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.
Verb stems One of the remarkable characteristics of the Basque verb is the fact that only a very few verbs can be conjugated synthetically (i.e. have morphological finite forms); the rest only have non-finite forms, which can enter into a wide variety of compound tense structures (consisting of a non-finite verb form combined with a finite auxiliary) and are conjugated in this way (periphrastically). For example, 'I come' is nator (a synthetic finite form), but 'I arrive' is (a periphrastic form, literally 'arriving I-am').
Synthetically conjugated verbs like 'come' can also be conjugated periphrastically (). In some such cases the synthetic/periphrastic contrast is semantic (e.g. and 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 'come' has the basic stem -tor- from which are derived both the participle (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 formsFiniteNon-finiteMeaningBasic stem (root)Present stemNon-present stemParticipleVerbal nounShort stem -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 formsParticipleVerbal nounShort stemMeaning 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 stemsParticipleVerbal nounShort stemMeaningLexical 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'
Defective or anomalous verb stems
Izan ('be') The verb 'to be', the most common verb in the language, is irregular and shows some stem allomorphy in its finite forms. Its participle is izan.
Egon Another verb, , is used in western dialects (and in writing) as a second verb 'to be' in a way similar to estar in Spanish.
Izan ('have') The verb 'to have', also extremely common, also shows irregularities in its finite conjugation. In western and central dialects and in standard Basque, izan is used as its participle, i.e. the same participle as for 'to be'; the two meanings are disambiguated by the context. Given that Basque verbs are conventionally cited in their participle form, this presents a problem for metalinguistic terminology, because the verb izan is ambiguous.
Ukan/*Edun Eastern dialects avoid this ambiguity by using ukan as the participle of 'to have', reserving izan for 'to be', and some grammarians employ izan and ukan in this way for convenience, but this could create confusion since most Basque speakers do not actually employ ukan (or even know it as a metalinguistic term). Other grammarians refer to 'to have' as *edun, which is a hypothetical, unattested form derived from the finite stem -du-; again, the problem is that *edun does not exist in real Basque usage.
To avoid such problems, this article simply refers to "the verb 'to be'" and "the verb 'to have'".
*Edin, *Ezan The two standard aorist auxiliaries (see below) lack any non-finite forms, and so also have no obvious citation forms. As with *edun, some grammars construct hypothetical participles based on the finite stems, referring to *edin (the intransitive aorist auxiliary) and *ezan (the transitive aorist auxiliary).
Eduki There is another verb which also means 'have', at least in western dialects, namely . As a lexical verb (rather than an auxiliary), many speakers and writers frequently use this verb. (This is somewhat reminiscent of, though not entirely parallel to, the Spanish distribution of haber and tener.)
Esan The verb esan ('to say') possesses finite forms which have a different stem, -io- (e.g. diot 'I say'). Some grammarians treat these as different defective verbs, while others consider them a single word with stem allomorphy.
Synthetic conjugation
Tense structure and stem forms
Synthetic (single-word) conjugation involves the following finite "tenses":
+ The simple "tenses"(Non-potential)PotentialImperative Present Present Present potential Imperative Past Past Past potential Hypothetic Hypothetic Hypothetic potential
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-, and 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, 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-enbil-en 'I went about', h-enbil-en 'you went about'; 'he would use it' but '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"izan 'to be'ibili 'to go about' Non-potential Potential Imperative Non-potential Potential Imperative Present da 'is' daiteke 'may be' biz (archaic) 'let (it) be!' dabil 'goes about' dabilke 'may go about' bebil 'let (it) go about!' Past zen 'was' zatekeen 'would have been' zebilen 'went about' zebilkeen 'would have gone about' Hypothetic ba-litz 'if X were' litzateke 'would be' ba-lebil 'if X went about' lebilke 'would go about'
Primary person indices
All conjugating verb stems (unless defective) can take the following set of person-indexing prefixes: n- (first-person singular), h- (second-person singular informal), g- (first-person plural), z- (second-person singular formal and second-person plural). With intransitive verbs, these prefixes index the subject; with transitives, they index the direct object. For convenience, we shall refer to this as the set of 'primary person indices'.
+ First- and second-person primary indices Person Pronoun Prefix 1 singular ni n- 2 singular informal hi h- 1 plural gu g- 2 singular polite/plural zu/zuek z-
The following table shows some examples of how these prefixes combine with verb stems to produce a wide range of finite verb forms.