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The verb is one of the most complex parts of Basque grammar. It is sometimes represented as a difficult challenge for learners of the language, and many Basque grammars devote most of their pages to lists or tables of verb paradigms. This article does not give a full list of verb forms; its purpose is to explain the nature and structure of the system.
Synthetically conjugated verbs like 'come' can also be conjugated periphrastically (etortzen naiz). In some such cases the synthetic/periphrastic contrast is semantic (e.g. nator and etortzen naiz are not generally interchangeable); in others the contrast is more a matter of style or register, or else of diachrony (some synthetic forms of conjugation are archaic or obsolete). A few synthetic forms occurring in twentieth-century Basque literature are even a posteriori extrapolations or back-formations of historically unattested forms, created for stylistic, poetic or puristic purposes.
Traditionally Basque verbs are cited using a non-finite form conventionally referred to as the participle (although not all its uses are really participial). Other non-finite forms can be derived from the participle, as will be seen in a later section. When the verb possesses synthetic finite forms, these are based on an ultimate stem (called the "basic stem" here) which is normally also present in the participle. For example, the verb etorri 'come' has the basic stem -tor- from which are derived both the participle etorri (with the non-finite prefix e- and the participle suffix -i) and the finite present stem -ator- and non-present stem -etor-.
The participle is generally obtained from the basic stem by prefixing e- or i- (there is no rule; if the stem begins with a vowel, j- is prefixed instead), and suffixing -i (to stems ending in a consonant) or -n (to stems ending in a vowel). Occasionally there is no suffix. The verbal noun stem, another non-finite form, is obtained by replacing the suffixes -i and -n (and also -tu or -du, see below) of the participle by either -tze or -te. A third non-finite form which we shall call the "short stem" is obtained from the participle by omitting any of these suffixes except -n, which is retained in the short stem in those verbs whose participle has it.
| + Some primary verb stems having finite forms ! colspan=3 align="center" | Finite ! colspan=3 align="center" | Non-finite ! rowspan=2 align="center" | Meaning | |||
| -tor- | -ator- | -etor- | e -torr-i | e -tor-tze | e-tor | 'come' |
| -bil- | -abil- | -ebil- | i -bil-i | i -bil-tze | i-bil | 'go about' |
| -kar- | -akar- | -ekar- | e -karr-i | e -kar-tze | e-kar | 'bring' |
| -uka- (< -duka-) | -auka- | -euka- | e-duki | e -duki-tze | e-duki | 'hold, have' |
| (irregular: see below) | i -za-n | i -za-te | i -za-n | 'be', auxiliary | ||
| -go- | -ago- | -ego- | e -go-n | e -go-te | e -go-n | 'stay, be' |
| -oa- | -oa- | -i(h)oa- | j -oa-n | j -oa-te | j -oa-n | 'go' |
| -rama- | -arama- | -erama- | e -rama-n | e -rama-te | e -rama-n | 'take' |
| -(a)ki- | -aki- | -eki- (dial. -aki-) | j -aki-n | j -aki-te | j -aki-n | 'know' |
A larger number of Basque verbs have no finite forms, but their non-finite forms follow the same pattern described above (they show an e-/i-/j- prefix, and the participle ends in -i, -n or occasionally zero.
