Indo-European copula
A feature common to all Indo-European languages is the presence of a verb corresponding to the English verb to be. Though in some languages it is vestigial, it is present nonetheless in atrophied forms or derivatives.
General features
This verb has two basic meanings:- In a less marked context it is a simple copula, a function which in non-Indo-European languages can be expressed quite differently.
- In a more heavily marked context it expresses existence ; the dividing line between these is not always easy to draw.
Many Indo-European languages also use the conjugations of the verb "to be" as an auxiliary for the formation of compound tenses. Other functions vary from language to language. For example, although in its basic meanings, to be is a stative verb, English puts it to work as a dynamic verb in fixed collocations.
The copula is the most irregular verb in many Indo-European languages. This is partly because it is more frequently used than any other, and partly because Proto-Indo-European offered more than one verb suitable for use in these functions, with the result that the daughter languages, in different ways, have tended to form suppletive verb paradigms.
This article describes the way in which the irregular forms have developed from a series of roots.
The Proto-Indo-European PIE roots
''*h1es-''
The root *h1es- was certainly already a copula in Proto-Indo-European.The e-grade *h1es- is found in such forms as English is, Irish is, German ist, Latin est, Sanskrit asti, Persian ast, Old Church Slavonic ѥстъ .
The zero grade *h1s- produces forms beginning with /s/, like German sind, Latin sumus, Vedic Sanskrit smas, etc.
In PIE, *h1es- was an athematic verb in -mi; that is, the first person singular was *h1esmi; this inflection survives in English am, Pashto yem, Persian am, Sanskrit asmi, Bengali first-person verb ending -ām, Old Church Slavonic есмь, etc.
This verb is generally reconstructed for Proto-Indo-European thus:
| Person | Present indicative | Imperfect indicative | Subjunctive | Optative | Imperative |
| 1st singular | *h1és-mi | *h1és-m̥ | *h1és-oh2 | *h1s-iéh1-m | — |
| 2nd singular | *h1és-i | *h1és | *h1és-esi | *h1s-iéh1-s | *h1és, *h1s-dʰí |
| 3rd singular | *h1és-ti | *h1és-t | *h1és-eti | *h1s-iéh1-t | *h1és-tu |
| 1st dual | *h1s-uós | *h1s-ué | *h1és-owos | *h1s-ih1-wé | — |
| 2nd dual | *h1s-tés | *h1s-tóm | *h1és-etes | *h1s-ih1-tóm | *h1s-tóm |
| 3rd dual | *h1s-tés | *h1s-tā́m | *h1és-etes | *h1s-ih1-tā́m | *h1s-tā́m |
| 1st plural | *h1s-m̥ós | *h1s-m̥é | *h1és-omos | *h1s-ih1-mé | — |
| 2nd plural | *h1s-té | *h1s-té | *h1és-ete | *h1s-ih1-té | *h1s-té |
| 3rd plural | *h1s-énti | *h1s-énd | *h1és-onti | *h1s-ih1-énd | *h1s-éntu |
This is the source of the English infinitive be and participle been. Also, for example, the Scottish Gaelic "future" tense bithidh; the Irish imperative bí, past bhí and future beidh; the Persian imperative bov, past bud and future bâš; and the Slavic infinitive, etc. for example Russian быть.
PIE became Latin /f/, hence the Latin future participle futūrus and perfect fuī; Latin fīō 'I become' is also from this root, as is the Greek verb φύω, from which physics and physical are derived.
