hamar
“hamar” — ten in Basque. Numeral, level A1, topic — numbers and counting. All tens are counted from hamar: hirurogei — sixty, literally 'three twenties'. Basque counts by twenties, the way French does. In a live sentence: “Hamar minutu eman eta irtengo naiz” — Give me ten minutes and I'm out. One of 57 words in the set “numbers and counting” in the Basque course.
In short
| Written in Basque | hamar |
| Translation | ten |
| Part of speech | numeral |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
All tens are counted from hamar: hirurogei — sixty, literally 'three twenties'. Basque counts by twenties, the way French does
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.
- Hamar minutu eman eta irtengo naizGive me ten minutes and I'm out
Nearby words: numbers and counting
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.
- 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'
- hamaikaelevenA fusion of 'ten-one': hama-bat → hamaika. Every number from 11 to 19 is built the same way
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “numbers and counting”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “ten” in Basque?
All tens are counted from hamar: hirurogei — sixty, literally 'three twenties'. Basque counts by twenties, the way French does
- How do you say “seven” in Basque?
Both s-sounds here are the hard kind — closer to 'SAS-pi': that letter z at work. Seven is Basque's symbolic number: seven provinces
- How do you say “three” in Basque?
The opening h is silent: 'EER-oo'. Writing it without the h is a spelling mistake — a Batua rule
- How do you say “eleven” in Basque?
A fusion of 'ten-one': hama-bat → hamaika. Every number from 11 to 19 is built the same way
- How do you say “six” in Basque?
Sixteen is hamasei, literally 'ten-six': the tens come first
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 “ten” in Basque?
«hamar». In a live sentence: “Hamar minutu eman eta irtengo naiz” — Give me ten minutes and I'm out. Numeral, level A1, from the set “numbers and counting”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
All tens are counted from hamar: hirurogei — sixty, literally 'three twenties'. Basque counts by twenties, the way French does. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.