zertarako?
“zertarako?” — what for in Basque. Adverb, level A1. Literally 'for what purpose?': zer + tarako. Partner of zergatik: why asks the cause, what for asks the goal. In a live sentence: “Zertarako erosten dituzu bi egunkari?” — What are you buying two newspapers for? You can hear how it sounds right here. A word from the everyday Basque course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Basque | zertarako? |
| Translation | what for |
| Part of speech | adverb |
| Level | A1 |
- zertarako?what for
Why it looks that way
Literally 'for what purpose?': zer + tarako. Partner of zergatik: why asks the cause, what for asks the goal
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.
- Zertarako erosten dituzu bi egunkari?What are you buying two newspapers for?
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 “what for” in Basque?
«zertarako?» In a live sentence: “Zertarako erosten dituzu bi egunkari?” — What are you buying two newspapers for? You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Adverb, level A1.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally 'for what purpose?': zer + tarako. Partner of zergatik: why asks the cause, what for asks the goal. 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.