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The copula in Terbian is shown by a defective irregular verb, whose base stem is just n-. This stem can be declined for tense, aspect and mood, though only in the non-perfect forms. The Irrealis forms are suppletive (with stem īd-).
| Tense/Aspect/Mood | Abbrev | Lexical | Meaning |
| Present/Habitual/Realis | PRS | nu | ‘is’ |
| Present/Prospective/Realis | PRO | noro | ‘will be, may be’ |
| Past/Narrative/Realis | NAR | nan | ‘was’ |
| Present/Imperfect/Irrealis | PRS.IRR | īdz | ‘may be, could be, should be’ |
| Past/Narrative/Irrealis | NAR.IRR | īdiy | ‘might be, could be’ |
The copula agrees with its subject in number and mood. The subject agreement mark appears after the stem.
| Realis | Irrealis | |
| Singular | -0 | -a |
| Plural | -s | -u |
Examples:
Zalkwamsūt noro lan skībardr.
Zalkwamsūt will be your husband.
Agyamazu nans hwēradu.
The monks were hungry.
Han gatr īdza babin.
That noise could be a mouse.