Present of èsser

Level 1

Èsser means to be and has six irregular forms.

How It Works

Person	Form	Example
ieu	soi	Soi de Tolosa.
tu	ès	Ès content.
el, ela	es	Maria es aicí.
nosautres	sèm	Sèm a l'escòla.
vosautres, vos	sètz	Sètz contents.
eles, elas	son	Los libres son aquí.

Use èsser to say who or what someone is, where they are, how they feel and where they are from. The verb changes for the person, not for gender: el es and ela es are the same. A word after the verb does agree: Soi content (a man) and Soi contenta (a woman).

Mind the accent. Ès (you) has a grave accent, and es (he, she) has none. To make a sentence negative, put pas after the verb: Soi pas content.

Examples (4)

Soi contenta uèi.
I am happy today.
Soi is the I form; contenta describes a woman.
Ès de Tolosa?
Are you from Toulouse?
Ès goes with tu, even without the pronoun.
Sèm a l'escòla.
We are at school.
Sèm is the we form.
Los libres son aquí.
The books are here.
A plural subject takes son.

Common Mistakes

Writing es without the accent for tu.
Tu es content.
Tu ès content.
With tu the verb is ès, with a grave accent. Es without one is for he and she.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Present of èsserLevel 1

Learn This First

The six forms of èsser are learned one pronoun at a time, so the subject pronouns come first.

nosautres, vosautres, eles, elasPlural Subject Pronouns
Know the subject pronouns, because the six forms of èsser are learned one pronoun at a time: ieu soi, tu ès, nosautres sèm.
Level 1

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.

And 3 more in the full list.

Words in This Pattern

èsser

Practice Present of èsser in Bubblegum

Poppy, your AI tutor, writes Occitan lessons at your level. Tap any grammar point in a lesson to see its full explanation.