Gramática del euskera

Este artículo proporciona un bosquejo de gramática del Euskera, lengua de los Vascos, d del País vasco o Euskal_Herria, que se confina en el Golfo de Vizcaya en Europa occidental. El verbo está en un artículo diferente.

Noun phrase

The Basque noun phrase is structured in a way quite different from noun phrases in most Indo-European languages.

Articles, determiners and quantifiers

Determiners and quantifiers play a central role in Basque noun phrase structure. The key elements we call "articles" are best treated as a subset of the determiners.

Common determiners and quantifiers

Some determiners			Some quantifiers
-a, -a(r)- singular article -ak, -e- plural article -ok, -o- plural proximal article -(r)ik negative-polar article	hau, hon- 'this' hauek, haue- 'these' hori, horr- 'that' horiek, horie- 'those' hura, har- 'that (distal)' haiek, haie- 'those (distal)'	zein 'which' zer, ze 'what' beste 'other'	batzuk, batzue- 'some' zenbait 'some' asko 'many' anitz 'many' gutxi 'few' guzti 'all' zenbat 'how many' hainbeste 'so many'	bat 'one, a(n)' bi 'two' hiru 'three' lau 'four' bost 'five' etc.
The "articles" take the form of suffixes. See the following description of their uses. The forms -a, -ak, -ok correspond to the absolutive case; in other cases, -a(r)-, -e-, -o- are used, followed by a case suffix. The negative-polar article, often called the partitive suffix, does not combine with case suffixes. When glossing examples below, these elements are referred to collectively as ART.	The demonstrative stems, like the articles and unlike other nominal elements, show irregular allomorphy between singular and plural and, in the singular, between the absolutive (hau, hori, hura) and other cases (hon-, horr-, har-). The same forms function both as demonstrative determiners and demonstrative pronouns.

The articles -a, -ak, -ok, -(r)ik, demonstratives hau, hori, hura and some of the quantifiers follow the noun they determine or quantify.	etxea '(the) house' [house-ART] etxeak '(the) houses' [house-ART] etxe hau 'this house' [house this] etxe horiek 'those houses' [house those] etxe bat 'one/a house' [house one] etxe batzuk 'some houses' [house some]
Other determiners and quantifiers, including beste 'other', the interrogatives and numerals above one or two (depending on dialect) precede the noun.	zein etxe? 'which house(s)?' [which house] zenbat etxe? 'how many houses?' [how-many house] zenbait etxe 'some houses' [some house] hiru etxe 'three houses' [three house] bi etxe/etxe bi 'two houses' (dialect variants)
A normal noun phrase with a common noun as head must contain either one (and only one) determiner or one (and only one) quantifier, and not both, as in the above examples. However, the numerals may co-occur with a determiner.	hiru etxeok 'these/those (nearby) three houses' [three house-ART] hiru etxe haiek 'those (distant) three houses' [three house those] zein hiru etxe? 'which three houses?' [which three house]
The items beste 'other' and guzti 'all' do not 'fill' the determiner or quantifier position and therefore require an article, other determiner or quantifier.	beste etxea 'the other house' [other house-ART] beste etxe bat 'another ("one other") house' [other house one] etxe guztiak 'all (the) houses' [house all-ART]
The article -a, -ak acts as the default determiner, obligatory with a common noun in the absence of another determiner or quantifer (even in citation forms, in popular usage).	etxea 'house' etxeak 'houses' Nola esaten da euskaraz "house"? — "Etxea". 'How do you say "house" in Basque? — "Etxe(a)".'
The article -(r)ik, traditionally called a partitive suffix (cf. French de), replaces -a, -ak in negative-polar contexts, especially with indefinite noun phrases in negative sentences. It is never treated as grammatically plural.	etxerik 'any house(s)' Ba al daukazu etxerik? 'Have you got a house?' Hemen ez dago etxerik. 'There is no house here, There aren't any houses here.' Not: *Hemen ez daude etxerik. 'There are no houses here.'
A noun phrase with a proper noun or a pronoun as head need not and usually does not contain either a determiner or a quantifier.	Andoni 'Anthony' Tokio 'Tokyo' Wikipedia 'Wikipedia' ni 'I, me' nor? 'who?'
The absence of any determiner or quantifier from a common-noun-head noun phrase is only possible in certain specific contexts, e.g. in certain types of predicate or in some adverbial expressions.	Lehendakari izendatuko dute. 'They will appoint him (as) president.' [They will name him president.] Bilbora joan zen irakasle. 'He went to Bilbao (to work) as a teacher.' [He went to Bilbao teacher.] eskuz 'by hand' [hand (esku) + by (-z)] sutan 'on fire' [fire (su) + in (-tan)]