Темекіні тастау
- Темекіні тастауTemekini tastauto quit smoking
“Темекіні тастау” (Temekini tastau) — to quit smoking in Kazakh. Phrase, level B1. Short i twice: te-me-ki-NI tas-TAU. In a live sentence: “Ол былтыр темекіні тастады” (Ol byltyr temekini tastady) — He quit smoking last year. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters Т, е, м, е, к, і, н, і, т, а, с, т… A word from the everyday Kazakh course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Kazakh | Темекіні тастау (Temekini tastau) |
| Read in Latin letters | Temekini tastau |
| Translation | to quit smoking |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
How to pronounce it
short i twice: te-me-ki-NI tas-TAU
Why it looks that way
tastau is to throw away a thing, and a habit is thrown away with the same verb; the object tail is obligatory: you quit the specific, named thing
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.
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 “to quit smoking” in Kazakh?
«Темекіні тастау» (Temekini tastau), read “Temekini tastau”. Short i twice: te-me-ki-NI tas-TAU. In a live sentence: “Ол былтыр темекіні тастады” (Ol byltyr temekini tastady) — He quit smoking last year. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters Т, е, м, е, к, і, н, і, т, а, с, т…
How is “Темекіні тастау” (Temekini tastau) written in Latin letters?
Temekini tastau. 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?
Tastau is to throw away a thing, and a habit is thrown away with the same verb; the object tail is obligatory: you quit the specific, named thing. 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.