Russian has no verb ‘to be’ in the present tense

The copula verb ‘быть’ (‘to be’) in Russian is only used in the past (‘был’) or future (‘буду’) tenses, while, in the present tense (‘есть’), it is omitted. You cannot say: "Он есть студент." (“He is a student.”); the correct way is: "Он студент." (“He [is] a student.”).

However, in the Old Russian language, this form did exist. The verb ‘быти’ (‘to be’) was used in the present tense: "Есмь, еси, есть, есмы, есте, суть." (“I am, you are, he/she/it is, we are, you are, they are.”).

However, it gradually disappeared from colloquial speech, because the meaning of a sentence was clear even without this verb form.