Daily actions and the habitual aspect

To say what you do every day, Basque uses the habitual aspect: you take the verb (the participle) and add -tzen or -ten, then you combine it with the auxiliary verb izan (naiz, zara, da…) or ukan (dut, duzu, du…).

The rule

Verb ending	Habitual suffix	Example
consonant or -tu / -du	-tzen	esnatu → esnatzen
-n	-ten	jan → jaten; egin → egiten
-i (irregular)	-tzen or -ten	etorri → etortzen; ikusi → ikusten

The verb jan (to eat) does not become janten but jaten — the final “n” disappears. The same happens with edan → edaten, egon → egoten.

Everyday verbs

NOR (auxiliary izan: naiz, zara, da…)

These go with izan because they are intransitive — the subject undergoes the action without an object:

Partizipioa	Habitual aspect	Meaning
esnatu	esnatzen naiz	I wake up
jaiki	jaikitzen naiz	I get up
altxatu	altxatzen naiz	I get up (variant of jaiki)
dutxatu	dutxatzen naiz	I have a shower
jantzi	janzten naiz	I get dressed
joan	joaten naiz	I go
etorri	etortzen naiz	I come
oheratu	oheratzen naiz	I go to bed
lokartu	lokartzen naiz	I fall asleep

NOR-NORK (auxiliary ukan: dut, duzu, du…)

These go with ukan because they have a subject and an object:

Partizipioa	Habitual aspect	Meaning
gosaldu	gosaltzen dut	I have breakfast
bazkaldu	bazkaltzen dut	I have lunch
afaldu	afaltzen dut	I have dinner
jan	jaten dut	I eat
edan	edaten dut	I drink
lan egin	lan egiten dut	I work
lo egin	lo egiten dut	I sleep
ikusi	ikusten dut	I see
irakurri	irakurtzen dut	I read
erosi	erosten dut	I buy

Why do some take NAIZ and others DUT? This is the key distinction in Basque. Esnatzen naiz (I wake up) is something that happens to me: there is no object. Jaten dut (I eat) has an object: ogia jaten dut (I eat bread). This is covered in depth in the next unit — for now, memorise the verb + auxiliary pairs.

Frequency markers

Basque	English
egunero	every day / each day
beti	always
askotan	often
batzuetan	sometimes
normalean	normally
gehienetan	most of the time
gutxitan	rarely
inoiz ez	never
astero	every week
hilero	every month

Linked examples

Egunero zazpietan esnatzen naiz eta dutxatzen naiz. — Every day I wake up at seven and have a shower.

Goizean kafea hartzen dut. — In the morning I have coffee.

Askotan lagunekin afaltzen dut. — I often have dinner with friends.

Batzuetan lo-kuluxka egiten dut bazkalostean. — Sometimes I take a nap after lunch.

Note: bazkalostean = “after lunch” (literally: “after the meal”). The Basque language has compact words for everyday concepts like that short nap — lo-kuluxka is exactly that.