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Egon2 1

18. Egon2 (Past)and the NON(Inessive) Case

Egon (To Be, past)

  • As discussed in Lesson 9, southern Basque (like Spanish) has two different verbs that can be translated as "to be"; Izan and Egon.

  • Egon is used to express temporary states or locations. For example:

    • Mutila zikina zegoen. The boy was dirty.
    • Mikel Donostian zegoen. Mikel was in San Sebastian.
    • Euskal herrian zegoen. He/She was in Basque country.
    • Etxean nengoen. I was at home.
  • Northern Basque (in France) does not have this distinction, so "to be" is translated as izan in almost all contexts.

  • In Northern Basque, egon is used to mean "to stay" instead of "to be", so

  • "Euskal herrian dago" would mean "I am staying in Basque Country" not "I am in Basque Country".

  • Note that both Egon and Izan are also used to describe feelings. Nekatuta nago. I am tired.(Emotions will be covered later in this course).

  • When using Egon (or Izan in Northern Basque) to show that a subject is in or at a location you need to use the Inessive case, which answers the question NON - where.

Inessive(NON) Case

  • The inessive NON case is only used with inanimate objects and is used to show the subject is in, on or upon something/someplace.

  • In this lesson you will be introduced to the single definite form of the NON - Inessive

  • The NON - Inessive case is used to show that the subject(s) is in/on/upon the ojbect(s).

  • Single definite

    • Ending: -(E)AN
    • Examples: etxeAN (in a house) haranEAN (in a valley)
  • When adding suffixes, A+E = E, A+A=A, others are added, like exEEtan.

  • Egon can also be used to mean "There was" or "There were" (Hontza zegoen. There was an owl), but normally to emphasis the existence of something, the affirmative particle "ba-" is used with the conjugated verbs and placed before the subject. - Baegoen hontza.

  • Note that the ba- particle is not used with negative sentences.

    • Txoria zegoen zuhaitzean. The bird was in the tree.
    • Bazegoen txori bat zuhaitzean. There was a bird in the tree.
    • Ez zegoen txori zuhaitzean. There is not a bird in the tree.

Vocabulary Egon2 1

  • Ni nengoen: I was
  • Zu zeunden: You were
  • Hura zegoen: He/she/it was
  • Gu geunden: We were
  • Zuek zeundeten: You plural were: Haiek zeuden: They were
  • Atzo: yesterday

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