Transitive verbs in the recent past (jan dut, ikusi dut)

Transitive verbs are those that take an object: someone eats something, sees something, reads something. In Basque, these verbs use the auxiliary ukan (dut, duzu, du…). In the recent past, the formula is:

partizipioa + dut/duzu/du/dugu/duzue/dute

Basic transitive verbs

Partizipioa	I (have…)	English
jan	jan dut	I have eaten
edan	edan dut	I have drunk
ikusi	ikusi dut	I have seen
irakurri	irakurri dut	I have read
entzun	entzun dut	I have listened
erosi	erosi dut	I have bought
egin	egin dut	I have done / made
hartu	hartu dut	I have taken
ekarri	ekarri dut	I have brought
eraman	eraman dut	I have taken (away)
ikasi	ikasi dut	I have learned / studied
eskatu	eskatu dut	I have asked for / ordered
ordaindu	ordaindu dut	I have paid
idatzi	idatzi dut	I have written
prestatu	prestatu dut	I have prepared
garbitu	garbitu dut	I have cleaned
gosaldu	gosaldu dut	I have had breakfast
bazkaldu	bazkaldu dut	I have had lunch
afaldu	afaldu dut	I have had dinner
lan egin	lan egin dut	I have worked

Full conjugation with one verb

Let’s take ikusi (to see) as an example:

Pronoun + subject	Form	English
Nik	ikusi dut	I have seen
Zuk	ikusi duzu	You have seen
Hark	ikusi du	He/She has seen
Guk	ikusi dugu	We have seen
Zuek	ikusi duzue	You (all) have seen
Haiek	ikusi dute	They have seen

The subject of transitive verbs takes the NORK case marker (-k): nik, zuk, hark, guk, zuek, haiek. You will see it frequently, especially when the subject is a name: Mikelek (Mikel has…), Maialenek (Maialen has…). If this is confusing, at A1 level you can omit the pronoun and just use the verb: the context is enough.

Typical sentences

• Gaur goizean egunkaria irakurri dut. — This morning I have read the newspaper.
• Bazkaltzeko arraina jan dut. — For lunch I have had fish.
• Lagunekin kafea hartu dut. — I have had coffee with friends.
• Mikelek ardoa erosi du. — Mikel has bought wine.
• Guk pelikula bat ikusi dugu. — We have seen a movie.
• Haiek euskara ikasi dute gaur. — They have studied Basque today.

Negation

To say “I haven’t done X”, ez goes before the auxiliary:

Ez dut bazkaldu. — I haven’t eaten.

Ez du egunkaria irakurri. — He/She hasn’t read the newspaper.

Ez dugu ardorik edan. — We haven’t drunk any wine. (Notice ardorik: in negative sentences, the object often takes the partitive -rik.)

Mini-dialogue

— Zer afaldu duzu gaur, Maialen?

— Entsalada eta arraina jan dut, eta postrerako jogurta hartu dut. Eta zuk?

— Nik tortilla egin dut, baina ez dut postrerik jan.

Visual summary: if the action has an explicit or implicit object (eating something, seeing something, doing something), the auxiliary is dut (and its forms). Memorize these verb-auxiliary pairs and the rest will follow.