| + Some primary verb stems without finite forms ! align="center" | Participle ! align="center" | Verbal noun ! align="center" | Short stem ! align="center" | Meaning |
| e-baki | e -baki-tze | e-baki | 'cut' | |
| e -da-n | e -da-te | e -da-n | 'drink' | |
| e -gos-i | e -gos-te | e-gos | 'boil' | |
| e-ho | e -ho-tze | e-ho | 'grind' | |
| e -ror-i | e -ror-tze | e-ror | 'fall' | |
| e -ros-i | e -ros-te | e-ros | 'buy' | |
| e -uts-i | e -us-te | e-uts | 'take hold (of)' | |
| e -zarr-i | e -zar-tze | e-zar | 'put, place' | |
| i -go-(n) | i -go-te/tze | i -go-(n) | 'go up, rise' | |
| i -kas-i | i -kas-te | i-kas | 'learn' | |
| i -pin-i | i -pin-tze | i-pin | 'put' | |
| i-reki | i -reki-tze | i-reki | 'open' | |
| i -tzal-i | i -tzal-tze | i-tzal | 'go/put out (light, fire)' | |
| i -tzul-i | i -tzul-tze | i-tzul | 'return' | |
| j -aits-i | j -ais-te | j-aits | 'go down' | |
| j -a-n | j -a-te | j -a-n | 'eat' | |
| j -antz-i | j -anz-te | j-antz | 'dress' | |
| j -arr-i | j -ar-tze | j-ar | 'put' | |
| j -i-n | j -i-te | j -i-n | 'come' | |
| j-o | j -o-tze | j-o | 'strike' |
There is also another large group of verbs which again have only non-finite forms, in which the non-finite stem is unanalysable (as a verb, at least), thus there is no e-/i-/j- prefix. In most cases the participle of such verbs has the suffix -tu ( -du if the stem ends in n or l). Occasionally we find zero or -i instead. This is replaced by -tze or -te in the verbal noun, and by nothing in the short stem. The stems of these secondary verbs may be (1) a nominal or other non-verbal stem (e.g. poz-tu, garbi-tu...), (2) a phrase (e.g. ohera-tu), (3) a Latin or Romance verbal stem (e.g. barka-tu, kanta-tu...) or (4) an unanalysable (primary) verb stem (e.g. har-tu).
| + Some secondary verb stems ! align="center" | Participle ! align="center" | Verbal noun ! align="center" | Short stem ! align="center" | Meaning ! align="center" | Lexical source |
| afal- du | afal- tze | afal | 'eat supper' | afari 'supper' | |
| alda- tu | alda- tze | alda | 'change' | alde 'difference' | |
| garbi- tu | garbi- tze | garbi | 'clean' | garbi 'clean (adj.)' | |
| ohera- tu | ohera- tze | ohera | 'go/put to bed' | ohe-ra 'to bed' | |
| poz- tu | poz- te | poz | 'be/become happy' | poz 'happiness, joy' | |
| baina- tu | baina- tze | baina | 'bathe' | Spanish baña- 'bathe' | |
| barka- tu | barka- tze | barka | 'forgive' | Latin parc- 'spare' | |
| begira- tu | begira- tze | begira | 'look after, look at, observe' | begira 'looking', from begi 'eye' | |
| kanta- tu | kanta- tze | kanta | 'sing' | Spanish canta- 'sing' | |
| gal- du | gal- tze | gal | 'lose' | ||
| har- tu | har- tze | har | 'take' | ||
| ken- du | ken- tze | ken | 'take away, remove' | ||
| sal- du | sal- tze | sal | 'sell' | ||
| sar- tu | sar- tze | sar | 'enter' | ||
| atera | atera- tze | atera | 'take out, go out' | ate-ra 'to (the) door' | |
| bota | bota- tze | bota | 'throw' | Spanish bota- 'throw' | |
| hil | hil- tze | hil | 'die, kill' | ||
| has- i | has- te | has | 'begin' |
To avoid such problems, this article simply refers to "the verb 'to be'" and "the verb 'to have'".
| + The simple "tenses" ! align="center" | ! align="center"(Non-potential) ! align="center" | Potential ! align="center" | Imperative |
Finite verbs have a basic finite stem that is either an unanalysable lexical root (e.g. -bil- 'go about, move (intr.)') or such a root preceded by the causative/intensive prefix -ra- (e.g. -rabil- 'cause to move, use'). From regular basic stems two tense stems are derived as follows: the present stem with prefix -a- and the non-present stem with prefix -e-, e.g. -abil- and -ebil- are the regular present and non-present stems of -bil-, -arabil- and -erabil- are the corresponding tense stems of -rabil-, and so on. The present stem is used in the present tense, the present potential tense and the non-third-person Imperative mood, e.g. present d-abil 'he/she/it goes about', present potential d-abil-ke 'he/she/it may go about', second-person imperative h-abil! 'go about!'. The non-present stem is used in the past and hypothetic tenses (non-potential and potential), and in third-person imperative forms, e.g. z-ebil-en 'he/she/it went about', ba-l-ebil 'if he/she/it went about', z-ebil-ke-en 'he/she/it might or would have gone about', l-ebil-ke 'he/she/it might or would go about', b-ebil! 'let him/her/it go about!' (not in common use).
