Learn Romance Languages Verb Conjuations Together - French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese Vocabulary Side-by-Side

Romance Languages Verbs: Conjugations of Be (être / essere / ser / ser / ser)

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Catalan, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese have two verbs meaning be in English. Go to conjugations of stare and estar.

English	French	Italian	Catalan	Spanish	Portuguese
Infinitive: to be	être	essere	ser	ser	ser

Present: am, is, are	suis	sono	sóc	soy	sou
	es	sei	ets	eres	és
	est	è	és	es	é
	sommes	siamo	som	somos	somos
	êtes	siete	sou	sois	sois
	sont	sono	són	son	são

Imperfect: was, were / used to be	étais	ero	era	era	era
	étais	eri	eres	eras	eras
	était	era	era	era	era
	étions	eravamo	érem	éramos	éramos
	étiez	eravate	éreu	erais	éreis
	étaient	erano	eren	eran	eram

Preterite: was, were	fus	fui	fui	fui	fui
(rare in French or Italian speech)	fus	fosti	fores	fuiste	foste
(alternative Catalan below)	fut	fu	fou	fue	foi
	fûmes	fummo	fórem	fuimos	fomos
	fûtes	foste	fóreu	fuisteis	fostes
	furent	furono	foren	fueron	foram

Future: will be	serai	sarò	seré	seré	serei
	seras	sarai	seràs	serás	serás
	sera	sarà	serà	será	será
	serons	saremo	serem	seremos	seremos
	serez	sarete	sereu	seréis	sereis
	seront	saranno	seran	serán	serão

Conditional: would be	serais	sarei	seria	sería	seria
	serais	saresti	series	serías	serias
	serait	sarebbe	sera	sería	seria
	serions	saremmo	seríem	seríamos	seríamos
	seriez	sareste	seríeu	serías	seríeis
	seraient	sarebbero	serien	serían	seriam

Present Subjunctive: am, is, are	sois	sia	sigui	sea	seja
	sois	sia	siguis	seas	sejas
	soit	sia	sigui	sea	seja
	soyons	siamo	siguem	seamos	sejamos
	soyez	siate	sigueu	seáis	sejais
	soient	siano	siguin	sean	sejam

Imperfect Subjunctive: was, were	fusse	fossi	fos	fuera	fosse
(rare in French speech)	fusses	fossi	fossis	fueras	fosses
(alternative Spanish below)	fût	fosse	fos	fuera	fosse
	fussions	fossimo	fóssim	fuéramos	fôssemos
	fussiez	foste	fóssiu	fuerais	fôsseis
	fussent	fossero	fossin	fueran	fossem

Affirmative Imperative: be
Singular Familiar	sois	sii	sigues	sé	sê
Singular Formal	soyez	sia	sigui	sea	seja
Let's...	soyons	siamo	siguem	seamos	sejamos
Plural familiar you	soyez	siate	sigueu	sed	sede
Plural formal you	soyez	siano	siguin	sean	sejam

Negative Imperative: don't be
Singular familiar you	ne sois pas	non essere	no siguis	no seas	não sejas
Singular formal you	ne soyez pas	non sia	no sigui	no sea	não seja
Let's not...	ne soyons pas	non siamo	no siguem	no seamos	não sejamos
Plural Familiar	ne soyez pas	non siate	no sigueu	no seáis	não sejais
Plural Formal	ne soyez pas	non siano	no siguin	no sean	não sejam

Gerund: being Present Participle: being	en étant étant	essendo essente	sent	siendo	sendo
Past Participle: been	été	stato	estat / sigut	sido	sido

Auxiliary verb in perfect tenses	avoir	essere	haver	haber	ter

The periphrastic past in Catalan is an alternative to the preterite. It is formed by using anar as an auxiliary verb followed by the infinitive.

vaig ser
vas ser
va ser
vam ser
vau ser
van ser

There is an alternative form of the imperfect subjunctive in Spanish, which is more similar to Portuguese. Simply replace -ra- with -se- for all conjugations:

fuera / fuese
fueras / fueses
fuera / fuese
fuéramos / fuésemos
fuerais / fueseis
fueran / fuesen

The future subjunctive is only used in formal or literary Spanish, but it is easy to conjugate since it is nearly identical to the imperfect subjunctive forms. The future subjunctive in Portuguese is very common and the same endings are used for the personal infinitive (see below).

Spanish	Portuguese
fuere	for
fueres	fores
fuere	for
fuéremos	formos
fuereis	fordes
fueren	forem

The personal infinitive in Portuguese uses the infinitive as the stem + the endings of the future subjunctive.

ser
seres
ser
sermos
serdes
serem

There is an alternative form of the past perfect in Portugueuse which only uses one word rather than an auxiliary verb + past participle. These conjugations are quite similar to the imperfect subjunctive conjugations using -ra- in Spanish. However, this simple form is only used in formal or literary Portuguese. (Note that the imperfect subjunctive in Spanish using -ra- can also be used in formal or literary language as an alternative to the compound past perfect.)

fora
foras
fora
fôramos
fôreis
foram