Plural of copula; linking verbs that connect a subject to a subject complement (like 'is,' 'seems,' or 'became').
From Latin 'copula' meaning bond or link, derived from 'co-' (together) and 'apere' (to fasten). The term grammatically refers to verbs that link subjects to their descriptions.
English has relatively few copulas compared to other languages, and 'to be' is wildly irregular—it's the most common verb in English yet completely defies the normal patterns of how verbs conjugate.
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