Non-present stems are further characterised by prefixes containing an n whenever the primary index (defined below) is non-third-person, e.g. z-ebil-en 'he went about' but n-e nbil-en 'I went about', h-e nbil-en 'you went about'; l-erabil-ke 'he would use it' but n- inderabil-ke 'he would use me'.
The suffix -(e)n is a marker of the past tenses, and -ke of the potential tenses (the past potential has both: -ke-en). The hypothetic non-potential tense usually occurs with the subordinator prefix ba- 'if', which will therefore be shown in examples; use of ba- is not restricted to the hypothetic, however (e.g. ba-dabil 'if he goes about', etc.). Apart from the tense markers mentioned, third-person prefixes distinguish between present, past, hypothetic and imperative tenses, as will be seen below.
Synopses of two verbs are given in the following table as illustrations. The verb 'to be' ( izan) is irregular but in extremely frequent use, because it also serves as an important auxiliary. The verb ibili 'go about, move, etc.' (root -bil-) is regularly conjugated, although not all its synthetic forms are in widespread use. This synoptic table shows third-person forms.
| + Synopsis of simple "tenses" ! rowspan=2 | ! colspan=3 izan 'to be' ! colspan=3 | ibili 'to go about' |
| + First- and second-person primary indices ! Person ! Pronoun ! Prefix |
The following table shows some examples of how these prefixes combine with verb stems to produce a wide range of finite verb forms.
| + First- and second-person primary indices (examples) ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 align="center" | ! colspan=2 align="center"Intransitive ! colspan=2 align="center" | Transitive |
| + Third-person prefixes ! align="center" | Tense ! align="center" | Affix |
Some illustrative examples follow.
| + Third-person verb forms ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 align="center" | ! colspan=2 align="center"Intransitive ! colspan=2 align="center" | Transitive |
| + Third-person imperative ! rowspan=2 align="center" | Imperative ! Singular | b-iz (archaic) (let him/her/it be) | b-ebil (rare) | b-eu (obsolete) | b-ekar (literary) |
| + Some singular and plural finite stems (present tense forms) ! colspan=3 align="center" | Intransitive ! colspan=3 align="center" | Transitive | |||
| -a-iz, -a-∅ | -a-ra (< * -a-ira), -∅-ira (verbal root change) | 'be' | -a-u, -∅-u | -a- it-u, -∅- it-u | 'have' |
| -a-go | -a-u- de (< *-a-go-te) | 'stay, be' | -a-u-ka | -a-u- z-ka | 'hold, have' |
| -a-bil | -a-bil- tza | 'go about, move' | -a-kar | -a-kar- tza | 'bring' |
| -oa | -oa- z | 'go' | -a-ra-ma / -a-r-oa (both from * -a-ra-oa, with causative infix -ra-) | -a-ra-ma- tza / -a-r-oa-z | 'take' |
| -a-tor | -a-to- z (< *-a-tor-z) | 'come' | -a-ki | -a-ki- zki | 'know' |
Primary plural marking occurs whenever the indexed argument (subject or direct object) is plural. The second-person singular polite (pronoun zu) is also treated as plural for this purpose (because originally it was a second-person plural), although syntactically and semantically singular. To index the second-person plural (pronoun zuek), in addition to the markers corresponding to zu a further ('secondary') plural marker -te is suffixed.
| + Plural marking associated with primary arguments ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 align="center" | (PRESENT) ! colspan=2 align="center" | Intransitive ! colspan=2 align="center" | Transitive |
Note: The second -z- in zaituzte is not here a plural marker, but merely an epenthesis sound inserted where the sequence tute would otherwise occur; this happens in other similar cases as well, such as dituzte for *ditute.
| + ERGATIVE SUFFIXES ! rowspan=2 align="center" | PERSON ! rowspan=2 align="center" | PRONOUN ! colspan=2 align="center" | SUFFIX |
A few sample paradigms follow.
