ête

• étr

From Old French estre, from Early Medieval Latin essere, from Latin esse.

ête

1. to be

   Je sons eürous de vous vair Dame !

   We are happy to see you Mister !

• être (Jersey)

From Old French estre, from Early Medieval Latin essere, from Latin esse.

ête (France)

1. to be

   Falleit qu’i feusse tréjouos le prémyî.

   He always had to be the first.

• It is common to drop the first letter in the indicative imperfect, replacing it with a sign. Thus you may find ’teis instead of éteis, ’teit instead of éteit, ’tioums instead of étioums etc. In these cases, the pronouns i/il, o/ol and no/no-z- are used as if the vowel hadn’t been dropped, for example : il ‘teit, ol ‘teit, no-z-‘teit instead of the regular forms used before consonants i, o and no.
• Unlike what happens most of the time in oral French, the subjunctive past tense is used in Norman when the verb comes after one at the conditional tense or the past. Thus, where oral French tends to say : Il fallait qu’il soit le premier in the present subjunctive, Norman people would rather say in the past : Falleit qu’i feusse le prémyî.