This verb can be reconstructed as follows:
| Person | Indicative | Subjunctive | Optative | Imperative |
| 1st singular | *bʰúH-m | *bʰúH-oh2 | *bʰuH-yéh1-m | — |
| 2nd singular | *bʰúH-s | *bʰúH-esi | *bʰuH-yéh1-s | *bʰúH, *bʰuH-dʰí |
| 3rd singular | *bʰúH-t | *bʰúH-eti | *bʰuH-yéh1-t | *bʰúH-tu |
| 1st dual | *bʰuH-wé | *bʰúH-owos | *bʰuH-ih1-wé | — |
| 2nd dual | *bʰuH-tóm | *bʰúH-etes | *bʰuH-ih1-tóm | *bʰuH-tóm |
| 3rd dual | *bʰuH-tā́m | *bʰúH-etes | *bʰuH-ih1-tā́m | *bʰuH-tā́m |
| 1st plural | *bʰuH-mé | *bʰúH-omos | *bʰuH-ih1-mé | — |
| 2nd plural | *bʰuH-té | *bʰúH-ete | *bʰuH-ih1-té | *bʰuH-té |
| 3rd plural | *bʰuH-énd | *bʰúH-onti | *bʰuH-ih1-énd | *bʰuH-éntu |
''*h2wes-''
The root *h2wes- may originally have meant "to live". The e-grade is present in the German participle gewesen, the o-grade survives in English and Old High German was, while the lengthened e-grade gives us English were. See Germanic strong verb: Class 5.''*h1er-''
This has been claimed as the origin of the Old Norse and later Scandinavian languages' present stem: Old Norse em, ert, er, erum, eruð, eru; the second person forms of which were borrowed into English as art and are. It has also been seen as the origin of the Latin imperfect and future tenses.However, other authorities link these forms with *h1es- and assume grammatischer Wechsel, although this is not normally found in the present stem. Donald Ringe argues that the copula was sometimes unaccented in Pre-Proto-Germanic, which would have then triggered the voicing under Verner's law. He explains the Germanic first person singular form as such, deriving it from earlier, since -zm-, but not -sm-, was assimilated to -mm- in Germanic. Furthermore, the third person plural form shows that this word, too, was unaccented. If the accent had been preserved, it would have become, but that form is not found in any Germanic language. In this view, it is likely that stressed and unstressed varieties of the copula existed side by side in Germanic, and the involvement of a separate root is unnecessary.
The Latin forms could be explained by rhotacism
''*steh2-''
The root *teh2- meant "to stand". From this root comes the present stem of the so-called "substantive verb" in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, tá and tha respectively. On the absence of the initial s- in Celtic, see Indo-European s-mobile.In Latin, stō, stare retained the meaning "to stand", until local forms of Vulgar Latin began to use it as a copula in certain circumstances. Today, this survives in that several Romance languages use it as one of their two copulae, and there is also a Romance tendency for a past participle derived from *steh2- to replace the original one of the copula. See also Romance copula.
Although in Dutch, this verb retains its primary meaning of "stand", it is also used in an auxiliary-like function that only has a secondary meaning of "standing", for example: ik sta te koken. When it is not a full copula, it does have shades of meaning that resemble that of the Italian sto cucinando. The intransitive verbs zitten, liggen and lopen are used in similar ways.
German "stehen" also exhibits a similar secondary meaning as a copula in certain locative phrases. For example, "Das Auto steht da".
In Swedish, which usually lacks gerund forms, the corresponding stå is often used similarly, along with sitta, ligga and gå.
In Hindustani the past tense of the copula honā "to be" which are «tʰā», «tʰe», «tʰī» and «tʰī̃» are derived from Sanskrit «stʰā». Gujarati has a cognate verb «tʰavũ» "to happen"; cf. Bengali aorist «tʰā-» as well.
In Persian istâdan means "to stand"
The resulting paradigms
Hittite
The Hittite verb "to be" is derived from the Indo-European root *.| Present indicative | Preterite indicative | Imperative | |
| 1st sg. | ēšmi | ešun | ēšlit ēšlut ašallu |
| 2nd sg. | ēšši | ēšta | ēš |
| 3rd sg. | ēšzi | ēšta | ēšdu |
| 1st pl. | ēšwen | – | |
| 2nd pl. | ēšteni | ēšten | ēšten |
| 3rd pl. | ašanzi | ešer | ašandu |
Indo-Iranian languages
Sanskrit
The Vedic Sanskrit verb as is derived from the Indo-European root *'.bhū is derived from Indo-European *'.
Hindi
In modern Hindi, as has developed into the present indicative forms of the verb होना. The infinitive होना itself is derived from bhū. The verb होना is the only verb in Hindi to have the present indicative form, and the Imperfect Past form and for all the other verbs these forms do not exist but are formed using the imperfect past copula. Hindi uses Present Habitual forms to compensate for the loss of Present Indicative forms. The Habitual forms with the use of Present Indicative form of होना which works as the auxiliary verb form the Present Habitual Tense. Also, for all the verbs except होना, there are no separate forms for the present and the future subjunctive but instead they both have a common form which is used to express both the present and the future subjunctive ideas.The verb होना can be translated as «to be», «to exist», «to happen» and «to have». When the meaning of «to happen» is to be conveyed, Perfect Past is used and in all other cases the Imperfect Past is used.