| + Ergative suffixes (examples) ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 align="center" | ! colspan=3 align="center"'to have' ! colspan=1 align="center" | ekarri 'to bring' |
| + Ergative prefixes ! Person ! Pronoun ! Prefix |
The ergative plural suffix -te only occurs when required (a) to indicate the third person plural, or (b) to indicate the (real) second-person plural.
| + Ergative prefixes (examples) ! rowspan=2 | ! colspan=4'to have' ! colspan=1 | ekarri 'to bring' |
| + DATIVE SUFFIXES ! rowspan=2 align="center" | PERSON ! rowspan=2 align="center" | PRONOUN ! colspan=2 align="center" | SUFFIX |
Both intransitive and transitive verbs may take dative indices, and the mechanism for incorporating these is the same in either case. Dative suffixes immediately follow the verb stem, preceding other suffixes such as the ergative suffixes (thus in d-i-da-zu 'you have it to me', -da- is the dative suffix and -zu is the ergative suffix) or the potential suffix -ke (as well as the past suffix -(e)n, which is always word-final).
Only the primary plural marker, if present, and the dative-argument marker precede the dative suffix. The dative-argument marker, whose regular form is -ki-, is added to basic verb stems to indicate that these are taking a dative argument. With -ki-, the primary plural marker always takes the form of -z- immediately preceding -ki-. A few verb stems have an irregular dative-argument form.
| + Some dative-argument verb stem forms ! colspan=4 align="center" | Intransitive ! colspan=4 align="center" | Transitive | |||||
| -aiz, -a | zai- | zaizki- | 'be' | -au, -u | -i- | -izki- | 'have' |
| -ago | -agoki- | -agozki- | 'stay, be' | -akar | -akarki- | -akarzki- | 'bring' |
| -abil | -abilki- | -abilzki- | 'go about, move' | -arama | -aramaki- | -aramazki- | 'take' |
| -oa | -oaki- | -oazki- | 'go' | ||||
| -ator | -atorki- | -atozki- | 'come' |
The most commonly used dative verb forms are those of the irregular verbs 'to be' and 'to have', which are in constant use as tense auxiliaries, when these verbs have no lexical meaning of their own. This is the reason why many of the glosses given below sound odd (e.g. dit 'he has it to me'); an example of a more natural-sounding use of this form as an auxiliary would be eman dit 'he has given it to me'. Nevertheless, the following table serves to clarify the morphological structure of dative-argument verb forms.
| + Dative-argument forms (examples) ! rowspan=2 align="center" | INTRANSITIVE VERBS ! colspan=3 align="center" | 'to be' ! colspan=2 align="center" | etorri 'to come' |
| + Familiar second-person forms (examples) ! rowspan=2 | Meaning ! rowspan=2 | Polite ! colspan=2 | Familiar |
| "you are" | zara | haiz | |
| "you were" | zinen | hintzen | |
| "you come" | zatoz | hator | |
| "you have it" | duzu | dun | duk |
| "you have them" | dituzu | ditun | dituk |
| "you had it" | zenuen | huen | |
| "you know it" | dakizu | dakin | dakik |
| "it is to you" | zaizu | zain | zaik |
| "(s)he has it to you" | dizu | din | dik |
| "(s)he has them to you" | dizkizu | dizkin | dizkik |
| "I have it to you" | dizut | dinat | diat |
| "(s)he had it to you" | zizun | zinan | zian |
| "I had it to you" | nizun | ninan | nian |
The allocutive suffixes are identical in form to the ergative and dative suffixes.
| + ALLOCUTIVE SUFFIXES ! rowspan=2 align="center" | PERSON ! colspan=2 align="center" | SUFFIX |
Allocutive suffixes follow the dative suffixes, the potential -ke- and ergative third-person plural -te-, and precedes other ergative suffixes (except for the synthetic forms of the verb esan with plural object). Depending on the verb in question, there may also be some other changes:
| + Familiar allocutive forms: izan (examples) ! rowspan=2 align="center" | Meaning ! rowspan=2 align="center" | Polite ! colspan=2 align="center" | Familiar ! rowspan=2 align="center" | Also means ... ! rowspan=2 align="center" | Notes |
| + Familiar allocutive forms: *edun/ukan (examples) ! rowspan=2 align="center" | Meaning ! rowspan=2 align="center" | Polite ! colspan=2 align="center" | Familiar ! rowspan=2 align="center" | Also means ... ! rowspan=2 align="center" | Notes |
| + Familiar allocutive forms (examples) ! rowspan=2 align="center" | Meaning ! rowspan=2 align="center" | Polite ! colspan=2 align="center" | Familiar ! rowspan=2 align="center" | Notes |
Eastern Basque dialects extend the allocutive system to the more polite form of address, zu (known as zuka or zutano), or the affectionate variant xu. The rules are similar.
