bost urte daramatzat
“bost urte daramatzat” — I've lived here five years in Basque. Phrase, level B1. Literally 'five years I carry them': daramatzat — 'I carry them'; the years are carried on one's person. Lived time is a load one walks with. In a live sentence: “Bost urte daramatzat herrialde honetan eta jada hemen sentitzen naiz etxean” — I've lived in this country five years and already feel at home here. You can hear how it sounds right here.
In short
| Written in Basque | bost urte daramatzat |
| Translation | I've lived here five years |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- bost urte daramatzatI've lived here five years
Why it looks that way
Literally 'five years I carry them': daramatzat — 'I carry them'; the years are carried on one's person. Lived time is a load one walks with
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.
- Bost urte daramatzat herrialde honetan eta jada hemen sentitzen naiz etxeanI've lived in this country five years and already feel at home here
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 “I've lived here five years” in Basque?
«bost urte daramatzat». In a live sentence: “Bost urte daramatzat herrialde honetan eta jada hemen sentitzen naiz etxean” — I've lived in this country five years and already feel at home here. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally 'five years I carry them': daramatzat — 'I carry them'; the years are carried on one's person. Lived time is a load one walks with. 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.