When? (noiz, bihar, etzi…)

To talk about plans you have to master time markers. Here you have the ones on the past-present-future axis and the most used ones for the near future.

The basic axis

Basque	English
atzo	yesterday
gaur	today
bihar	tomorrow
etzi	the day after tomorrow
etziluma / etzidamu	”two days after tomorrow” (rarely used)

Three short words (atzo, gaur, bihar) and etzi — with that you can handle almost any everyday conversation about dates.

Datorren (coming / next)

To talk about “next week”, “next month” you use datorren + noun:

Basque	English
datorren astean	next week
datorren astelehenean	next Monday
datorren hilean	next month
datorren urtean	next year

Datorren means “coming” (it is the relative form of the verb etorri, to come). The important thing is to learn it as a block.

”This” — hau / honetan

For “this week”, “this weekend”:

• aste honetan — this week
• asteburu honetan — this weekend
• hilabete honetan — this month

Other key markers

Basque	English
orain	now
gero	later, afterwards
lehen	before
gaur goizean	this morning
gaur arratsaldean	this afternoon
gaur gauean	tonight
bihar goizean	tomorrow morning

Goiza = morning (part of the day). Bihar = tomorrow (the next day). They are two different words, don’t mix them up!

Asking questions about time

• Noiz? — When?
• Noiz etorriko zara? — When will you come?
• Noiz egingo dugu afaria? — When will we have dinner?

Examples in context

• Bihar mendira joango naiz. — Tomorrow I will go to the mountains.
• Etzi euskara klasea dut. — The day after tomorrow I have a Basque class.
• Datorren astean lan asko izango dut. — Next week I will have a lot of work.
• Asteburu honetan ez dut planik. — This weekend I have no plans.

Cultural note: in Basque “morning” as a time of day is goiza and “tomorrow” as the next day is bihar. The phrase bihar goizean (“tomorrow morning”) combines the two. In the first conversations it is very common to slip up on this nuance, so it is worth fixing it from the start.