The verbs in Hindi are gendered and numbered in general they agree with either the object or the subject of the sentence depending on the whether the sentence uses dative construction or not.
Persian
With regard to the function of the verb ‘to be’ as a copula, the most conspicuous feature of Modern Persian language is the evolution of an existential be, hast, out of ast. In fact, when studying the forms and functions of ‘to be’, one might find certain characteristics specific to Persian that is worth pondering upon— i.e. even without considering the diachronic evolution of Modern Persian language and its relation to Ancient Iranian languages whose usage of the verb ‘to be’ seems more close to Sanskrit. Paradoxically, despite the fact that Persian is apparently the only Indo-European language that has created an existential be out of the copula, it has simultaneously made an extreme use of the latter to produce a general paradigm for conjugating all Persian verbs.Historically speaking, like most of Indo-European languages that make use of suppletive roots to denote ‘to be’, Persian integrates Proto-Indo-Eroupean verbs *h1es- and *bhuH . Hence, while Persian infinitive būdan < PIE *bhuH forms the past stem of the verb or acts as an auxiliary verb in formation of pluperfect of other verbs, its present tense is solely based on the derivatives of PIE *h1es-. It is, in fact, from the declension of PIE *h1es- that six present stems have been created and assigned to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person singular and plural to act as the present-tense conjugation of Pers būdan, as shown in the following table.
| Persian | CF. Classical Attic | English | Persian | English | |||
| 1st Person | -am | εἰμί | am | -īm | are | ||
| 2nd Person | -ī | εἶ | art | -īd | are | ||
| 3rd Person | ast | ἐστί | is | -and | are |
As an example, in the following sentences, the present forms of the verb 'to be' are used as copulas or predicates:
"man doxtar-e to am; īn barādar-e man ast ; to pedar-e man ī "
- Furthermore, as endings added to the stem of the verbs, these declensional forms have been grammatized to shape a general paradigm for the grammatical conjugation of all other verbs; as if any of these endings was once an auxiliary verb which evolved into an enclitic. This generalized conjugational paradigm is also applied to the past tense of the verb
| Singular | Enclitic copula | Plural | Enclitic copula |
| هستم hastam = | ام -am | هستيم hastīm = | ايم -īm |
| هستى hastī = | اى -ī | هستيد hastīd = | اید -īd |
| هست hast = | > Ø | هستند hastand = | اند -and |
The Simple Past Tense conjugation of the verb بودن būdan is in fact formed by a double-copula, in the sense that both the stem and the ending are copulas: the past stem of the verb بود būd''- is derived from PIE *bhuH-, while the endings are from the suppletive form of PIE *h1es- with the exception of 3rd person singular which has zero ending for the all Persian verbs in the past-tense.
| Singular | Enclitic copula | Plural | Enclitic copula |
| بودم būdam = | ام -am | بوديم būdīm = | ايم -īm |
| بودى būdī = | اى -ī | بوديد būdīd = | اید -īd |
| بود būd = | Ø | بودند būdand = | اند -and |
The Present Perfect conjugation of the verb بودن būdan is a perfect double copula paradigm, in the sense that it is produced by addition of all enclitic copulas to the past participle of the verb: būde.
| Singular | Enclitic copula | Plural | Enclitic copula |
| بوده ام būde-am = | ام -am | بوده ايم būde-īm = | ايم -īm |
| بوده اى būde-ī = | اى -ī | بوده ايد būde-īd = | اید -īd |
| بوده است būde ast = | است ast | بوده اند būde-and = | اند -and |
Greek
The Ancient Greek verb eimi is derived from the Indo-European root *.The participles are based on the full-grade stem ἐσ- in Homeric, according to Smyth.
Italic languages
Except for Latin, the older Italic languages are very scarcely attested, but we have in Oscan set, fiiet, fufans and fust, and in Umbrian sent. This section will explain Latin, and the Romance languages that have evolved from it.In Spanish, Catalan, Galician-Portuguese and to a lesser extent, Italian there are two parallel paradigms, ser/èsser/essere from Latin esse "to be" on one hand, and estar/stare from Latin stare, "to stand" on the other.
For simplicity, the table below has only the full conjugation of the present tense, and the first-person singular forms of some other tenses.
In several modern Romance languages, the perfect is a compound tense formed with the participle as in English, but the old Latin perfect survives as a commonly used preterite in Spanish and Portuguese, and as a literary "past historic" in French, Italian and Catalan.
