Numbers and counting in Basque
57 words Basque words on the topic “numbers and counting”: bat — one, bi — two, hiru — three, lau — four.
57 words on the topic
- batoneGoes AFTER the noun: kafe bat — one coffee. The same word also means 'a certain': egun bat — one day, once
- bitwoAfter a number the article disappears from the noun: bi kafe — two coffees
- hiruthreeThe opening h is silent: 'EER-oo'. Writing it without the h is a spelling mistake — a Batua rule
- laufourLau izkinak — four corners. The country's four quarters are counted on this word too
- bostfiveEnds in a consonant: 'bost'. Friday is ostirala — you won't hear the numeral inside it
- seisixSixteen is hamasei, literally 'ten-six': the tens come first
- zazpisevenBoth s-sounds here are the hard kind — closer to 'SAS-pi': that letter z at work. Seven is Basque's symbolic number: seven provinces
- zortzieightEighteen is hemezortzi — 'ten-and-eight', the same fusion
- bederatzinineNineteen is hemeretzi: again 'ten-nine'
- hamartenAll tens are counted from hamar: hirurogei — sixty, literally 'three twenties'. Basque counts by twenties, the way French does
- hamaikaelevenA fusion of 'ten-one': hama-bat → hamaika. Every number from 11 to 19 is built the same way
- hamabitwelve'Ten-two'. You won't mix it up with hamabost next door: the first half is audible
- hamahiruthirteen'Ten-three'. The stress holds it together: ha-ma-HI-ru
- hamalaufourteen'Ten-four': the lau inside is visible at once
- hamabostfifteen'Ten-five': the final bost lands dull, '-ost'
- hamaseisixteen'Ten-six'. Don't let hamasei and sei blur in fast speech — the first half is what tells them apart
- hamazazpiseventeen'Ten-seven': zazpi with its hard s in the middle of the word
- hemezortzieighteen'Ten-and-eight', with -me- in the middle: the only bump in the whole row
- hemeretzinineteen'Ten-nine'. With this number, the teenage years are over
- hogeitwentyThe start of a base-twenty system: thirty is hogeita hamar, literally 'twenty and ten'. Basque counts by twenties, the way French does
- hogeita hamarthirtyLiterally 'twenty-and-ten': past twenty, tens are counted from the nearest twenty
- berrogeifortyLiterally 'second twenty': ber- from bigarren, 'second'. The twenties are counted by order
- berrogeita hamarfifty'Second twenty and ten'. The same logic as thirty
- hirurogeisixtyLiterally 'third twenty': hiru — three. Sixty here is 'three twenties'
- hirurogeita hamarseventy'Third twenty and ten'. The longest everyday numeral
- laurogeieighty'Fourth twenty': lau — four. Four twenties make eighty, exactly as in French
- laurogeita hamarninety'Fourth twenty and ten'. After this come the hundreds, and life gets simpler
- ehunhundredOne syllable. Two hundred is berrehun — 'second hundred': hundreds are counted by order too
- milathousandUnchanging: mila euro, bi mila euro. Milaka is the collective 'thousands', as in 'thousands of people'
- milioi batmillionTakes bat — 'one': Basque counting wants 'one million', not a bare million. On the news: milioi erdi — half a million
- zerozeroA voiced z of its own — unlike the hard z. Zero gradutan — at zero degrees
- lehenfirstThe same word as 'earlier, before': lehenengo is the full form. Lehen solairua — the first floor
- bigarrensecondFrom bi — 'two'. Bigarren eskua — second-hand: a phrase straight from the classifieds
- hirugarrenthirdFrom hiru — 'three'. Hirugarren adina — 'the third age': a gentle way to say 'the elderly'
- azkenlastAzken autobusa — the last bus; better not miss it. The same word means 'utmost'
- zenbat?how muchA question word from the basics: Zenbat balio du? — how much is it? Here it stands alone, without the price verb
- bikote bata coupleFrom bi — 'two'. Both 'a pair of socks' and a couple of people: bikote gazte bat — a young couple
- ale batitemThe counting unit for fruit and objects: bost ale — five items. A native word, not the Spanish one
- ehunekoapercentLiterally 'of the hundred': ehun + -eko. Hamar ehuneko — ten percent
- bakoitzaeachAlways with the article, always singular: egun bakoitzean — every day, literally 'in each day'
- biehuntwo hundred'Two-hundred' fused: bi + ehun squeezed into one word. After a number the article drops: biehun euro — two hundred euros, not euroak
- hirurehunthree hundredHiru inserts the linker -re-: hiru + re + ehun. The linker keeps two vowels from colliding — Basque is fond of it
- laurehunfour hundredLau + ehun, no linker: lau already ends in a vowel, yet the pair sounds fine. A relative: laugarren — 'fourth' (next lesson of this unit)
