Lingoflyaita
- aitadad
“aita” — dad in Basque. Noun, level A1, topic — people and family. The affectionate one is aitatxo. Grandpa is aitona: the same aita at the front, symmetric with ama/amona. In a live sentence: “Nire aitak gidari lan egiten du” — My dad works as a driver. You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 234 words in the set “people and family” in the Basque course.
In short
| Written in Basque | aita |
| Translation | dad |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
The affectionate one is aitatxo. Grandpa is aitona: the same aita at the front, symmetric with ama/amona
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.
- Nire aitak gidari lan egiten duMy dad works as a driver
Nearby words: people and family
Mum, friend, child, neighbour. The first thing people ask you about, and the first thing you tell about yourself.
- lagunafriendFrom lagun — 'friend' and 'helper' alike: laguntza, 'help', comes from it. A casual acquaintance is ezagun
- familiafamilyFamily, the same word as in Spanish. A surname is «abizena»: you can hear «izen», name, inside it
- amamomA neutral word. The affectionate one is amatxo. Grandma is amona: the same ama at the front
- haurrachildHaur + a, and the r doubles at the seam: haurra. Children are haurrak; the playroom is haurrentzako — literally 'for children'
- semeasonIn the basics haurra was 'child'; semea is a son exactly. A daughter is alaba. Seme-alabak — children in general, literally 'sons-daughters'
- pertsonapersonThe counting unit for people: bi pertsona — two people, not bi gizon. A neutral word instead of 'man and woman'
- gizonamanA man, and more broadly a person. «Gizaki», a human being, shares the root. Plural «gizonak»
- emakumeawomanFrom eme — 'female' plus a native tail. A long, honest word of its own
- gazteayoung manGazte — 'young' in general: gaztea is a young man, neska gaztea a young woman. About wine too: ardo gaztea
- neskayoung womanNeska is both 'girl' and a teenage girl, the same word. A boy is mutila
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “people and family”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “dad” in Basque?
The affectionate one is aitatxo. Grandpa is aitona: the same aita at the front, symmetric with ama/amona
- How do you say “man” in Basque?
A man, and more broadly a person. «Gizaki», a human being, shares the root. Plural «gizonak»
- How do you say “mom” in Basque?
A neutral word. The affectionate one is amatxo. Grandma is amona: the same ama at the front
- How do you say “young woman” in Basque?
Neska is both 'girl' and a teenage girl, the same word. A boy is mutila
- How do you say “person” in Basque?
The counting unit for people: bi pertsona — two people, not bi gizon. A neutral word instead of 'man and woman'
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 “dad” in Basque?
«aita». In a live sentence: “Nire aitak gidari lan egiten du” — My dad works as a driver. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A1, from the set “people and family”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The affectionate one is aitatxo. Grandpa is aitona: the same aita at the front, symmetric with ama/amona. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how this sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.