There is a tendency for a past participle derived from stare to replace that of the main copula derived from esse. For example, the French participle été comes from statum.
For further information, see the main Romance copula article.
Germanic languages
Proto-Germanic retained the dual, but only in the first and second person.- Old English kept the verbs wesan and bēon separate throughout the present stem, though it is not clear that they made the kind of consistent distinction in usage that we find, for example in Spanish. In the preterite, however, the paradigms fell together. Old English has no participle for this verb.
- The plural forms in Modern Swedish were in common use in formal written language until the mid-20th century, but are now no longer in use except in deliberately archaising texts. The preterite subjunctive is also increasingly being replaced by the indicative.
- Dutch, like English, has abandoned the original second-person singular forms, replacing them with the second-person plural forms. However, while in English the old forms are still in limited and deliberately archaic use, in Dutch they have disappeared entirely and are no longer known or used at all. The forms listed in the plural are the historical plural forms, the 'jij' and 'gij' forms. Dutch formed a new plural pronoun 'jullie' with inflection similar to the 1st and 3rd person plural, but it would be redundant to list them here.
Slavic languages
| Proto-Slavic | Old Church Slavonic | Ukrainian | Russian | Polish | Czech | Slovak | Slovenian | Serbo-Croatian | Bulgarian | |
| Infinitive | *byti | бꙑти, byti | бути, buty | быть, byt' | być | být | byť | biti | biti | |
| Present | *esmĭ *esi *estĭ *esvě *esta *este *esmŭ *este *sǫtĭ | ѥсмь, jesmĭ ѥси, jesi ѥстъ, jestŭ ѥсвѣ, jesvě ѥста, jesta ѥсте, jeste ѥсмъ, jesmŭ ѥсте, jeste сѫтъ, sǫtŭ | є, je / – – – сьмо, сте, | есть, jest' – – – | jestem, -m jesteś, -ś jest – – – jesteśmy, -śmy jesteście, -ście są | jsem jsi je – – – jsme jste jsou | som si je – – – sme ste sú | sem si je sva sta sta smo ste so | jesam, sam/budem* jesi, si/budeš jest, je/bude – – – jesmo, smo/budemo jeste, ste/budete jesu, su/budu | съм, səm си, si е, e – – – сме, sme сте, ste са, sə |
| Imperative | – *bǫdi *bǫdi *bǫděvě *bǫděta – *bǫděmŭ *bǫděte *bǫdǫ | – бѫди, bǫdi бѫди, bǫdi бѫдѣвѣ, bǫděvě бѫдѣта, bǫděta – бѫдѣмъ, bǫděmŭ бѫдѣте, bǫděte бѫдѫ, bǫdǫ | – будь, buď – – – – будьмо, buďmo будьте, buďte – | – будь, bud’ – – – – будем, budem будьте, bud’te – | – bywaj/bądź – – – – bywajmy/bądźmy bywajcie/bądźcie – | – buď – – – – buďme buďte – | – buď – – – – buďme buďte – | – bodi – bodiva bodita – bodimo bodite – | – budi – – – budimo budite | – бъди, bədi – – – – – бъдете, bədete – |
| Future | *bǫdǫ *bǫdešĭ *bǫdetĭ *bǫdevě *bǫdeta *bǫdete *bǫdemŭ *bǫdete *bǫdǫtĭ | бѫдѫ, bǫdǫ бѫдеши, bǫdeši бѫдетъ, bǫdetŭ бѫдевѣ, bǫdevě бѫдета, bǫdeta бѫдете, bǫdete бѫдемъ, bǫdemŭ бѫдете, bǫdete бѫдѫтъ, bǫdǫtŭ | буду, budu будеш, budeš буде, bude – – – будемо, budemo будете, budete будуть, buduť | буду, budu будешь, budeš' будет, budet – – – будем, budem будете, budete будут, budut | będę będziesz będzie – – – będziemy będziecie będą | budu budeš bude – – – budeme budete budou | budem budeš bude – – – budeme budete budú | bom, bodem boš, bodeš bo, bode bova, bodeva bosta, bodesta bosta, bodesta bomo, bodemo boste, bodeste bodo, bojo | budem budeš bude – – – budemo budete budu | ще бъда, šte bədə ще бъдеш, šte bədeš ще бъде, šte bəde – – – ще бъдем, šte bədem ще бъдете, šte bədete ще бъдат, šte bədət |
