Basque to Nepali: keep an adjective attached to the noun it describes
A big house does not necessarily have big windows
Etxe handiko leihoak identifies windows in or from a big house in Laka’s Basque grammar. Handi describes the house inside the modifying phrase, not necessarily the windows themselves. A Nepali translation should preserve that scope: the source does not establish that the windows are large merely because the phrase contains an adjective meaning big.
Basque adjectives normally follow the noun they describe in Laka’s account. The location-related -ko phrase then modifies another noun. This allows a description of the house to sit inside the description of the windows. Translating the words in their source sequence without recovering that internal grouping can attach the quality to the wrong object.
Nepali can place the descriptive adjective before its noun
The textbook Introduction to the Nepali Language illustrates ठूलो घर, ṭhūlo ghar, for a big house. Its adjective precedes the house noun, unlike the ordinary Basque noun-adjective order. The translator must therefore preserve the descriptive relationship while changing its arrangement, rather than preserve sequence at the expense of meaning.
For the Basque window phrase, first recognize the house as big and the windows as belonging to the relevant location. A Nepali description that instead presents big windows in an unspecified house changes the identifying information. The distinction can matter in a property description, where a large building and large windows are separate features.
Nor does the source description say that every window in the house has been replaced, opened or measured. It identifies windows through their relationship to the house. Adding an action because the target phrase needs restructuring would turn a nominal description into a claim about work that may never have occurred.
Describing a noun and making a descriptive assertion are different structures
The Nepali textbook contrasts यो किताब राम्रो छ with यो राम्रो किताब हो: the book is good versus this is a good book. The adjective participates in different sentence structures. These are documented Nepali examples, not translations of the Basque window phrase. They demonstrate why a translator must distinguish a modifier inside a noun phrase from a predicate describing its subject.
If a Basque inventory merely labels windows from a big house, the target should not inadvertently assert that the windows are good, large or otherwise evaluated. If a full Basque sentence does make a quality assertion, the target needs to express that assertion rather than leave only an identifying noun phrase. The difference is structural as well as lexical.
For Basque into Nepali, establish the head noun and the noun described by each adjective before moving the words. Then decide whether the source offers an identifying phrase or a full descriptive statement. This preserves a large house without enlarging its windows and keeps a description of an object separate from a new assertion about that object.
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