar.

The Spanish copulae developed as follows:

ESSE → �ssere → �sser → *eser → ser
STARE → *estare → estar

If we look back to 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; we can see sentences like Es pagado, e davos su amor, "He is satisfied, and he gives you his favour", where modern Spanish would have something like Queda contento, or Est� satisfecho, y le da a usted su favor.

As the centuries went by, estar spread in use. Today, ser is used to express the fundamental nature or characteristics of something — what it really is, whilst estar expresses the state something happens to be in. Indeed, ser is etymologically related to "essence" and "is", and estar with "state", "status", "standing", "stance" and "stay".

The verb quedar ("to remain", "to be as a result") is often used in a similar way to estar.

Nuance

Es sucio = "He's dirty" (i.e. "He's a dirty person" — characteristic)
Est� sucio = "He's dirty" (i.e. "He has some dirt on him" — state)

Es abierta = "She's open" (i.e. "She's an open sort of person" — characteristic)
Est� abierta = "It's open" (probably referring to a door or window — state)

Es triste = "He/she/it is sad" (i.e. gloomy — characteristic)
Est� triste = "He/she is sad" (i.e. feeling down — state)

�C�mo eres? = "What are you like?" (i.e. "describe yourself" — characteristics)
�C�mo est�s? = "How are you?" (i.e. "how are you doing?" — state)

With adjectives referring to beauty and the like, ser means "to be", and estar means "to look".

�Qu� guapa es! = "Wow, she's so beautiful" (characteristic)
�Qu� guapa est�! = "Wow, she's looking so beautiful / she's done up so nicely" (state)

Note that the differentiation between "nature" and "state" makes sense when talking about the states of life and death: Est� vivo (He is alive). Est� muerto (He is dead). Note that estar is used for both alive and dead, since they are both states, although being dead is considered a permanent 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.

Ser is used with adjectives of fundamental belief, nationality, sex, intelligence, etc. The use of estar with franc�s ("French") sounds quite odd to native Spanish speakers, as though it meant "to feel a bit French". Similarly, no estar cat�lico does not mean "to no longer be Catholic", but is a colloquial expression meaning "to feel under the weather". Note how this is a state.

Many students of Spanish feel that the difference between the two verbs is "permanent" versus "temporary", but in the Spanish mind, the difference is "essential nature" versus "state or condition".

Total change of meaning

There are many adjectives that change in meaning entirely depending on the verb used, sometimes meaning almost the opposite. Note that 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"	"good"
cachondo	"aroused"	"sexy", "funny person"
cansado	"tired"	"tiring/tiresome"
listo	"ready"	"clever"
rico	"delicious"	"rich"
seguro	"sure/certain"	"safe"

Obligatory ser

Ser is always used when the complement is a noun, whether or not the speaker intended to express a fundamental essence (though in practice they do tend to express this):

Es una persona sucia = "He's a dirty person"
Es una persona abierta = "She's an open person"
Soy la v�ctima = "I'm the victim"

A special use of ser, which expresses neither a nature nor a state but an action, is the formation of the passive voice:

Han sido asesinados = "They have been murdered"
Ser�s juzgada = "You will be judged"

Note that the passive voice is quite rare in Spanish, with other turns of phrase being used instead.

Obligatory estar

Estar is used to refer to physical location. In the Spanish mind, location is a state, and therefore goes with estar, even in those cases (e.g. Madrid est� en Espa�a "Madrid is in Spain") when one might think that it is something so permanent and fundamental that it could be logical to use ser. With immobile things, quedar is often used instead of estar.

Estar is almost always 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:

Est� (or queda) prohibido pisar el c�sped = "Keep off the grass" (i.e. "It is forbidden to tread on the lawn")
La frontera est� cerrada = "The border is closed"
Estoy casado = "I'm married" (Soy casado is also possible; note that "I'm single", "I'm widowed", etc all use ser, which shows that the only reason casado usually takes estar is that it is a participle, and not because Spanish speakers consider marriage to be some sort of temporary state!)

