43. Verbal Nouns 3

Verbal nouns past

• When discussing the past, a distinction needs to be made in the auxilary verb used for the sentences.
• While both “Niri ez zait abestea gustatu.” and “Niri ez zitzaidan abestea gustatzen.” can be translated as
• “I did not like to sing.” or “Singing was not pleasing to me.” there is a difference between the two.
• “Niri ez zait abestea gustatu" means that you sang once and that you didn't like that activity, it doesn't mean you dislike singing.
• You can like singing but you didn't at that certain moment.
• The second sentence "Niri ez zitzaidan abestea gustatzen" means that before, during a long period of time, you didn't like to sing.
• For example when you where young you didn't like singing, but now, maybe, you do like it.
• The past of Izan, with a third person object are niri zitzaidan, zuri zitzaizun, hari zitzaion, guri zitzaigun, zuei zitzaizuen, haiei zitzaien.

Verbal Nouns 3

• niri zitzaidan: I was (izan)
• zuri zitzaizun: you were (izan)
• hari zitzaion: he/she/it was (izan)
• guri zitzaigun: we were (izan)
• zuei zitzaizuen: you (plural) were (izan)
• haiei zitzaien: they were (izan)

Go Back to Home Page!