yahay / tahay / yihiin

In an ordinary affirmative descriptive statement, the adjective precedes the copula. Third-person short subjects are often omitted here; first- and second-person short subjects normally remain. Cusub stays unchanged in the first pair, while masculine qalin selects yahay and feminine mindi selects tahay.

Simple present noun predicates can omit the copula, whereas predicate-focused noun frames retain it. Affirmative subject focus uses reduced ah with a noun predicate and omits ah after an adjective.

Negative forms are irregular: ma ihi, ma tihid and third-person ma aha do not preserve the affirmative paradigm. Location commonly uses joogaa for living beings and yaallaa for situated objects. These express different kinds of being and need their own predicate frames rather than universal replacement by yahay.