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Basque Center
BASQUE STUDIES
Tutorial Ph D
Minor
Online
Course Syllabi
Language
Lesson
1
Lesson
2
Lesson
3
Lesson 4
Verbs
Negatives
English
Ergative
Answers
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Lesson lau · laugarren
ikasgaia
Command forms in Basque can be very simple and
extraordinarily useful. The verb forms listed here are also
past participles! Used in this form, with no auxiliary verb,
however, they are commands.
Eseri! · sit down!
Jaiki! · stand up! Get up!
Etorri! · come!
Joan! · go!
Jan! · eat!
Edan! · drink!
Hitz egin! · speak!
Ireki atea! · open the door!
Itxi leihoa! · close the window!
Piztu argia! · turn on the light!
Itzali telebista! · turn off the t.v.!
Atera liburuak! · take out your books!
Hartu klariona! · take the chalk!
Sartu liburuak motxilan! · Put the books in the
backpack!
Isildu! · shut up!
Esnatu! · wake up!
Idatzi gutuna! · write a letter!
Irakurri egunkaria! · read the
newspaper!
Negative commands
In order to make the commands negative, use EZ +
command form:
Ez eseri! · Don’t sit down!
Ez joan! · Don’t go!
Ez ireki atea! · Don’t open the door!
Ez piztu argia! · Don’t turn on the
light!
Auxiliary Verb UKAN
The forms of UKAN are vital to your ability to speak Basque.
Learn them thoroughly, and review them often. UKAN means
“to have”.
nik dut · I have (it)
zuk duzu · you have (it)
guk dugu · we have (it)
zuek duzue · you (all) have (it)
berak du · he/she has (it)
haiek dute · they have (it)
Notice that the English translation includes a
parenthetical “it”. This pronoun may be expressed
in the sentence and it may not, but it is always there, even
when it is “invisible”. Thus, in Basque you can
say:
Nik liburua dut. · I have the book.
and
Nik dut. · I have it.
Nik ez dut liburua. · I don’t have
the book.
and
Nik ez dut. · I don’t have
it.
We can think of the du part of the auxiliary
as containing the meaning “it”. The rest of the
verb form can be called the “ending”. The
“nik” ending is “-t”, the
“zuk” ending is “-zu”, and so on.
Notice that the “berak” form (he/she/it)
has no ending!
But often you have more than one thing. What happens
then? Well, in English, not much. But in Basque, you have to
express the plurality of your object within the
auxiliary verb. So instead of “du” use
“ditu” to express a plural object. The forms of
the auxiliary verb now become:
nik ditut · I have (them)
zuk dituzu · you have (them)
guk ditugu · we have (them)
zuek dituzue · you (all) have (them)
berak ditu · he/she/it has (them)
haiek dituzte · they have
(them)
Recent Past
Every language has its own way of expressing the
speaker’s relationship to time. In Basque, the past is
viewed as recent and distant. The recent past is generally
considered to be from the time you woke up this morning to
the present moment. The distant past is reserved for events
that transpired before you woke up this morning,
such as yesterday, last week, last year, or a hundred years
ago.
The recent past is the first form we will learn. It
consists of a past participle and the present tense
of the verb UKAN, the auxiliary verb. The past participle in
Basque just happens to be the same form as the simple
command form.
The auxiliary verb UKAN means “to have”.
Some speakers use it to express simple possession (as in
“I have a book”) but many others use it primarily
as an auxiliary verb. We will also use it as an auxiliary
verb. Soon we will learn a different verb to express simple
possession, but for now, you may use UKAN for that purpose
as well.
Practice your verb
forms!
Review previous lessons:
Lesson One
Lesson Two
Lesson Three
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