Introducing another person — Hau X da

So far you have learned to talk about yourself (Ni X naiz) and about the person you are speaking to (Zu X zara). In this lesson you add the missing piece: talking about another person, introducing them, saying who they are and what they do.

The demonstratives

In Basque there are three levels of closeness with three demonstratives. You will use them constantly to introduce someone.

Demonstrative	Distance	English
hau	near me	this
hori	near you	that
hura	far from both	that (over there)

And their plurals:

Plural	English
hauek	these
horiek	those
haiek	those (over there)

Introducing someone with “Hau … da”

The basic formula is:

Hau + name/relationship + da.

Sentence	English
Hau Maialen da.	This is Maialen.
Hau nire laguna da.	This is my friend.
Hau nire bizilaguna da.	This is my neighbour.
Hauek nire lankideak dira.	These are my workmates.

Note: for a single person you use da, and for several dira. It is the same conjugation of izan that you already know, in the third person.

Hura and bera

Once you have introduced someone, or when you talk about a person who is not present, you use hura (standard form) or bera (everyday form, much more frequent).

Sentence	English
Bera Maialen da.	She is Maialen.
Bera nire bizilaguna da.	He/she is my neighbour.
Bera medikua da.	He/she is a doctor.

In Basque there is no gender distinction in pronouns: bera works for both “he” and “she”. The context or the name makes it clear.

Putting it all together

Look at this typical introduction, common in class or when meeting new neighbours for the first time:

— Kaixo, hau Maite da. Bera Bilbokoa da, baina orain hemen bizi da. Bera kazetaria da.

— Pozten naiz zu ezagutzeaz, Maite!

— Baita ni ere!

Negation: this is NOT…

Just as you already know with izan, the negation comes before the verb:

• Hau ez da Egoitz. — This is not Egoitz.
• Bera ez da mediku, irakaslea da. — He/she is not a doctor, he/she is a teacher.

Tip: to avoid getting confused with the order, remember that in the negation ez always goes right before the conjugated verb: ez da, ez naiz, ez gara.