basamortua
“basamortua” — desert in Basque. Noun, level A2. Literally 'the dead forest': basoa — 'forest' + mortu — 'dead'. Named by what it was for a forest people — the anti-forest. In a live sentence: “Basamortuan egunetan oso bero egiten du eta euria ez da inoiz etortzen” — In the desert it's very hot by day, and the rain never comes. A word from the everyday Basque course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Basque | basamortua |
| Translation | desert |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Literally 'the dead forest': basoa — 'forest' + mortu — 'dead'. Named by what it was for a forest people — the anti-forest
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.
- Basamortuan egunetan oso bero egiten du eta euria ez da inoiz etortzenIn the desert it's very hot by day, and the rain never comes
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 “desert” in Basque?
«basamortua». In a live sentence: “Basamortuan egunetan oso bero egiten du eta euria ez da inoiz etortzen” — In the desert it's very hot by day, and the rain never comes. Noun, level A2.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally 'the dead forest': basoa — 'forest' + mortu — 'dead'. Named by what it was for a forest people — the anti-forest. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.