soinua galdu da
“soinua galdu da” — the sound is gone in Basque. Phrase, level B1. Literally 'the sound has lost itself': soinua — 'sound' + galdu — 'to get lost', the same that lost tickets. The sound wasn't switched off — it left by itself. In a live sentence: “Telebistaren soinua galdu da: ez dago ezer entzuten” — The TV sound is gone: nothing can be heard. You can hear how it sounds right here. A word from the everyday Basque course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Basque | soinua galdu da |
| Translation | the sound is gone |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- soinua galdu dathe sound is gone
Why it looks that way
Literally 'the sound has lost itself': soinua — 'sound' + galdu — 'to get lost', the same that lost tickets. The sound wasn't switched off — it left by itself
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.
- Telebistaren soinua galdu da: ez dago ezer entzutenThe TV sound is gone: nothing can be heard
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 “the sound is gone” in Basque?
«soinua galdu da». In a live sentence: “Telebistaren soinua galdu da: ez dago ezer entzuten” — The TV sound is gone: nothing can be heard. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally 'the sound has lost itself': soinua — 'sound' + galdu — 'to get lost', the same that lost tickets. The sound wasn't switched off — it left by itself. 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.