| Imperfect | *běaxŭ *běaše *běaše *běaxově *běašeta *běašete *běaxomŭ *běašete *běaxǫ | бѣахъ, běaxŭ бѣаше, běaše бѣаше, běaše бѣаховѣ, běaxově бѣашета, běašeta бѣашете, běašete бѣахомъ, běaxomŭ бѣашете, běašeте бѣахѫ, běaxǫ | bijah, beh bijaše, beše bijaše, beše – – – bijasmo, besmo bijaste, beste bijahu, behu | бях, bjah бе, be бе, be – – – бяхме, bjahme бяхте, bjahte бяха, bjahə | ||||||
| Aorist | *byxŭ *by *by *byxově *bysta *byste *byxomŭ *byste *byšę | бꙑхъ, byxŭ бꙑ, by бꙑ by бꙑховѣ, byxově бꙑста, bysta бꙑсте, byste бꙑхомъ, byxomŭ бꙑсте, byste бꙑшѧ, byšę | bych bys by – – – bychom byste by | bi bi | bih bi bi – – – bismo biste biše | – – – | ||||
| Present active participle | *sy m. *sǫťi f. *sy n. | сꙑ, sy m. сѫщи, sǫšti f. сꙑ, sy n. | ||||||||
| Future active participle | *bǫdy m. *bǫdǫťi f. *bǫdy n. | бѫдꙑ, bǫdy m. бѫдѫщи, bǫdǫšti f. бѫдꙑ, bǫdy n. | будучи ' | будущий, buduščij m. будущая, buduščaja f. будущее, buduščeje n. | będący m. będąca f. będące n. | budoucí m. budoucí f. budoucí n. | budúci m. budúca f. budúce n. | bodoči m. bodoča f. bodoče n. | budući m. buduća f. buduće n. | |
| Past active participle | *byvŭ m. *byvŭši f. *byvŭ n. | бꙑвъ, byvŭ m. бꙑвъши, byvŭši f. бꙑвъ, byvŭ n. | бувши ' | бывший, byvšij m. бывшая, byvšaja f. бывшее, byvšeje n. | bywszy m. bywsza f. bywsze n. | byvší m. byvšia f. byvšie n. | bivši m. bivša f. bivše n. | bivši m. bivša f. bivše n. | ||
| Resultative participle | *bylŭ m. *byla f. *bylo n. | бꙑлъ, bylŭ m. бꙑла, byla f. бꙑло, bylo n. | був, buw m. була, bula f. було, bulo n. | был, byl m. была, byla f. было, bylo n. | był m. była f. było n. | byl m. byla f. bylo n. | bol m. bola f. bolo n. | bil m. bila f. bilo n. | bio m. bila f. bilo n. | бил, bil m. била, bila f. било, bilo n. |
- In Russian, the present forms are archaic and no longer in common use, except for the third person forms, which are used in "there is/are" type phrases.
- In Ukrainian, the present tense forms of the verb "бути" have all but disappeared from contemporary language, except for the third person form which is used in existential phrases; єсть is archaic and encountered only in poetry. All participles have turned into other parts of speech, future and past active participles becoming present and past active adverbial participle respectively, and resultative pariciple becoming past tense of verbs.
- In Serbo-Croatian the forms jesam, jesi, jeste and so on are used as the basic form of the Present Tense "to be", while the forms budem, budeš, bude etc. are used only for the formation of the Future Perfect.
- In Bulgarian, forms бъда, бъдеш, etc. are not used by themselves but only in compound forms. In this respect they closely follow the usage of perfective verbs. As such it has its own forms for the aorist, the imperfect and the resultative participle. Another verb - бивам with fully regular conjugation type III paradigm - completes an aspect triple: imperfective съм, perfective бъда, secondary imperfective бивам. The perfective aorist has lost its original meaning and is now used only to form the compound conditional mood. All participles except the resultative participle have lost their function and are now used as regular adjectives with changed meanings.
