aipua
“aipua” — quotation in Basque. Noun, level B1. From aipatu — 'to mention, name': 'a mentioning' — another's word carried out into the open. From the same nest as aipamen — 'a mention'. In a live sentence: “Aipu bat kopiatu dut koadernoan, gero pentsatzeko” — I copied the quotation into the notebook to think about it later. A word from the everyday Basque course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Basque | aipua |
| Translation | quotation |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
From aipatu — 'to mention, name': 'a mentioning' — another's word carried out into the open. From the same nest as aipamen — 'a mention'
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Aipu bat kopiatu dut koadernoan, gero pentsatzekoI copied the quotation into the notebook to think about it later
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- 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.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “quotation” in Basque?
«aipua». In a live sentence: “Aipu bat kopiatu dut koadernoan, gero pentsatzeko” — I copied the quotation into the notebook to think about it later. Noun, level B1.
Why does this word look the way it does?
From aipatu — 'to mention, name': 'a mentioning' — another's word carried out into the open. From the same nest as aipamen — 'a mention'. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.