ninteke / nezake

This is the "could" of imagined situations. It stands next to Can: The Potential Forms the way Would: nintzateke, nuke stands next to the plain present.

Verbs with nor (edin): ninteke, zintezke, liteke, gintezke, zintezkete, litezke.

Verbs with nork (ezan), one thing as object: nezake, zenezake, lezake, genezake, zenezakete, lezakete. Several things: nitzake, zenitzake, litzake.

The main verb is the radical, as with every potential form: etor, eros, gerta. See The Verb Radical.

Where you use it.

• A possibility you are only imagining: Bihar etor ninteke (I could come tomorrow).
• After an unreal "if" clause: Diru gehiago banu, etxe bat eros nezake (If I had more money, I could buy a house). See If I Were, If I Had.
• Something that might happen: Gerta liteke (It could happen).

baliteke. Built from liteke, baliteke means "it may be" or "maybe". It takes a clause with -tzea: Baliteke euria egitea (It may rain). Standing alone, Baliteke! means "Maybe!". The phrase litekeena da means "it is likely". The Academy prefers these for "it may be" over a plain "can" form: say baliteke euria egitea, not euria egin dezake.

Not for polite requests. Do not use these forms to make a request softer. The Academy treats Egin zeniezadake mesede bat? as a copy of Spanish; ask with the conditional instead: Mesede bat egingo zenidake? (Would you do me a favour?). See Would Give, Would Tell.

North and South. In the Southern Basque Country, nezake means "I could". In Northern Basque it is closer to "I would", unless ahal or ezin comes with it.