Such dialects have three levels of address:
The use of hika forms is diminishing being perceived as more direct and close, but also rural and impolite. Even among who use them, the masculine forms are more frequently used than the feminine ones, sometimes even using masculine forms for women. An explanation is that, in the rural exodus of Basque peasants, men would end up working in a factory with people of their same town, while women became maids, shop clerks or waitresses where informal Basque would be felt improper.
| + Compound tense stems (examples) ! align="center" | Perfect stem ! align="center" | Future stem ! align="center" | Imperfect stem ! align="center" | Short stem ! align="center" | Meaning |
| har tu | har tuko | har tzen | har | 'take' | |
| garbi tu | garbi tuko | garbi tzen | garbi | 'clean' | |
| ken du | ken duko | ken tzen | ken | 'take away, remove' | |
| poz tu | poz tuko | poz ten | poz | 'be/become happy' | |
| ibil i | ibil iko | ibil tzen | ibil | 'go about' | |
| ikus i | ikus iko | ikus ten | ikus | 'see' | |
| irits i | irits iko | iris ten | irits | 'arrive' | |
| ireki | ireki ko | ireki tzen | ireki | 'open' | |
| bete | bete ko | bete tzen | bete | 'fill' | |
| jo | jo ko | jo tzen | jo | 'strike' | |
| hil | hil ko | hil tzen | hil | 'die, kill' | |
| egi n | egi ngo | egi ten | egi n | 'make, do' | |
| ema n | ema ngo | ema ten | ema n | 'give' | |
| esa n | esa ngo | esa ten | esa n | 'say' |
The choice of auxiliary depends on the "aspect" and also on whether the verb is intransitive or transitive. Except in the aorist, the auxiliary for intransitives is the verb 'to be', while that for transitives is the verb 'to have'. In the Aorist a different pair of auxiliaries is used, one for intransitives and another for transitives. Since neither of the latter is used other than as an auxiliary, and neither has a participle (or other non-finite form) to provide a convenient citation form, we shall simply refer to them as the (intransitive and transitive) aorist auxiliaries.
The auxiliaries adopt all the argument indices (for subject, direct object and/or indirect object as the case may be, as well as the allocutive where applicable) that correspond to the verb within its clause.
| + Compound tense patterns ! align="center" | "ASPECT" ! align="center" | TENSE STEM ! align="center" | INTRANSITIVE ! align="center" | TRANSITIVE |
The above diagram illustrates the patterns with auxiliaries in the present tense. However, the same auxiliaries may be used in a wide variety of tenses, not only in the present. The following two tables lay out synoptically the possible auxiliary/tense combinations for intransitive and transitive auxiliaries respectively.
| + Tenses of the intransitive auxiliaries (sample forms) ! align="center" | ! colspan=2 align="center"'Be' auxiliary ! colspan=3 align="center" | Aorist Auxiliary |
| + Tenses of the transitive auxiliaries (sample forms) ! align="center" | ! colspan=2 align="center"'Have' auxiliary ! colspan=3 align="center" | Aorist Auxiliary |
The four auxiliary verbs can be alternately analysed as irregular stem forms of the same auxiliary verb izan, as is given in Wiktionary.