Baltic languages
| Lithuanian | Latvian | Old Prussian | |
| Infinitive | būti | būt | |
| Present | esu, esmi, būnu esi, būni yra, esti, esa, būna esame, būname esate, būnate yra, esti, esa, būna | esmu, esu esi ir esam esat ir | |
| Past simple | buvau buvai buvo buvome buvote buvo | biju biji bija bijām bijāt bija | |
| Past active participle | buvęs buvusi buvę buvusios | bijis bijusi bijuši bijušas | |
| Future | būsiu būsi bus būsime būsite bus | būšu būsi būs būsim būsiet, būsit būs | |
| Imperative | – būk – būkime būkite – | – esi – būsim esiet – | |
| Quotative | esot, būšot | ||
| Conditional | būčiau būtum būtų būtumėme būtumėte būtų | būtu |
In Lithuanian, the paradigm būnu, būni, būna, etc. is not considered archaic or dialectal but rather a special use of the verb būti, to be, mostly used to describe repeated actions or states, or habits.
Celtic languages
In the Celtic languages there is a distinction between the so-called substantive verb, used when the predicate is an adjective phrase or prepositional phrase, and the so-called copula, used when the predicate is a noun.The conjugation of the Old Irish and Middle Welsh verbs is as follows:
| Old Irish substantive verb | Old Irish copula | Middle Welsh | |
| Present | ·tó ·taí ·tá ·taam ·taïd ·taat | am at is ammi adib it | wyf wyt yw, mae, taw, oes ym ych ynt, maen |
| Preterite | ·bá ·bá ·boí ·bámmar ·baid ·bátar | basa basa ba bommar unattested batar | buum buost bu buam buawch buant |
| Future | bia bie bieid, ·bia beimmi, ·biam bethe, ·bieid bieit, ·biat | be be bid bimmi unattested bit | bydaf bydy byd bydwn bydwch bydant |
The forms of the Old Irish present tense of the substantive verb, as well as Welsh taw, come from the PIE root *stā-. The other forms are from the roots *es- and *bhū-. Welsh mae originally meant "here is".
Irish and Scottish Gaelic
In modern Gaelic, person inflections have almost disappeared, but the negative and interrogative are marked by distinctive forms. In Irish, particularly in the south, person inflections are still very common for the tá/bhí series.The verb bí
The copula
Gaelic eil and Irish fuil are from Old Irish fuil, originally an imperative meaning "see!", then coming to mean "here is", later becoming a suppletive dependent form of at-tá. Gaelic robh and Modern Irish raibh are from the perfective particle ro plus ba.Modern Welsh
The present tense in particular shows a split between the North and the South. Though the situation is undoubtedly more complicated, King notes the following variations in the present tense as spoken :For example, the spoken first person singular dw i'n is a contraction of the formal written yr ydwyf fi yn . The Welsh F /v/ is the fricative analogue of the nasal /m/, the PIE suffix consonsant for the first person singular.
Bod also has a conditional, for which there are two stems. The bas- stem is more common in the North, and the bydd- stem is more common in the South:
Armenian
The Classical Armenian present tense derives from PIE *-.| present | |
| 1st sg. | em |
| 2nd sg. | es |
| 3rd sg. | ē |
| 1st pl. | enkʿ |
| 2nd pl. | ēkʿ |
| 3rd pl. | en |
Albanian
The Albanian copula shows two distinct roots. The present jam ‘I am’ is an athematic root stem built from PIE *'. The imperfect continues the PIE imperfect of the same root but was rebuilt based on the 3rd person singular and plural. The perfect, on the other hand, comes from the thematic aorist of PIE *'- ‘turn’. Analogical or otherwise indirect reflexes are italicized below.| PIE | present | PIE → PAlb | rebuilt | imperfect | imperfect | PIE → PAlb | perfect | |
| 1st sg. | *h₁ésmi | jam | *h₁és-m̥ → *eham | *eśen | jeshë | isha | *kʷl-e-m̥ → *klen† | qeshë, OAlb qeva |
| 2nd sg. | *h₁ési | je | *h₁és → *eh | *eśeh | jeshe | ishe | *kʷl-e-s → *kleh | qe |
| 3rd sg. | *h₁ésti | ishtë | *h₁és-t → *eśt | *eśt | je | ish → ishte | *kʷl-e-to → *kleta | kle → qe |
| 1st pl. | *h₁s-méi | jemi | *h₁s-m̥é → *emma/e | *eśema/e | jeshëmë | ishim | *kʷl-e-mé → *klema/e | qemë |
| 2nd pl. | *esi + -ni | jeni | *h₁s-té → *eśtā | *eśetā | jeshëtë | ishit | *kʷl-e-té → *kletā | qetë |
| 3rd pl. | *h₁s-nti | janë | *h₁s-énd → *eśend | *eśend | ishinë | ishin | *kʷl-e-nd → *klend | qenë |