[Indo-European] To be, being #3

Be: a simple word at first glance. It's easy to pronounce, easy to spell, and it holds only one meaning: existence. But this word is deceptively complex! This series will be about "being" in every major language in the Indo-European family.

"Be" is versatile and it usually conjugates in an irregular pattern. In fact, the root rarely resembles the conjugated forms. One factor which may explain this phenomenon is suppletion. This is where a language lacks a form of a particular word, so it absorbs a different word for that function. For example, maybe the language doesn't have a form of "be" which means "to be (in the future)". Let's say that "ve" means "to become". Over time people start to see "ve" as the future tense of "be".

This second chapter will only cover the basic conjugated forms of "to be". Simple past indicative.

[English]

To be, being.
Past tense: I was, you were, he / she / it was, we were, you were, they were.

[Dutch]

zijn / wezen - to be
Past tense: ik was, jij was, hij was, wij waren, jullie waren, zij waren.

[German]

sein - to be
Preterite tense: war, warst, war, waren, wart, waren.

[Danish]

at være - to be 
Past tense: jeg var, du var, han / hun / det var, vi var, I er, de var.

[Norwegian]

å være - to be
Past tense: jeg var, du var, han / hun / det var, vi var, dere var, de var.

[Swedish]

att vara - to be
Present tense: jag var, du var, han / hon / det var, vi var, ni var, de var.

[Spanish]

ser - to be

estar - to be (transient)

[French]

être - to be

[Portuguese]

ser - to be

estar - to be (transient)

[Italian]

essere - to be

Origination

Everything began with:

• Proto-Indo-European: *h₂wes- (to dwell)
• Proto-Germanic: *wesaną (to be) 
• German: gewesen
• Dutch: gewezen, geweest
• Proto-Germanic: *was, a past form of *wesaną (to be)
• German: war, warst, wart, waren
• Dutch: was, waren
• English: was, were
• Danish: var, været
• Norwegian: var, vært
• Swedish: var, varit

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this article.