Introducing someone else — Hau X da

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

Demonstratives

In Basque, there are three levels of proximity with three demonstratives. You’ll use them constantly to introduce someone.

Demonstrative	Distance	English
hau	close to me	this
hori	close to you	that
hura	far from both of us	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 neighbor.
Hauek nire lankideak dira.	These are my coworkers.

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

Hura and bera

When you have already introduced someone, or when you’re talking about a person who isn’t present, you use hura (standard form) or bera (colloquial form, much more frequent).

Sentence	English
Bera Maialen da.	She is Maialen.
Bera nire bizilaguna da.	He/she is my neighbor.
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 first meeting new neighbors:

— 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 word order, remember that in a negation, ez always goes right before the conjugated verb: ez da, ez naiz, ez gara.