1ST LESSON: EUSKALDUNA NAIZ

NOR ZARA? ZER ZARA?
(Who are you? What are you?)

1. "IZAN" ADITZA ("to be"; "etre"; "ser")

This basic synthetic verb is also one of the most common auxiliary verbs in basque.

INDICATIVE

Person          Pronoun 	Present 		Past

1	         Ni      	Naiz    		Nintzen
2 (Informal)     Hi      	Haiz    		Hintzen
2 (Normal)       Zu     	Zara    		Zinen
3                Hura    	Da      		Zen
1 Plural         Gu      	Gara    		Ginen
2 Plural         Zuek    	Zarete			Zineten
3 Plural         Haiek   	Dira    		Ziren

2. NOR-ZER KASUA (nominative case)

In basque, nominal expressions (nouns, noun + adjective, nominalized verbs...) take different functions depending on their suffix. Examples with "neska" (girl) and "mutil" (boy):

neska, mutila (subject intransitive)
neskak, mutilak (subject intr. plural)
neskak, mutilak (subject transitive sing.)
neskek, mutilek (subject transitive plural)
neskari, mutilari (dative: "to" the girl, "to" the boy)
neskaren, mutilaren (genitive: "girl's", "boy's")
etc.

Today, we will just see the first case, the nominative, NOR-ZER.

It can take three main forms:

indefinite : - (neska, mutil) [no suffix added]
singular : - a (neska, mutila)
plural : -ak (neskak, mutilak)

(Note: a+a=a; a+ak=ak)

The indefinite form is used, generally speaking, with quantifiers; with demonstrative adjectives; in questions; in pronouns; in proper nouns...

(Zein mutil? Hainbat mutil; mutil asko; mutil hori; bost mutil...)

Sufixes go at the end of the nominal syntagm:

gizon-a (noun);
gizon handi-a (noun+adjective);
gizon handi ederr-a (noun+adjective+adjective)
gizon handi hori (noun+adjective+demonstrative)

Examples:

Euskalduna naiz baina kanpoan bizi naiz.
Nire arreba neska ederra da.
Bere ahizpa ezkondu da.
Gure aita langilea da.
Berdeak dira Euskal Herriko mendiak.
Ilunak dira Nafarroako basoak.
Haur ilemotz hori nire semea da.
Gizon-emakume handiak gara Bizkaikoak.
Hi ez haiz sukaldean egon.
Zenbait emakume etorri dira etxera.
Gu Mirenen adiskideak gara.

3- EXERCISES (present tense):

Nire osaba........... etorri dira etxera.
Zu egongelan egon ............ goizean.
Guraso............... ez dira etxean.
Zenbait guraso.............. haserre dira.
Pozik ............ gazteak.
Zuek, zaharrak, ez ................. lodiak.
Hi ume horren aita .................?
Nor.............. bainugelan?
Logelan egon..............ume bihurri hoiek?
Ederra da nire amonaren egongela..............
Osaba eta izeba.............. Ameriketan bizi dira.
Zuen irakasle.................. bizkaitarra da.
Eguzki...............sortaldetik irtetzen da.
Euskara eta gaztelania gure hizkuntzak..............
Sagardotegi...............asko zabaldu dira Donostian.
Aitona...............itsasoan ibili da urte asko.

