LingoflyH h — hatxe
«hatxe» is a consonant of the Basque script. Silent in most dialects; in the northeast of the Basque Country, the French side, it is breathed as an English h. For example, in the word “hiri” — you (close friend). The Basque alphabet has 27 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. The norm requires writing it every time: hiri ("city") is spelled with h though almost everyone says "iri". Dropping the h is a spelling mistake, not a dialect.
In short
| Character | H h |
| Name | hatxe |
| Sound | silent (but always written) |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 8th of 32: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are g and i, appears in 553 words of this site.
How it sounds
Silent in most dialects; in the northeast of the Basque Country, the French side, it is breathed as an English h
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- hiriyou (close friend)
The character in the “two main traps” group
h is silent almost everywhere but the norm requires writing it, and j sounds different in every corner of the Basque Country.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «hatxe» it is “silent (but always written)”, as in the word “hiri”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 27 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Basque character h read?
Silent (but always written). It is a consonant of the Basque script. Silent in most dialects; in the northeast of the Basque Country, the French side, it is breathed as an English h. For example, in the word “hiri” — you (close friend).
What is the letter h called?
Hatxe is what this character is called when the alphabet is recited aloud.