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 we answer with the verb izan + an adjective with the final -a marker.

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 the sense of state: nola dago? = how is it?). 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 -a article:

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

There is no grammatical gender in Basque. Altua means “tall” regardless of the person’s gender.

Basic adjectives for general appearance

Basque	English	Opposite
altua	tall	baxua (short)
handia	big	txikia (small)
lodia	fat	argala (thin)
gaztea	young	zaharra / heldua (old / adult)
polita	pretty, handsome	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 an adult.
• 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 pretty. (oso = very)
• Ez naiz oso lodia. — I am not very fat.

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