besarkatu
“besarkatu” — hug in Basque. Verb, level A2, topic — greetings and goodbyes. Literally 'to take with the arms': beso — 'arm' + -arkatu. The hug here is 'taken into the arms', warm and simple. In a live sentence: “Besarkatu haurra, pozik dago” — Hug the child, he's glad. One of 18 words in the set “greetings and goodbyes” in the Basque course.
In short
| Written in Basque | besarkatu |
| Translation | hug |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Literally 'to take with the arms': beso — 'arm' + -arkatu. The hug here is 'taken into the arms', warm and simple
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.
- Besarkatu haurra, pozik dagoHug the child, he's glad
Nearby words: greetings and goodbyes
Every conversation starts here, and so does every first impression: say hello in the local language and you stop being a stranger in about a second.
- kaixohiThe all-hours greeting, morning or night. The natural next move is aupa — shouted in greeting and in approval alike
- egun ongood morningLiterally 'good day'. Said until lunchtime; egun itself is 'day'
- arratsalde ongood afternoonFor after lunch. Arratsalde is the second half of the day — the same word sits inside 'good evening'
- gabongood nightBoth a late-evening hello and a wish for the night — from gau on, 'good night'. The g here is a plain hard g
- agurgoodbyeThe farewell for everyone and every occasion — the word that stays with you after your first walk around Bilbao
- gero artesee you laterLiterally 'until later': gero is 'later', arte is 'until'. For someone you'll actually see again today
- nola zaude?how are you?Literally 'how do you find yourself?': zaude is a form of egon, so the question is about your state right now
- zer moduz?how's it going?Literally 'in what shape?'. Lighter and shorter than nola zaude — it suits anyone, any register
- Zorionak!congratulationsLiterally 'with good omens': zori + onak. The universal 'congrats' — for the holiday and the new purchase alike
- Zorionak urtebetetzearengatik!happy birthdayLiterally 'congratulations for the year-filling': urte + bete — wave 1 already counted the month as 'a full moon'. The suffix -engatik is 'on the occasion of'
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “greetings and goodbyes”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “hug” in Basque?
Literally 'to take with the arms': beso — 'arm' + -arkatu. The hug here is 'taken into the arms', warm and simple
- How do you say “how are you?” in Basque?
Literally 'how do you find yourself?': zaude is a form of egon, so the question is about your state right now
- How do you say “good afternoon” in Basque?
For after lunch. Arratsalde is the second half of the day — the same word sits inside 'good evening'
- How do you say “happy birthday” in Basque?
Literally 'congratulations for the year-filling': urte + bete — wave 1 already counted the month as 'a full moon'. The suffix -engatik is 'on the occasion of'
- How do you say “see you later” in Basque?
Literally 'until later': gero is 'later', arte is 'until'. For someone you'll actually see again today
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 “hug” in Basque?
«besarkatu». In a live sentence: “Besarkatu haurra, pozik dago” — Hug the child, he's glad. Verb, level A2, from the set “greetings and goodbyes”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally 'to take with the arms': beso — 'arm' + -arkatu. The hug here is 'taken into the arms', warm and simple. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.