jan
“jan” — eat in Basque. Verb, level A1, topic — verbs. Food is janari — same root. Having lunch is bazkaldu: lunch has a name of its own, bazkaria. In a live sentence: “Ogia eta gazta jaten ditugu” — We eat bread and cheese. You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 53 words in the set “verbs” in the Basque course.
In short
| Written in Basque | jan |
| Translation | eat |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
- janeat
Why it looks that way
Food is janari — same root. Having lunch is bazkaldu: lunch has a name of its own, bazkaria
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.
- Ogia eta gazta jaten dituguWe eat bread and cheese
Nearby words: verbs
I want, I can, I am going, I know. Twenty verbs cover more everyday sentences than two hundred nouns.
- naizI amThe 'I am' of izan — being by essence: origin, profession, character. Errusiarra naiz, medikua naiz. For state and place there is the second verb, egon: ondo nago, etxean nago
- nahi dutI wantLiterally 'want-it-I-have': desire goes through the auxiliary verb. To soften it, nahi nuke — 'I would like'
- joangoThe most irregular verb in Basque: noa (I go), zoaz, doa, goaz — nothing of the root is left. It covers both walking and riding
- edandrinkDrinking, the literal sense. Zer edozer hartuko al dugu? — 'shall we have something?': the soft invitation goes through hartu — 'take'
- irakurrireadA reader is irakurle, a newspaper is egunkaria — literally 'dayly'. Reading on the metro is the national sport
- hitz eginspeakLiterally 'to make a word'. Basque builds whole verb classes this way: lan egin — work, lo egin — sleep, barka egin — forgive
- lan eginwork (verb)Literally 'to make work': a noun plus egin — and the verb is ready. Working on something: ...tan lan egin
- biziliveBizi naiz — I live. Bizitza is both 'life' and 'living': Bilbon bizi da — he lives in Bilbao, zaila da bizitzea — living is hard
- duthaveBasque has no verb 'to have': what you have is put before dut — 'I-it-have'. Age, hunger and cold go through it too: hogeita hamar urte ditut, gosea dut, hotza dut
- dagothere is (located)The impersonal 'is located': it doesn't change by person. Plural: daude — ura dago, bi kafe daude. Also the one in non dago? — 'where is?'
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “verbs”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “eat” in Basque?
Food is janari — same root. Having lunch is bazkaldu: lunch has a name of its own, bazkaria
- How do you say “work (verb)” in Basque?
Literally 'to make work': a noun plus egin — and the verb is ready. Working on something: ...tan lan egin
- How do you say “go” in Basque?
The most irregular verb in Basque: noa (I go), zoaz, doa, goaz — nothing of the root is left. It covers both walking and riding
- How do you say “there is (located)” in Basque?
The impersonal 'is located': it doesn't change by person. Plural: daude — ura dago, bi kafe daude. Also the one in non dago? — 'where is?'
- How do you say “speak” in Basque?
Literally 'to make a word'. Basque builds whole verb classes this way: lan egin — work, lo egin — sleep, barka egin — forgive
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 “eat” in Basque?
«jan». In a live sentence: “Ogia eta gazta jaten ditugu” — We eat bread and cheese. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Verb, level A1, from the set “verbs”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Food is janari — same root. Having lunch is bazkaldu: lunch has a name of its own, bazkaria. 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.