Estar must be used when the complement is bien or mal, no matter what meaning is intended.

Este libro est� muy bien = Este libro es muy bueno = "This book is very good" (nature)
Estoy muy mal = Estoy muy malo = "I'm feeling terrible, ill" (state)

Other special cases

Happiness

Although "sadness" is expressed fairly straightforwardly with 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, often in practice actually meaning "drunk", "tipsy".

A person who is fundamentally happy in life is said to ser feliz; indeed la felicidad is that "happiness" that humans strive for. Although in the harsh real world this happiness often turns out to be a transitory state, a person may nevertheless declare 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, but this adjective is not really the appropriate one; estar contento is the better way of saying that one is at the present time feeling happy, content or glad.

When not a state but a change of state is referred to, the expression is quedar contento or alegrarse: qued� muy contenta cuando le dije que hab�a ganado = "she was very glad when I told her she had won"; me alegro de que hay�is llegado = "I'm glad you've all come".

In the extract from the Cantar de Mio Cid above, one can see that "to be happy" a thousand years ago was ser pagado.

In Catalan

The Catalan copulae developed as follows:

ESSE → �ssere → �sser → esser → ser
STARE → *estare → estar

The last three forms of the first verb survive in modern Catalan. Ser is considered the most standard, followed by �sser, then esser.

The distinction between the two copulae is very similar to the distinction in Spanish, with the following exceptions, amongst others:

Expressions such as "it is allowed" use either ser or avoid the copula completely and use the impersonal pronoun es instead. So, est� permitido corresponds to �s perm�s or es permet.
Ser is often used to express location.

In French

Old French had estre (ESSE → essere → *essre → estre) and ester (STARE → *estare → estar → ester), and distinguished between then 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 �t- or �t-. The modern form of the verb is �tre. One trace of ester is the past participle: instead of the *�tu one would expect, we find �t� — just what we would expect from ester/�ter.

The English verb "to stay" is directly from ester.

In Proven�al, the copula is �sser or �stre.

In Haitian

Haitian has a reputation as the most linguistically exotic of the Romance languages; and it lives up to this reputation with its copula system. It has three forms of the copula: se, ye, and the lack of any word (whose position we will indicate with a placeholder "_", just for purposes of illustration). Which of se/ye/_ is used in any given copula clause depends on complex syntactic factors that we can superficially summarize in these four rules:

First: Use _ (i.e., no word at all) in declarative sentences where the complement is an adjective phrase, prepositional phrase, or adverb phrase:

Li te _ an Ayiti. (She past-tense in Haiti; "she was in Haiti")
Liv-la _ jon. (Book-the yellow; "the book is yellow")
Timoun-yo _ lakay. (Kids-the home; "the kids are [at] home")

Second: Use se when the complement is a noun phrase. But note that whereas other verbs come *after* any tense/mood/aspect particles (like pa to mark negation, or te to explicitly mark past tense, or ap to mark progressive aspect), se comes *before* any such particles:

Chal se ekriven. (Charles is writer.)
Chal se pa ekriven. (Charles is not writer; cf. With the verb kouri ("run"): Chal pa kouri, not Chal kouri pa.)
Chal, ki se ekriven, pa vini. (Charles, who is writer, not come.)

Third: Use se where English or French have a "dummy-it" subject:

Se mwen! ("It's me!", French C'est moi!)
Se pa fasil. ("It's not easy", French C'est pas facile)

And finally: use the other copula form, ye, in situations where the sentence's syntax leaves the copula at the end of a phrase:

Kijan ou ye? ("How you are?")
Pou kimoun liv-la te ye? (Of who book-the past-tense is?; "Whose book was it?")
M pa konnen kimoun li ye. (I not know who he is; "I don't know who he is.")
Se yon ekriven Chal ye (It's a writer Charles is; "Charles is a writer!"; cf. French C'est un ecrivain qu'il est")

The above is, however, only a superficial analysis. For more details on the syntactic conditions as well as on Haitian-specific copula constructions such as se kouri m ap kouri (It's run I progressive run; "I'm really running!"), see the grammar sketch in Catherine Howe's Haitian Creole Newspaper Reader (which is the source for most of the Haitian data in this article), and see also Valdman & Philippe's textbook Ann Pale Kreyol: An Introductory Course in Haitian Creole.