| + Some simple and compound tenses ! align="center" | Tense ! align="center" | Form ! align="center" | Examples ! align="center" | Observations |
| + Some periphrastic constructions ! align="center" | Sense ! align="center" | Form ! align="center" | Examples |
| + Some non-finite forms based on the participle ! align="center" | Form ! align="center" | E.g. ! align="center" | Use ! align="center" | Examples |
| unmarked non-finite form (chain clauses, modal complement, citation form ... ) | ||||
| commonly replaces the short stem in all uses (western colloquial) | ||||
| participial predicate | ||||
| + Some non-finite forms based on the verbal noun ! align="center" | Form ! align="center" | E.g. ! align="center" | Use ! align="center" | Examples |
| complement clause | ||||
| complement clause | ||||
| adjectival | ||||
| + Some compound verbs (light verb constructions) ! align="center" | Light verb ! align="center" | Examples ! align="center" | Meaning ! align="center" | Meaning of first component |
| ari izan | 'be doing something' | |||
| uste izan | 'believe, think' | 'opinion' | ||
| nahi izan | 'want' | 'desire' | ||
| behar izan | 'need' | 'necessity' | ||
| hitz egin | 'speak' | 'word' | ||
| lo egin | 'sleep' | 'sleep (n.)' | ||
| amets egin | 'dream' | 'dream (n.)' | ||
| barre egin | 'laugh' | 'laughter' | ||
| negar egin | 'weep' | 'weeping' | ||
| dantza egin | 'dance' | 'dancing' < French danse, Spanish danza ... | ||
| kosk egin | 'bite' | (onomatopoeia) |
In synthetically conjugated light-verb constructions such as bizi naiz 'I live' or maite dut 'I love', care must be taken not to confuse the light verb (naiz, dut...) with tense auxiliaries; bizi naiz and maite dut are simple present forms, for example. The modal verbs nahi izan and behar izan are also of this kind. In the periphrastic tenses of compound verbs with izan, some contractions occur, e.g. in the future of bizi izan 'live', where we would expect bizi izango naiz for 'I will live', biziko naiz is more common, with -ko attached directly onto the lexical component bizi as if this were a verb.
Compound verbs, especially those with the light verb egin, offer an alternative way (besides direct derivation with -tu, as seen above) for incorporating new verbs into the language, either through the incorporation of onomatopoeic words (kosk 'bite', oka 'vomit', hurrup 'sip' or 'slurp', klik 'click' ... ) or of (dantza 'dance', salto 'jump' etc.) as lexical components.
| + Modal particles ! align="center" | Particle ! align="center" | Function ! align="center" | Examples |
The only exception is that ote and omen are sometimes used in isolation where the ellipsis of a verb is understood. E.g. Egia ote? 'I wonder if it's true' is easily recognised by speakers to be an ellipsis of Egia ote da? Or if someone says Badator 'She's coming.' and someone else responds Omen! 'Supposedly!', this is as much as to say that the first utterance should incorporate omen, i.e. Ba omen dator 'Supposedly she is coming.'
Another set of preverbal particles consists of the affirmative particle ba- (by modern convention joined to a following finite verb form) and the negator ez. These are compatible with the modal particles, which they precede (e.g. ba omen dator in the preceding paragraph; ez al dakizu? 'don't you know?', etc.); apart from this, they too immediately precede the finite verb form.
| + Emphasis/negation particles ! align="center" | Particle ! align="center" | Function ! align="center" | Examples |
In subordinate clauses, the finite verb takes a subordinator affix, i.e. a suffix or prefix which establishes (to some extent) the kind of subordination. Basically there are four such affixes, two suffixes and two prefixes, and one (and only one) of these is found in every subordinate form.
| + Basic subordinator morphemes ! align="center" | Subordinator ! align="center" | Form ! align="center" | Uses |
Both of the suffixes, however, may take further suffixes (mostly nominal declension suffixes) which serve to further specify the type of subordination. The following table provides a brief overview of some of the main uses and forms.
| + Subordinator affixes ! ! width=10% align="center" | Affix ! align="center" | Function ! align="center" | Examples |
| relative clause | Hor dabil en gizona nire aita da. 'The man who is walking there is my father.' (Cf. Hor dabil gizona. 'The man is walking there.') | ||
| complement or purpose clause (with subjunctive) |
| ||
| first-person optative | Edan dezagu n! 'Let us drink!' | ||
| circumstance clause | Kaletik zetorr ela hauxe kantatu zuen. 'As she came (walking) along the street, this is what she sang.' | ||
| complement clause (with subjunctive) | Hona etor dadi la esango diot. 'I will tell him to come here.' | ||
| third-person optative | Berak jan deza la! 'Let him eat it!' | ||
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