ნაღდით თუ ბარათით?
“ნაღდით თუ ბარათით?” (naghdit tu baratit?) — cash or card? in Georgian. Phrase, level A1, topic — shopping and money. The instrumental -ith on both words answers 'by what do we pay'. Tu here is 'or', not 'if'. In a live sentence: “ნაღდით თუ ბარათით? — ბარათით” — Cash or card? — Card. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters ნ, ა, ღ, დ, ი, თ, თ, უ, ბ, ა, რ, ა.
In short
| Written in Georgian | ნაღდით თუ ბარათით? |
| Read in Latin letters | naghdit tu baratit? |
| Translation | cash or card? |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A1 |
- ნაღდით თუ ბარათით?naghdit tu baratit?cash or card?
Why it looks that way
The instrumental -ith on both words answers 'by what do we pay'. Tu here is 'or', not 'if'
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.
- ნაღდით თუ ბარათით? — ბარათითnaghdit tu baratit baratitCash or card? — Card
Nearby words: shopping and money
How much it costs, whether there is a smaller one, whether cards are accepted. A shop forgives mistakes: miss a word and they will show you the thing with their hands anyway.
- რა ღირს?ra ghirs?how much is it?Literally 'what does it cost'. The gh is a voiced throat sound, like a French r
- ლარიlarilariThe currency sign is a stylized version of the Georgian letter l
- მაღაზიაmaghaziastoreA borrowing that traveled from Arabic through Turkish. The grocery kind adds a longer qualifier of its own
- ბაზარიbazarimarketA Persian word that came through Turkish. Tbilisi's main market still carries the name
- დახლიdakhlicounterThe shop counter and the bar top are one word. Behind the dakhli stands the seller
- გამყიდველიgamqidvelisellerthe start is not 'gamq' with an English q: the q comes from the very depth of the throat, the lips do not move
- მყიდველიmqidvelibuyerThe same word without ga-: the seller is gamqidveli, the buyer mqidveli — two letters apart
- სასწორიsastsoriscalesthe cluster s-sts frightens the eye but sounds simple: sas-tso-ri
- კილოგრამიkilogramikilogramAt the market they say the shorter kilo. The borrowing took the -i, like restorani
- სუფთაsuptafreshThe basic meaning is clean: supta tsqali, clean water. About bread and fruit they also say akhali — the same word as 'new'
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “shopping and money”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “cash or card?” in Georgian?
The instrumental -ith on both words answers 'by what do we pay'. Tu here is 'or', not 'if'
- How do you say “buyer” in Georgian?
The same word without ga-: the seller is gamqidveli, the buyer mqidveli — two letters apart
- How do you say “store” in Georgian?
A borrowing that traveled from Arabic through Turkish. The grocery kind adds a longer qualifier of its own
- How do you say “fresh” in Georgian?
The basic meaning is clean: supta tsqali, clean water. About bread and fruit they also say akhali — the same word as 'new'
- How do you say “seller” in Georgian?
The root qid- is selling; gam- turns it into the one who sells
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 “cash or card?” in Georgian?
«ნაღდით თუ ბარათით?», read “naghdit tu baratit?”. In a live sentence: “ნაღდით თუ ბარათით? — ბარათით” — Cash or card? — Card. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level A1, from the set “shopping and money”; written with the characters ნ, ა, ღ, დ, ი, თ, თ, უ, ბ, ა, რ, ა.
How is “ნაღდით თუ ბარათით?” written in Latin letters?
naghdit tu baratit?. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The instrumental -ith on both words answers 'by what do we pay'. Tu here is 'or', not 'if'. 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 it 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.