ẹre1 [ɛ̀ɽé] cop.
a variant of the focalizing copula ọre, which serves to link the focalized item with the rest of the sentence:
aga ẹre ọ tota yi. “It is a chair that he sat on”
, as opposed to
ọ tota ye aga ― “He sat on a chair”
― in which no item is focalized.
khin1 [xĩ́] cop.
1. to be:
Ọvbokhan rẹn i khin. “His wife I am: I am his wife.”
2. to become; used with time words to mean “till”:
ọ khin akhuẹ ― “It becomes tomorrow; till tomorrow.”
Ọ khin evbaghazẹkpẹe ― “It becomes after some time: till later.”
nọ [nɔ̃́] cop.
to be; a form of the copula which does not take a complement.
Ọse mwẹn nọ ― “My friend it is”: “He is my friend”
.
Rẹn nọ ― “Him it is”: “It is him.”
(also cf. khin.)
ọre1 [ɔ̀rè] cop.
1. serves as the link between a focalized element in a sentence and the rest of the sentence:
owa ọre ọ na vbaa re ― “Home it was that he met him: it was at home that he met him.”
;
2. serves as a link between clauses or sentences in a narrative discourse:
Iran ghi sẹ evba, ọre iran na tuẹ ọre; ọre iran na tota ― “When they got there, they greeted him, they then sat down . . . ”
(variant form is ẹre).
re5 [ɽè] cop.
to be:
Ọkpa re okpia nọkẹre re okhuo ― “One is male while the other is female.”