The “to be “verbs are verbs that show state of being, (i.e.  Am, are, and is). The infinitive of the “to be” verb in Pashto is اوسېدل Osedal. In Pashto, all of the “ to be” verbs in present tense do not share a common stem,  for example  ده  da  (she is) and یم  yam (I am) does not have any letters in common. The “to be” verbs in Pashto have gender and has to agree with the subject of the sentence.                                                                      

In Pashto, the subject or the doer of the action is embedded in the verb. The ending of a verb shows who the subject is, there for we don’t need to use the subject. A subject in the sentence can be used to emphasize. For instance if we want to say “I am good” we simply put the “to be” verb یم  yam with the adjective: ښه یم.  Kha yam. But if we want to emphasize on the subject we can put the word زه  za (I), زه ښه یم  za Kha yam.  The verbs in Pashto always come at the end of the sentence.

Even though the verbs in Pashto have gender and need to agree with the subject of the sentence but as you see in the following verbs in present tense, most of the “to be” verbs can be used for both genders without  undergoing any changes. The only “to be” verbs that have different forms for masculine and feminine in present tense is the third person singular that are highlighted here (he/she/it ),the rest of the “to be” verbs are the same for both genders.

Transliteration                   Pashto                  meaning

Yam                                       یم                      (I) am

Yay                                         یې                     (you singular) are

Yaast                                     یاست                  (you plural) are

Yu                                           یو                     (we) are

Dae                                        دی                     (He/it) is

Da                                           ده                      (she/it) is

Dee                                        دي                      (they) are