LingoflyҮштен бір
- Үштен бірÜshten bira third
“Үштен бір” (Üshten bir) — a third in Kazakh. Noun, level B1. Round u lips forward: ush-TEN BIR. In a live sentence: “Топтың үштен бірі келмеді” (Toptyñ üshten biri kelmedi) — A third of the group did not come. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters Ү, ш, т, е, н, б, і, р. A word from the everyday Kazakh course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Kazakh | Үштен бір (Üshten bir) |
| Read in Latin letters | Üshten bir |
| Translation | a third |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
How to pronounce it
round u lips forward: ush-TEN BIR
Why it looks that way
the fraction is read opposite to English: first the denominator with the from-where tail, then the numerator; one third, and three quarters is the three-of-four phrase
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 “a third” in Kazakh?
«Үштен бір» (Üshten bir), read “Üshten bir”. Round u lips forward: ush-TEN BIR. In a live sentence: “Топтың үштен бірі келмеді” (Toptyñ üshten biri kelmedi) — A third of the group did not come. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level B1; written with the characters Ү, ш, т, е, н, б, і, р.
How is “Үштен бір” (Üshten bir) written in Latin letters?
Üshten bir. 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 fraction is read opposite to English: first the denominator with the from-where tail, then the numerator; one third, and three quarters is the three-of-four phrase. 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.