Verbal Particles
A small set of modal particles, including al, ote and omen only occur immediately preceding finite forms (i.e. in front of a synthetic finite form or the synthetic part of an auxiliary verb).
| Particle | Function | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| al | yes/no questions | Etorriko al da? 'Will he come?' |
| ote | tentative questions, 'I wonder...' | Etorriko ote da? 'I wonder if he will come.' |
| omen | hearsay | Etorriko omen da. 'I have heard/They say that he will come.' |
The only exception is that ote and omen are sometimes used in isolation where the ellipsis of a verb is understood. E.g. Egia ote? 'I wonder if it's true' is easily recognised by speakers to be an ellipsis of Egia ote da? Or if someone says Badator 'She's coming.' and someone else responds Omen! 'Supposedly!', this is as much as to say that the first utterance should incorporate omen, i.e. Ba omen dator 'Supposedly she is coming.'
Another set of preverbal particles consists of the affirmative particle ba- (by modern convention joined to a following finite verb form) and the negator ez. These are compatible with the modal particles, which they precede (e.g. ba omen dator in the preceding paragraph; ez al dakizu? 'don't you know?', etc.); apart from this, they too immediately precede the finite verb form.
| Particle | Function | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| ba | affirmative emphasis | Badator. 'He is coming.' |
| ez | negation | Ez da etorriko. 'He won't come.' |
Read more about this topic: Basque Verbs
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