Barkatu atzeratzeagatik.
“Barkatu atzeratzeagatik.” — sorry for being late in Basque. Phrase, level A2, topic — greetings and goodbyes. Literally 'forgive for the being-late': atzeratu — 'to delay' + -zea + -gatik. Guilt here is 'because of the lateness'. In a live sentence: “Barkatu atzeratzeagatik: trena galdu dut” — Sorry for being late: I missed the train. You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 18 words in the set “greetings and goodbyes” in the Basque course.
In short
| Written in Basque | Barkatu atzeratzeagatik. |
| Translation | sorry for being late |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
- Barkatu atzeratzeagatik.sorry for being late
Why it looks that way
Literally 'forgive for the being-late': atzeratu — 'to delay' + -zea + -gatik. Guilt here is 'because of the lateness'
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.
- Barkatu atzeratzeagatik: trena galdu dutSorry for being late: I missed the train
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 — to fill up, the way the month fills to 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 “sorry for being late” in Basque?
Literally 'forgive for the being-late': atzeratu — 'to delay' + -zea + -gatik. Guilt here is 'because of the lateness'
- 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 — to fill up, the way the month fills to 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 “sorry for being late” in Basque?
«Barkatu atzeratzeagatik.» In a live sentence: “Barkatu atzeratzeagatik: trena galdu dut” — Sorry for being late: I missed the train. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level A2, from the set “greetings and goodbyes”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally 'forgive for the being-late': atzeratu — 'to delay' + -zea + -gatik. Guilt here is 'because of the lateness'. 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.