Etymology

Although no textual record exists of Haitian at its earliest stages of development from French, se is obviously derived from French c'est (IPA [sε]), which is the normal French contraction of ce (it) and the copula est.

The derivation of ye is less obvious; but we can assume that the French source was il est ("he/it is"), which, in rapidly spoken French, is very commonly pronounced as y est (IPA [jε]).

The use of a null copula is unknown in French, and it is thought to be an innovation from the early days when Haitian was first developing as a Romance-based pidgin.

In Italian

The Italian copulae did not undergo the same development as in other languages, and conserve the Vulgar Latin forms essere and stare.

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'm 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.
Stare can mean "to stand" (usually stare in piedi) but it's not common.
Starci (lit. To stay in it) means "to fit"
Stare can be an alternative to restare "to stay"
Stare is occasionally "to be located". This is common in the south of Italy.

In Portuguese

Similar to Spanish. Ficar is often used for location.

In Romanian

A fi is the copula in Romanian.

In Romansh

Esser means "to be", and Star is "to reside".

Conjugation

Here, only simple, one-word forms are given. All languages below also possess numerous compound tenses.

In Latin

SVM

Non-finite forms:
- Present infinitive: ESSE
- Future infinitive: FORE (FVTVRVM ESSE)
- Future participle: FVTVRVS
- Perfect infinitive: FVISSE
Indicative:
- Present: SVM, ES, EST, SVMVS, ESTIS, SVNT
- Imperfect: ERAM, ERAS, ERAT, ERAMVS, ERATIS, ERANT
- Future: ERO, ERIS, ERIT, ERIMVS, ERITIS, ERVNT
- Perfect: FVI, FVISTI, FVIT, FVIMVS, FVISTIS, FVERVNT
- Pluperfect: FVERAM, FVERAS, FVERAT, FVERAMVS, FVERATIS, FVERANT
- Future anterior: FVERO, FVERIS, FVERIT, FVERIMVS, FVERITVS, FVERINT
Subjunctive:
- Present: SIM, SIS, SIT, SIMVS, SITIS, SINT
- Imperfect: ESSEM, ESSES, ESSET, ESSEMVS, ESSETIS, ESSENT
- Perfect: FVERIM, FVERIS, FVERIT, FVERIMVS, FVERITIS
- Pluperfect: FVISSEM, FVISSES, FVISSET, FVISSEMVS, FVISSETIS, FVISSENT
Imperative: ES, ESTE

STO

Non-finite forms:
- Present infinitive: STARE
- Future participle: STATVRVS
- Perfect infinitive: ?STETISSE
- Gerund: STANDVM
- Supine: STATV(M)
- Present participle: STANS
Indicative:
- Present: STO, STAS, STAT, STAMVS, STATIS, STANT
- Imperfect: STABAM, STABAS, STABAT, STABAMVS, STABATIS, STABANT
- Future: ?STABO, ?STABIS, ?STABIT, ?STABIMVS, ?STABITIS, ?STABVNT
- Perfect: STETI, STETISTI, STETIT, STETIMVS, STETISTIS, STETERVNT
- Pluperfect: ?STETERAM, ?STETERAS, ?STETERAT, ?STETERAMVS, ?STETERATIS, ?STETERANT
- Future anterior: ?STETERO, ?STETERIS, ?STETERIT, ?STETERIMVS, ?STETERITIS, ?STETERINT
Subjunctive:
- Present: STEM, STES, STET, STEMVS, STETIS, STENT
- Imperfect: ?
- Perfect: ?
- Pluperfect: ?
Imperative: ?