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Is the verb "to be" irregular in your... | ||
Tags: Verbs/Conjugation | Multilingual | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| carlonove Senior Member United States Joined 5987 days ago 145 posts - 253 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 25 of 41 12 March 2011 at 6:51am | IP Logged | |||||
I think you missed the joke, Cainntear. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| hnedka Triglot Newbie Czech Republic Joined 5328 days ago 5 posts - 13 votes Speaks: Czech*, English, Spanish | Message 26 of 41 12 March 2011 at 8:21am | IP Logged | |||||
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In Czech (my native language), it's highly irregular. In Arabic, on the other hand, it doesn't exist in present tense and is completely regular in past tense (كان).
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| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 27 of 41 13 March 2011 at 5:38am | IP Logged | |||||
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In Slavonic languages and some Finno-Ugric languages it is (ir)regular depending on how you look at it.
The verb "to be" is often interpreted as irregular because of the fact that people usually focus on the present tense conjugation and expect that the conjugated forms should not diverge noticeably or unpredictably from the infinitive. Czech: být já jsem, ty jsi, on/ona/ono je, my jsme, vy jste, oni/ony/ona jsou (the stem is descended from an earlier jesti which contributes to the postulation of ancestral *es- "to be") BCMS/Serbo-Croatian: biti (je)sam, (je)si, je(st), (je)smo, (je)ste, (je)su (the stem is descended from an earlier jesti which contributes to the postulation of ancestral *es- "to be") Russian: быть -, -, есть (rare), -, -, суть (very rare) (the stem is descended from an earlier jesti which contributes to the postulation of ancestral *es- "to be") (Russian has even dispensed with the conjugated forms in present tense for the 1st and 2nd persons). Hungarian: lenni én vagyok, te vagy, ő van, mi vagyunk, ti vagytok, ők vannak (the stem descends from an earlier val which contributes to the postulation of ancestral *wole. Compare this form to the Estonian olema and Finnish olla below) Estonian: olema ma olen, sa oled, ta on, me oleme, te olete, nad on Finnish: olla minä olen, sinä olet, hän/se on, me olemme, te olette, he/ne ovat HOWEVER note how the infinitive in the examples above conjugate (relatively) regularly to yield a future tense. Czech: být já budu, ty budeš, on/ona/ono bude, my budeme, vy budete, oni/ony/ona budou BCMS/Serbo-Croatian: biti ja budem, ti budeš, on/ona/ono bude, mi budemo, vi budete, oni/one/ona budu (to be precise this is used as an auxillary verb in the "second" future tense or future perfect) Russian: быть я буду, ты будешь, он/она/оно будет, мы будем, вы будете, оны будут Hungarian: lenni én leszek, te leszel, ő lesz, mi leszünk, ti lesztek, ők lesznek (this verb conjugates in similar way to the small class of verbs modelled on venni "to buy") In Estonian and Finnish which are distantly related to Hungarian, there are conjugations of a verb cognate with the Hungarian lenni. In the case of Estonian, there's a link to a verb meaning "to be probably" while in Finnish, it forms the potential mood of olla "to be" (i.e. "I may be..."). Estonian: leema "to become probably" ma leen, sa leed, ta leeb, me leeme, te leete, nad leevad (i.e. "I/you/etc. probably become") Finnish: olla minä lienen, sinä lienet, hän/se lienee, me lienemme, te lienette, he/ne lienevät (i.e. "I/you/etc. may be") 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5856 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 28 of 41 30 March 2011 at 9:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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The verb "to be" is very regular in Chinese. It also have restricted usage, which is
explained below. The Chinese verb “是” (to be)[this word or character also means "yes"] Present tense 我是 你是 他/她/它是 我们是 你们/您是 他们/她们/它们是 Past tense 我（以前）是 你（以前）是 他/她/它（以前）是 我们（以前）是 你们/您（以前）是 他们/她们/它们（以前）是 Future tense 我（将）是 你（将）是 他/她/它（将）是 我们（将）是 你们/您（将）是 他们/她们/它们（将）是 Words in brackets indicates temporal expressions which are used to show the tense, when the context is not clear when the action took place. Chinese verbs do not have gerunds. The verb 是 is only used to equate combinations of nouns, noun phrases, and pronouns. It is not used with adjectives like, "She is warm." Therefore, the verb 是 do not have imperative forms or participle forms even though other verbs have them. For example: 停 (to stop) 停！(Stop!) 我被警察停了下来。( I was stopped by the police) [ Even the passive construction is very different from Indo-European languages!] Side note: The imperative and participle forms are exactly the same as the infinitive form. Neat isn't it? 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5856 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 29 of 41 30 March 2011 at 9:36am | IP Logged | |||||
Here is the full conjugation of the verb! The Russian verb “быть” Conjugation Present tense: Я есмь Ты еси́ Он, она́, оно́ есть Мы есмы́ Вы есте́ Они́ суть I doubt many native speakers of Russian actually know this conjugation and I will shock many of them if I use it the same way as in English. Past tense: был была́ бы́ло бы́ли Future tense: Я бу́ду Ты бу́дешь Он, она́, оно́ бу́дет Мы бу́дем Вы бу́дете Оно́ бу́дут Imperative: Будь! Пусть бу́дет! Бу́дьте! Пусть бу́дут! Participles Present: су́щий Past: бы́вщий Future*: бу́дущий Gerunds Present: бу́дучи Past: быв или бы́вши *быть is the only verb in Russian to have future participle. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Qinshi Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5754 days ago 115 posts - 183 votes Speaks: Vietnamese*, English Studies: French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 30 of 41 30 March 2011 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In Vietnamese, the verb là can be used to mean 'to be', however, the actual verb
isn't always required. eg. Tôi là người nước Úc --> I am Australian. [Used because 'Australian' is a noun] eg. Cô ấy rất xinh đẹp --> The lady in question is very beautiful. ['xinh đẹp' is an adjective, therefore là is not used] It can get a little confusing, but generally speaking the verb là is often not required or even replaced by another marker. eg. Tôi đang ở đây --> I am (currently) here. [The word đang means 'current' and acts like a verb here. Edited by Qinshi on 30 March 2011 at 5:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ojorolla Diglot Groupie France Joined 4966 days ago 90 posts - 130 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 31 of 41 01 June 2011 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In Korean the copula 'i' is regular; I'm not sure if we should classify it as a verb, though. It isn't, according to the dictionary. Then we have the verb 'is' which means to exist, which is regularly conjugated. (Yes we have some conjugation) It is, however, irregular in a way that it acts, or is conjugated as an adjective sometimes and as a verb some other times.
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| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5179 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 32 of 41 13 June 2011 at 12:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
It's a bit irregular: 여자야 the plain form is not made by cutting the 요. 해요 - 해 여자예요 - 여자야 normal verbs change into 대 for quotation . 공부한대 여자이래. :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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