gai kaltegarriak
“gai kaltegarriak” — harmful impurities in Basque. Phrase, level B1. Literally 'harmful substances': gai is substance + kaltegarri is harmful, from kalte — harm. Harmful impurities — the smoke carries them inside. In a live sentence: “Gai kaltegarriak daude ur horretan.” — There are harmful impurities in that water. You can hear how it sounds right here. A word from the everyday Basque course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Basque | gai kaltegarriak |
| Translation | harmful impurities |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- gai kaltegarriakharmful impurities
Why it looks that way
Literally 'harmful substances': gai is substance + kaltegarri is harmful, from kalte — harm. Harmful impurities — the smoke carries them inside
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.
- Gai kaltegarriak daude ur horretan.There are harmful impurities in that water.
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 “harmful impurities” in Basque?
«gai kaltegarriak». In a live sentence: “Gai kaltegarriak daude ur horretan.” — There are harmful impurities in that water. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally 'harmful substances': gai is substance + kaltegarri is harmful, from kalte — harm. Harmful impurities — the smoke carries them inside. 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.