Intransitive verbs in the recent past (joan naiz, etorri naiz)

Intransitive verbs are those that don’t take an object: you don’t wake something up or go something — you simply wake up, go, come. In Basque, these verbs use the auxiliary izan (naiz, zara, da…). In the recent past, the formula is:

partizipioa + naiz/zara/da/gara/zarete/dira

The key distinction: NOR vs NOR-NORK

This is the fundamental rule of Basque and the main difficulty of this unit:

Type	Takes an object	Auxiliary	Example
Intransitive (NOR)	NO	izan (naiz/zara/da…)	joan naiz (I have gone)
Transitive (NOR-NORK)	YES	ukan (dut/duzu/du…)	jan dut (I have eaten something)

Practical tip: if you can ask “what?” after the verb (what have I eaten? what have I seen?), it’s transitive and takes dut. If you can’t (“what have I gone?” doesn’t work), it’s intransitive and takes naiz.

Basic intransitive verbs

Participle	I (have…)	English
joan	joan naiz	I have gone
etorri	etorri naiz	I have come
ibili	ibili naiz	I have walked / I have been around
sartu	sartu naiz	I have entered
atera	atera naiz	I have left / gone out
igo	igo naiz	I have gone up
jaitsi	jaitsi naiz	I have gone down
itzuli	itzuli naiz	I have returned
bueltatu	bueltatu naiz	I have returned (variant)
iritsi	iritsi naiz	I have arrived
esnatu	esnatu naiz	I have woken up
jaiki	jaiki naiz	I have gotten up
altxatu	altxatu naiz	I have gotten up
dutxatu	dutxatu naiz	I have showered
jantzi	jantzi naiz	I have gotten dressed
oheratu	oheratu naiz	I have gone to bed
lokartu	lokartu naiz	I have fallen asleep
erori	erori naiz	I have fallen
eseri	eseri naiz	I have sat down
gaixotu	gaixotu naiz	I have gotten sick
egon	egon naiz	I have been

Full conjugation

With joan (to go):

Pronoun	Form	English
Ni	joan naiz	I have gone
Zu	joan zara	You have gone
Hura	joan da	He/She has gone
Gu	joan gara	We have gone
Zuek	joan zarete	You (pl.) have gone
Haiek	joan dira	They have gone

The pronouns here are without -k (they go with NOR, not NORK): ni, not nik; Maialen, not Maialenek. In this pattern, proper nouns are used as they are: Egoitz etorri da (Egoitz has come), Maialen joan da (Maialen has gone).

Side-by-side comparison

Intransitive (NAIZ)	Transitive (DUT)
joan naiz (I have gone)	eraman dut (I have carried/taken)
etorri naiz (I have come)	ekarri dut (I have brought)
esnatu naiz (I have woken up)	esnatu dut umea (I have woken up the child)
jaiki naiz (I have gotten up)	jaso dut (I have picked up)

Some verbs can be intransitive or transitive depending on the context: esnatzen naiz = I wake up; umea esnatu dut = I have woken up the child. At A1 level, focus on the most common pairs.

Typical sentences

• Goizeko zazpietan esnatu naiz. — I woke up at seven in the morning.
• Lanera autobusez joan naiz. — I went to work by bus.
• Etxera oinez etorri naiz. — I came home on foot.
• Egoitz berandu jaiki da gaur. — Egoitz got up late today.
• Gu zinera joan gara. — We have gone to the cinema.
• Haiek tabernan egon dira. — They have been at the bar.

Negation

Ez naiz lanera joan. — I haven’t gone to work.

Ez da etorri. — He/She hasn’t come.

Ez gara goiz esnatu. — We haven’t woken up early.

Mini-dialogue

— Gaur zer egin duzu?

— Goizean kiroldegira joan naiz, gero etxera etorri naiz eta lasai-lasai bazkaldu dut. Arratsaldean lagun batekin egon naiz.

Notice how the auxiliary changes between verbs: joan naiz (intransitive) vs bazkaldu dut (transitive). It’s the constant choreography of Basque.

To make it stick: memorize “joan naiz, etorri naiz, esnatu naiz, jaiki naiz, dutxatu naiz, oheratu naiz” as a block. This is the NAIZ squad. The others (jan, edan, ikusi, hartu, egin, erosi…) almost all fall into the DUT team.