semaforoa
“semaforoa” — traffic light in Basque. Noun, level A1, topic — the city and its places. A loan from Greek through the neighbors, like ours. The red light here is gorria — stop and wait. In a live sentence: “Semaforoa gorria dago, itxaron” — The traffic light is red, wait. You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 198 words in the set “the city and its places” in the Basque course.
In short
| Written in Basque | semaforoa |
| Translation | traffic light |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
- semaforoatraffic light
Why it looks that way
A loan from Greek through the neighbors, like ours. The red light here is gorria — stop and wait
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.
- Semaforoa gorria dago, itxaronThe traffic light is red, wait
Nearby words: the city and its places
Street, square, pharmacy, bank. An address is built out of these, and an address is something you have to both say and understand.
- jatetxearestaurantJatetxe + a. As with the neighbors, people more often go to a taberna: morning coffee, lunch and evening wine all happen there
- hiriacityHiri + a. Hiribildu — 'town', literally 'round city': old towns grew in a ring
- kaleastreetKale Nagusia — 'big street': the main street of nearly every town in the country; addresses write it out in full
- dendashopA native word, not the Spanish tienda. Denda txiki — a little shop: the country is fond of those
- azokamarketA covered market, a native word. Merkatua is from Spanish: both are in use, azoka is the people's one
- farmaziapharmacyLook for the green cross on the sign. The night-duty one is guardiako farmazia — the list hangs on every door
- bankuabankBanku + a: the two u's fuse into one. The same word means 'bench', as elsewhere too
- geltokiastationGeltoki + a, and the two i's fuse into one. Both the metro station and the train station: one word for both
- bizikletabicycleA loan from the French bicyclette through the neighbors. The country rides them along the whole sea
- autobus-geralekuabus stop signLiterally 'the bus's stopping place': from geratu — 'to stop'. Geltokia is the same stop but the station kind
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “the city and its places”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “traffic light” in Basque?
A loan from Greek through the neighbors, like ours. The red light here is gorria — stop and wait
- How do you say “bank” in Basque?
Banku + a: the two u's fuse into one. The same word means 'bench', as elsewhere too
- How do you say “street” in Basque?
Kale Nagusia — 'big street': the main street of nearly every town in the country; addresses write it out in full
- How do you say “bus stop sign” in Basque?
Literally 'the bus's stopping place': from geratu — 'to stop'. Geltokia is the same stop but the station kind
- How do you say “pharmacy” in Basque?
Look for the green cross on the sign. The night-duty one is guardiako farmazia — the list hangs on every door
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 “traffic light” in Basque?
«semaforoa». In a live sentence: “Semaforoa gorria dago, itxaron” — The traffic light is red, wait. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A1, from the set “the city and its places”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
A loan from Greek through the neighbors, like ours. The red light here is gorria — stop and wait. 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.