# Basque: prest, libre



## entangledbank

Why do these two words take no inflection in predicative use? _Mahaia libre dago_, _afaria prest dago_, where I would expect _*librea, *presta_. Are they regarded as adverbs? Surely borrowings from Spanish could easily take endings? What about _berde_? And are they used as adjectives attributively, e.g. _mahai libre bat_?


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## J.F. de TROYES

My knowledge in Euskara is hardly basic, but as I have some appetite for linguistics, I was interested in your unanswered question and I wished to look for some data on the point. There are some cases where adjectives don't take a determiner even though they refer to a definite noun : enumeration of adjectives, left out auxiliaries, phrases with a general meaning . Some adjectives have a different meaning if  they are determined or undetermined as _bizi da_ (he is alive)  / _bizi*a* da _(he is lively).  But your examples don't seem to belong to those cases.

Looking for some examples in on-line dictionaries, I have come across some  surprising ones as well :  _Zoroniez, komun*ak* libr*o *zeuden _( Fortunately the toilets were free ) ; _une honetan ez da libr*e* _( He is not free at the moment ) , but _idazlan*ak* gai  libro*a da *_( The subject of the essay is free) ; _hegazkin*a* bi hilabete barru *prest* izango da _( The plane will be ready in two months) ; _bizi*a *kari*o* da Parisen _( The living is expensive in Paris ) , but _holako bizi*a *kario*a *_da (Such a living is expensive) . Is it due to the fact that these adjectives are loan words from Spanish or French and to regional variants ? Maybe. I've also read the following translations in the same dictionary : The sky is blue => zeru*a *urdin(*a*) or zeru*a *urdin dago. The defined form could mean the sky is naturally blue and the undefined it is blue right now , the same difference expressed in Spanish by the auxiliaries_ ser_ and _esta_r. I am just hypothesizing !

Hope a native clears up the question.


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## Ballenero

Mahai = table
Mahai*a* = the table
That "a" is the article "the".

Libre = unoccupied
Librea = the unoccupied

You wouldn't say, 
The table is the unoccupied.
Mahaia librea dago.

You would say,
The table is unoccupied.
Mahaia libre dago.


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## entangledbank

But that doesn't explain why it only applies to these Spanish words. Native Basque adjectives take the article in predicative position:

Mahaia handia da.


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## Ballenero

In all languages there are irregular things.

(except Esperanto)


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