Nolakoa da? Adjectives with izan

When you want to describe what a person or a thing is like in a stable way (physically, in general), in Basque we use the question Nolakoa da? (“what is it like?”) and answer with the verb izan + an adjective with the -a ending.

The question

Basque	English
Nolakoa zara?	What are you like? (to “you”)
Nolakoa da?	What is he/she like? (to “he/she”)
Nolakoak dira?	What are they like? (to “they”)

Nolakoa = what … like? (in the sense of quality). Don’t confuse it with nola (“how” in a state: nola dago? = how is he/she?). You’ll see the difference with egon in lesson 4.

The structure: subject + adjective + izan

The pattern is very regular. The adjective always takes the article -a:

• Ni altua naiz. — I am tall.
• Zu txikia zara. — You are small.
• Hura polita da. — He/she is good-looking.
• Gu gazteak gara. — We are young. (plural: -ak)
• Haiek lodiak dira. — They are fat.

Basque has no grammatical gender. Altua works the same for a man or a woman.

Basic adjectives of general appearance

Basque	English	Opposite
altua	tall	baxua (short)
handia	big	txikia (small)
lodia	fat	argala (thin)
gaztea	young	zaharra / heldua (older)
polita	pretty, good-looking	itsusia (ugly)
ederra	beautiful	—
dotorea	elegant	—

Examples in use

• Nire ama altua eta argala da. — My mother is tall and thin.
• Mikelen anaia gaztea da, baina ni heldua naiz. — Mikel’s brother is young, but I am older.
• Etxe hau handia da; nire etxea txikia da. — This house is big; my house is small.

Negation and intensity

• Ni ez naiz altua. — I am not tall.
• Hura oso polita da. — He/she is very good-looking. (oso = very)
• Ez naiz oso lodia. — I am not very fat.

To soften, use oso (very) or nahiko (quite): nahiko altua naiz (“I am quite tall”). To negate, you put ez before the verb, as you already saw with izan.