ustekabea
“ustekabea” — surprise in Basque. Noun, level A2, topic — the city and its places. From uste — 'opinion' + -kabe: 'the excess of what was thought'. Known from the adverb ustekabean — 'unexpectedly'. In a live sentence: “Festarako ustekabea prestatu dugu: amonaren argazki zaharrekin” — For the holiday we prepared a surprise: with grandma's old photographs. One of 198 words in the set “the city and its places” in the Basque course.
In short
| Written in Basque | ustekabea |
| Translation | surprise |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
From uste — 'opinion' + -kabe: 'the excess of what was thought'. Known from the adverb ustekabean — 'unexpectedly'
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.
- Festarako ustekabea prestatu dugu: amonaren argazki zaharrekinFor the holiday we prepared a surprise: with grandma's old photographs
Nearby words: the city and its places
Street, square, pharmacy, bank. An address is built out of these, and an address is something you have to both say and understand.
- jatetxearestaurantJatetxe + a. As with the neighbors, people more often go to a taberna: morning coffee, lunch and evening wine all happen there
- hiriacityHiri + a. Hiribildu — 'town', literally 'round city': old towns grew in a ring
- kaleastreetKale Nagusia — 'big street': the main street of nearly every town in the country; addresses write it out in full
- dendashopA native word, not the Spanish tienda. Denda txiki — a little shop: the country is fond of those
- azokamarketA covered market, a native word. Merkatua is from Spanish: both are in use, azoka is the people's one
- farmaziapharmacyLook for the green cross on the sign. The night-duty one is guardiako farmazia — the list hangs on every door
- bankuabankBanku + a: the two u's fuse into one. The same word means 'bench', as elsewhere too
- geltokiastationGeltoki + a, and the two i's fuse into one. Both the metro station and the train station: one word for both
- semaforoatraffic lightA loan from Greek through the neighbors, like ours. The red light here is gorria — stop and wait
- bizikletabicycleA loan from the French bicyclette through the neighbors. The country rides them along the whole sea
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “the city and its places”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “surprise” in Basque?
From uste — 'opinion' + -kabe: 'the excess of what was thought'. Known from the adverb ustekabean — 'unexpectedly'
- How do you say “bank” in Basque?
Banku + a: the two u's fuse into one. The same word means 'bench', as elsewhere too
- How do you say “street” in Basque?
Kale Nagusia — 'big street': the main street of nearly every town in the country; addresses write it out in full
- How do you say “bicycle” in Basque?
A loan from the French bicyclette through the neighbors. The country rides them along the whole sea
- How do you say “pharmacy” in Basque?
Look for the green cross on the sign. The night-duty one is guardiako farmazia — the list hangs on every door
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 “surprise” in Basque?
«ustekabea». In a live sentence: “Festarako ustekabea prestatu dugu: amonaren argazki zaharrekin” — For the holiday we prepared a surprise: with grandma's old photographs. Noun, level A2, from the set “the city and its places”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
From uste — 'opinion' + -kabe: 'the excess of what was thought'. Known from the adverb ustekabean — 'unexpectedly'. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.