Meals of the day (otorduak)

Each meal of the day has its name in Basque, and knowing them will help you talk about your daily routine. There is also a specifically Basque meal that has no direct equivalent in English: the hamaiketako.

The five meals of the day

Basque	English	When
gosaria	breakfast	morning
hamaiketakoa	mid-morning snack	around 11 a.m.
bazkaria	lunch (the main meal)	1-2 p.m.
askaria	afternoon snack	afternoon
afaria	dinner	evening

Hamaiketakoa literally means “the one from eleven” (hamaika = eleven). It’s the typical Basque mid-morning break: a pintxo, a coffee, or a zurito with something. It’s not a big breakfast or a full lunch; it’s something in between that you have out, at a tavern, with coworkers or friends.

Verbs: jan, edan and the specific ones

Basque	English
jan	to eat (general)
edan	to drink
gosaldu	to have breakfast
bazkaldu	to have lunch
afaldu	to have dinner

There are specific verbs for each meal (just like English has “to have breakfast / to have lunch / to have dinner”). At the A1 level, you will recognize them more than you will conjugate them — for now, it’s enough to know they exist.

Hunger and thirst

To say “I’m hungry” / “I’m thirsty” in Basque, you do not use the verb “to have” (like in Spanish or French), but rather the verb izan (“to be”):

• Gose naiz. — I’m hungry. (literally: “I am hungry”)
• Egarri naiz. — I’m thirsty. (literally: “I am thirsty”)
• Maialen gose da. — Maialen is hungry.
• Gu egarri gara. — We are thirsty.

This construction might surprise you. In Basque, physical sensations like hunger, thirst, and sleepiness are often expressed with izan + adjective, as if they were a state of being. You’ll also see it with logura naiz (I’m sleepy). Be careful: “I’m cold” doesn’t follow this pattern — it’s said hotzak nago, with egon.

Typical phrases

• Goizean gosaria hartzen dut. — In the morning I have breakfast (literally: “I take the breakfast”).
• Hamaiketakoa egiten dugu lankideekin. — We have the hamaiketako with coworkers.
• Etxean bazkaltzen dut. — I have lunch at home.
• Afari ona prestatu dugu. — We have prepared a good dinner.
• Gose naiz, zer dago jateko? — I’m hungry, what is there to eat?

Cultural note: meal times in the Basque Country are usually similar to the rest of the peninsula: early breakfast, hamaiketako around eleven, bazkaria around 2-3 p.m., afternoon snack around 6 p.m., dinner at 9 p.m. or later.