✣ Word Garden

Proto-Indo-European · 7 September 2026

A word a day week

*h₁es-

approximately ‘es’ · reconstructed root

  • to be

A very old way to be: is, est, estí, and ásti preserve a striking family resemblance across several branches.

Then → now

The family reunion

*h₁es- → Proto-Germanic *isti → Old English is → English is; *h₁es- → Latin est; *h₁es- → Ancient Greek estí; *h₁es- → Sanskrit ásti
Selected routes, not an exhaustive family tree. Intermediate forms are simplified for a readable first look.
  • GermanicEnglish isthird-person singular of be
  • ItalicLatin estis
  • GreekAncient Greek estíis
  • Indo-AryanSanskrit ástiis

Tiny sentence

*h₁éḱwos h₁ésti.

horse.NOM be.PRS.3SG

“The horse is there.”

A minimal teaching reconstruction. English needs an added ‘there’ to make the bare existential reading sound natural.

Receipts

Sources and cautions

Suppletive verbs such as ‘be’ collect forms from several roots. This page follows only the *h₁es- portion of that larger story.