- bostehunfive hundredBost + ehun, straight on. Compare bostetan — 'at five o'clock' (the Egunero unit): the number root is the same
- seiehunsix hundredSei + ehun. Don't confuse it with seigarren — 'sixth': that one takes the linker -garren, the hundred stands bare
- zazpiehunseven hundredZazpi + ehun. Every hundred after the first is built identically — learn the root, assemble the hundred
- zortziehuneight hundredZortzi + ehun. The z here is hard, as in zazpi: zor-tzi-E-hun
- bederatziehunnine hundredBederatzi + ehun. The longest of the hundreds — five syllables — but it assembles by the same ruler
- laugarrenfourthLau + -garren: the ordinal is the numeral with a tail. Laugarren solairuan — on the fourth floor
- bosgarrenfifthBost loses its -t: bosgarren, not bostgarren. A sound-tightening, the same way bostehun tightened its hundred
- seigarrensixthSei + garren, no surprises. Seigarren mailan — in the sixth grade
- zazpigarrenseventhZazpi + garren. The Basque week is seven days, and the seventh, igandea, is the day off
- zortzigarreneighthZortzi + garren. Zortzigarren orrian — on the eighth page: a page is orrialdea
- bederatzigarrenninthBederatzi + garren. The lift doesn't always reach it — the ninth floor is sometimes walked
- hamargarrententhHamar + garren. Tenth here is anniversary counting: the tenth time, the tenth year
- ehungarrenhundredthEhun + garren: the hundredth comes after ninety-nine. Customer number one hundred gets a gift
- zenbakianumberThe same word as 'digit' — context splits them: number here is the quantity, not the sign. From zenbat — 'how much'
How it sounds in a sentence
A word list is a blank. Conversation is made of sentences, and these are the ones the words fit into most often.
- Bat bakarrik gelditzen daOnly one is left
- Bi gara, mahai al dago?There are two of us, is there a table?
- Autobusa hiru minuturo pasatzen daThe bus runs every three minutes
- Laugarren etxean bizi garaWe live in the fourth house
- Bostetan ikusiko gara plazanSee you at five on the square
- Seietan jaikitzen naiz astegunetanOn weekdays I get up at six
What is worth knowing about these words
bat — one. Goes AFTER the noun: kafe bat — one coffee. The same word also means 'a certain': egun bat — one day, once
bi — two. After a number the article disappears from the noun: bi kafe — two coffees
hiru — three. The opening h is silent: 'EER-oo'. Writing it without the h is a spelling mistake — a Batua rule
lau — four. Lau izkinak — four corners. The country's four quarters are counted on this word too
Test yourself
Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than recognizing a familiar word — and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “one” in Basque?
Goes AFTER the noun: kafe bat — one coffee. The same word also means 'a certain': egun bat — one day, once
- How do you say “eight” in Basque?
Eighteen is hemezortzi — 'ten-and-eight', the same fusion
- How do you say “fifteen” in Basque?
'Ten-five': the final bost lands dull, '-ost'
- How do you say “forty” in Basque?
Literally 'second twenty': ber- from bigarren, 'second'. The twenties are counted by order
- How do you say “thousand” in Basque?
Unchanging: mila euro, bi mila euro. Milaka is the collective 'thousands', as in 'thousands of people'
How to learn the set instead of just reading it
A price, the change, a house number, the time you agreed on, the floor. Numbers are the first thing you have to catch by ear — and the first thing people say fast.
A list is read in a minute and forgotten in a day. What works: hide the translation, try to recall, get it wrong — and come back to the same words tomorrow.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- This holds not only in experiments but in ordinary classrooms, with real students.checked many timesMawson & Kang, 2025, Behavioral Sciences 15(6):771 · 22 studies, d = 0.54 (confidence interval 0.31–0.77). The authors warn that individual studies disagree widely.
Frequently asked
How do you say “one” in Basque?
«bat». Goes AFTER the noun: kafe bat — one coffee. The same word also means 'a certain': egun bat — one day, once. It is one of 57 words in the set “numbers and counting” — the rest are in the table above.
How many numbers do you need to start?
A dozen is enough. The set of 57 words on this page covers nearly every everyday case on the topic — but it is best taken a few at a time, not all at once.