4- VOCABULARY

Adiskide: friend.
Ahizpa: a girl's sister
Aita: father
Aitona: grandfather
Alaba: daughter
Amerik(etan): in the Americas
Amona(ren): grandmother('s)
Arreba: a boy's sister
Asko: many
Baina: but (conj.)
Bainugela(n): (In) the bathroom
Baso: forest.
Berde: green
Bihurri: mischievous
Bizi (+ izan): to live
Bizkai(ko): (of/from)
Bizkaia: Biscay
Bizkaitar: someone from Biscay
Bost: five
Donostia: San Sebastian (capital of Gipuzkoa)
Eder: beautiful
Egon: to be (stay)
Egongela: living room
Eguzki: sun
Emakume: woman
Etorri: to come
Etxe: home.
Euskal Herri(ko): (of/from) Euskal Herria
Euskalduna: basque person
Euskara: basque language
Ezkondu: to marry
Gazte: young
Gaztelania: spanish (castillian) language
Gizon: man
Goiz(ean): (in) the morning
Guraso: parents.
Gure: our
Hainbat: many
Handi: big
Haserre: angry.
Hau/Hori/Hura: This/That/That (further) [demonstratives]
Hauek/Hoiek/Haiek: These/Those/Those (further)
Haur: kid
Hegoalde: South
Hizkuntza: language
Ibili: to walk, to go to wander, to travel, to move
Ilemotz: somebody having a short hair
Ilun: dark
Iparralde: North
Irakasle: teacher
Irte(tzen): to leave, to show up (progressive aspect)
Itsaso: sea
Izeba: aunt
Kanpoan: abroad
Langile: worker; industrious.
Lodi: obese
Logela(n): (In) the bedroom
Mendi: mountain
Miren: person name, Mary.
Nafarroa: Navarre
Neska: girl (mutila: boy)
Nire: my (zure: your; gure: our; bere: his-her; etc.)
Nor: Who
Osaba: uncle
Pozik: happy
Sagardotegi: a place to drink or make cider
Sartalde: West
Seme: son
Sortalde(tik): (from) the east
Sukalde: kitchen
Ume horren aita: That child's father
Ume: child
Urte: year
Zabaldu: to open
Zahar: old
Zein: Which
Zer: What
Zenbait: some
Zuen: your (plural)

Note: This is a first attempt of a basque course. We will continue it depending on the results and our possibilities. Exercises will be corrected in the next lesson. You may ask questions on the newsgroup, but we can't garantee any answer. Maybe others can also help you. If you have any suggestions, please write us to We are not linguists, please be kind with our ignorance.

Thanks,

Maria S. Santisteban

User Contributed Notes /Basque/Euskara/lesson.1.html	add a note
Total number of notes for this page: 5 Currently viewing page 1 of 1 page of notes
sydell731 at aol dot com 04-Feb-2008 14:33 #6900 Thank you for the lovely page . I would be very interested in the following: 1) A list of food words and other market terms. 2) The sound of people talking Euskara. 3) Why is mutila " a boy " and not " the boy." Thank you for any information you can offer on this requests. Sincerely, Bernard G
x at x dot x 03-Jan-2007 15:42 #4315 Hola Fabiana: En España se utiliza mucho el método de aprendizaje autodidáctico "Bakarka". Estoy estudiando Euskera por mi cuenta en Holanda, y el libro está bien claro. Ahora, no sé si se puede encontrar en la Argentina, o bien si lo podrías pedir por correo. Si estás limitada al internet, esta pagina podría servirte también: http://servicios.elcorreodigital.com/euskera/ !Éxitos! Alexandra
fazurmendi at hotmail dot com 09-Nov-2006 21:00 #3954 great! I am from Argentina and It´s been hard to find a page like this to learn euskera. I want very much to learn it, and I could not find a teacher in my town. I teach English, so I know about teaching methods.I could tell you that this present lesson was very clear for me. I am trying to learn by my own but some other pages from Spain are very difficult to understand. I think that is easier to learn this beautiful language from english because spanish forms are difficult and complicated as well as their methodological approach, too much attacheed to form. let´s pay attention to that later on.Take into consideraion giving examples not everybody knows what a transitive or not transitive verb is. congratulations! Fabiana Azurmendi
blas at buber dot net 09-Nov-2006 16:28 #3952 The Morris Student dictionary is excellent. They have an online edition at http:// www1.euskadi.net/morris/ but you can also buy a print copy, though it may be hard to find outside of Euskal Herria.
lpbaez at gmail dot com 08-Nov-2006 17:02 #3944 Kaixo I need a good euskera dictionary :S because im going to Bilbao and i want to know a little bit more about this language...please!! Thanks!! Patricia
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Last updated: Sat, 10 May 2008 - 15:52:31

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