Garraioa — getting around the world

The travel unit begins. First stop: means of transport and the verbs to use them. With the instrumental -z that you already know from A1, saying “by train” or “by bike” is just a suffix.

The means

English	Basque	”By…” (instrumental)
The train	trena	trenez
The bus	autobusa	autobusez
The plane	hegazkina	hegazkinez
The boat	itsasontzia	itsasontziz
The car	kotxea / autoa	kotxez / autoz
The bicycle	bizikleta	bizikletaz
On foot	—	oinez

The places

English	Basque
The station (train/bus)	(tren-/autobus-)geltokia
The airport	aireportua
The port	portua
The taxi stand	taxi-geltokia
The road	errepidea

Travel verbs

Trena hartu dut. — I’ve taken the train.

Autobusa galdu dugu! — We’ve missed the bus!

Hegazkina berandu atera da. — The plane has left late.

Trena Gasteizen gelditzen da. — The train stops in Vitoria.

Bidaiariak trenera igo dira. — The passengers have gotten on the train.

Donostian jaitsiko gara. — We will get off in Donostia.

Igo (to get on/go up) and jaitsi (to get off/go down) are the key pair: trenera igo (to get on the train), trenetik jaitsi (to get off the train). Notice the cases: -ra to get ON, -tik to get OFF.

How do you go?

— Nola joaten zara lanera?

— Normalean autobusez, baina eguraldi ona badago, bizikletaz edo oinez. Eta zu?

— Ni trenez. Etxetik geltokira bost minutu ditut oinez.

Note: in the Basque Country, the local commuter train has always been the topoa (the “mole”, between Donostia and Hendaia, because it goes underground) and Euskotren connects the coast. If you hear «topoa hartuko dugu», you know what it means: the little green train.