Être
/ɛtʁ/noun
A French verb meaning “to be,” also used as a noun for being or existence.
Did you know?Être descends from multiple Latin forms of “to be,” including esse and stare, whose fusion helped create French’s famously irregular verb.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*h₁es-
“to be, exist”
Ancient Greek
Greek
εἰμί (eimí)
“I am”
Classical Latin
Latin
esse
“to be, exist”
Vulgar Latin
Latin
essere / essere
“to be; a reshaped form influenced by related verb forms”
Old French
Old French
estre
“to be; also being or existence”
Modern French
French
être
“to be; being or existence”