# 9. To Be or Not To Be - Egon and the NON(Inessive) Case

## Egon (To Be)

*   Southern Basque (like Spanish) has two different verbs that can be translated as "to be"; Izan and Egon.
*   Izan, discussed earlier, is used for facts or qualities that are fairly permanent, fixed attributes of something.
*   For example:
    
    *   Mutila naiz. I am a boy.
    *   Hura handia da. He is big.
    *   Ni Italiarra naiz. I am Italian.
    
    
    
*   Egon is used to express temporary states or locations. For example:
    
    *   Mutila zikina dago. The boy is dirty.
    *   Mikel Donostian dago. Mikel is in San Sebastian.
    *   Euskal herrian dago. He/She is in Basque country.
    *   Etxean nago. I am at home.
    
    
    
*   Northern Basque (in France) does not have this distinction, so "to be" is translated as izan in almost all contexts.
*   In Northern Basque, egon is used to mean "to stay" instead of "to be", so
*   "Euskal herrian dago" would mean "I am staying in Basque Country" not "I am in Basque Country".
*   Note that both Egon and Izan are also used to describe feelings. Nekatuta nago. I am tired.(Emotions will be covered later in this course).
*   When using Egon (or Izan in Northern Basque) to show that a subject is in or at a location you need to use the Inessive case, which answers the question NON - where.

## Inessive(NON) Case

*   The inessive NON case is only used with inanimate objects and is used to show the subject is in, on or upon something/someplace.
*   In this lesson you will be introduced to the single definite form of the NON - Inessive
*   The NON - Inessive case is used to show that the subject(s) is in/on/upon the ojbect(s).
*   Single definite
    
    *   Ending: -(E)AN
    *   Examples: etxeAN (in a house) haranEAN (in a valley)
    
    
    
*   When adding suffixes, A+E = E, A+A=A, others are added, like exEEtan.
*   Egon can also be used to mean "There is" or "There are" (Hontza da/dago There is an owl), but normally to emphasis the existence of something, the affirmative particle "ba-" is used with the conjugated verbs and placed before the subject. - Badago hontza.
*   Note that the ba- particle is not used with negative sentences.
    
    *   Txoria dago zuhaitzean. The bird is in the tree.
    *   Badago txori bat zuhaitzean. There is a bird in the tree.
    *   Ez dago txori zuhaitzean. There is not a bird in the tree.
    
    
    

### Vocabulary Egon 1

*   Ni nago: I am
*   Zu zaude: You are
*   Hura dago: He/she/it is
*   Gu gaude: We are
*   Zuek zaudete: You (plural) are
*   Haiek daude: They are
*   zuhaitz: tree
*   non: where
*   kanpo: outside
*   barruan: inside

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