Personal pronouns

In standard Basque (euskara batua) there are seven personal pronouns:

Pronoun	Who	Verb “izan” (NOR)
ni	I	naiz
hi	you (informal/close)	haiz
zu	you (standard)	zara
hura / bera	he, she	da
gu	we	gara
zuek	you (plural)	zarete
haiek	they	dira

There is no gender distinction: hura works for he and she; haiek for they. Bera is a very common variant of hura in everyday speech.

Hi vs zu (important)

In Basque, there are two forms of “you”:

• zu → standard you. It’s what you use in class, with strangers, with coworkers, with everyone in any neutral context. In A1, always use zu.
• hi → intimate you (hitano). Only used between close friends, family, or in some towns as the usual form. It has its own conjugation (haiz, duk/dun with a marker for the listener’s gender). We don’t cover it in A1.

If in doubt, use zu — it always works.

Negation

To negate, you place ez before the verb:

• Ni ez naiz Egoitz. — I am not Egoitz.
• Hau ez da nire kalea. — This is not my street.
• Gu ez gara ikasleak. — We are not students.

Complete pattern

• Ni ikaslea naiz. — I am a student.
• Zu irakaslea zara. — You are a teacher.
• Hura medikua da. — He/she is a doctor.
• Gu lagunak gara. — We are friends.
• Zuek anaiak zarete. — You (plural) are brothers.
• Haiek umeak dira. — They are children.