omen

omen tells the listener that your information comes from someone else. It works like saying "they say", "apparently" or "I hear".

Where it goes. omen is a small particle, like I Wonder: ote and the question word al. It sits right before the verb that shows the person:

• Before the auxiliary: Ane etorri omen da. Bihar euria egingo omen du.
• Before a one-word verb: Etxean omen dago. Oso jatetxe ona omen da.
• After ez in a negative sentence: Ez omen dago etxean. Ez omen da etorri. Only these small particles can stand between ez and the verb. See Negation With ez.

These particles do not combine with each other, so you do not use omen together with ote or al.

In speech, omen and the verb are said as one unit, so omen zen sounds like omentzen.

In stories. Traditional tales use omen because the narrator heard the story: Behin batean, errege bat bizi omen zen (Once upon a time, there lived a king).

Other ways to say it. diotenez (as they say) and dirudienez (as it seems) say the same thing more fully. See Apparently, As They Say. bide marks a guess you make yourself; see Apparently: bide.

Regional forms. In Bizkaian Basque, ei is used instead: etorri ei da. In Northern Basque, omen can also come at the end of the sentence.