Twenty questions in Euskara, about five minutes, and an honest estimate of where you sit on the CEFR scale.
Kaixo, ni Ana ___. Eta zu?
No feedback until the end, on purpose: guessing from the corrections would skew your result. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
The test places you between two levels of the CEFR, the six-level scale used by universities, employers and official certificates across Europe. A range is the honest output of twenty questions: adaptive tests such as the Oxford Placement Test ask 40 to 45 items, and DIALANG around thirty per skill, precisely because pinning a single level takes far more evidence.
| Level | Name | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | Beginner | Introduce yourself, order, ask prices, survive a short trip. |
| A2 | Elementary | Talk about your day, your past and your plans in simple sentences. |
| B1 | Intermediate | Hold a conversation on familiar topics and travel without falling back on English. |
| B2 | Upper intermediate | Argue a point, follow films and news, work in the language. |
| C1 | Advanced | Express yourself precisely on abstract topics and catch implied meaning. |
| C2 | Proficient | Irony, register, specialised texts: near-native command. |
Basque is a language isolate, with no demonstrated living genealogical relatives. Its core grammar may feel unfamiliar, but it contains many familiar loanwords, including autobus. Two features carry most of the difficulty. The language is ergative, so the subject of a transitive verb takes a special ending: umeak liburua irakurri du: while the subject of an intransitive verb does not. And the auxiliary verb agrees with up to three participants at once, subject, object and recipient, which is why a single word like dizkiot carries information English spreads across a whole clause.
People search for all three, and they are not quite the same thing. A proficiency test measures what you can do against a public standard and usually ends in a certificate someone else will read — HABE certificates is one. A placement test exists to put you in the right class, so it is short, unofficial and only has to be right to within one level. A level test is the everyday name for the same thing when nobody is enrolling you in anything.
This page is a placement test in the technical sense: it estimates your Basque level on the CEFR scale in about five minutes, tells you which two levels you sit between, and hands you nothing you could show an employer. If you need that, sit one of the exams above. If you need to know which book to open tonight, this is the right tool — and it is free, with no account and no email.
Levels are not evenly spaced: A1 is a few weekends, C1 is a few years. The ranges below are guided-study hours counted cumulatively from zero — orders of magnitude, not promises. They are scaled from the U.S. Foreign Service Institute, which puts professional working proficiency for an English speaker at roughly 1,100 classroom hours in the languages closest to Basque on its scale, which does not list Basque itself. Those are hours of intensive, supervised classes, with selected students: read them as a floor rather than a forecast.
| Level | Hours from zero | What it buys you |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | 100–150 h | Introduce yourself, order, ask prices, survive a short trip. |
| A2 | 250–350 h | Talk about your day, your past and your plans in simple sentences. |
| B1 | 500–650 h | Hold a conversation on familiar topics and travel without falling back on English. |
| B2 | 850–1,100 h | Argue a point, follow films and news, work in the language. |
| C1 | 1,300–1,600 h | Express yourself precisely on abstract topics and catch implied meaning. |
| C2 | 1,800 h+ | Irony, register, specialised texts: near-native command. |
Want the same maths for your own weekly schedule? Our time calculator turns hours into months, and applies a discount if you already speak a related language.
Expect unfamiliar core grammar, while using familiar loanwords as a starting point. Learn nouns with the case endings you will use, such as mahaian, lanera and autobusez, and treat the verb izan as a whole system rather than a word. Familiar words from Spanish or French can help you build a base while you practise new grammatical patterns.
The auxiliary is your ceiling. Basque verbs agree with several participants at once, and choosing between dut, naiz, zait and dio is the single hardest habit to automate. Drill them in whole sentences rather than in tables, and collect the sentences that came out wrong this week to rebuild aloud.
What remains is subordination and register. Basque uses the relative suffix -(e)n and concessive constructions with the separate word arren; other patterns, such as ba- clauses followed by ere, also express concession. Formal writing in batua, the unified standard, differs noticeably from the dialects you hear. Read Berria, listen to Euskadi Irratia, and rebuild each construction around your own subject matter.
A placement quiz and a certificate answer different questions. This one tells you what to study next, in five minutes, for free. The exams below tell an employer or a university what you can do, on paper, for a fee and a scheduled date. Use the first to prepare for the second.
| Exam | Awarded by | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| HABE certificates | HABE, Basque Government | HABE accredits A1 and A2 through assessment in registered learning centres, and B1, B2, C1 and C2 through examination procedures. Eligibility and available levels depend on the session. |
| EGA (legacy qualification) | Basque Government | Previously issued EGA qualifications remain recognised as equivalent to C1. For a current examination route, consult HABE and its latest eligibility rules. |
Because the extra thirty would buy you less than you think. A fixed-form test gains precision slowly: what actually separates a serious placement test is adaptivity — picking each question based on how you answered the last one, so nobody wastes time on items far below or far above their level. Without that, doubling the length mostly doubles the boredom, and an abandoned test measures nothing at all.
So this one is deliberately short and deliberately modest: it brackets you between two levels, tells you which skill is dragging, and sends you back to studying. If you need a single certified level on paper, sit a HABE certificates exam. If you need to know whether to open a B1 or a B2 book tonight, five minutes here is enough.
Which Basque does the test use?
Euskara batua, the unified standard used in education, media and official certificates. Biscayan, Gipuzkoan and other dialects differ in verb forms and vocabulary, but no answer here depends on them.
How accurate is this Basque level test?
This is a short, informal estimate based on grammar, vocabulary and reading. Twenty fixed questions cannot establish an official CEFR level or assess speaking, listening and writing. Use the result to choose practice material, and take an official examination if you need certified proof.
Is Basque really unrelated to Spanish?
Basque is not a Romance or Indo-European language and has no demonstrated living genealogical relatives. Long contact with Spanish and French has nevertheless produced loanwords and shared patterns. Those familiar elements can help, even though much of its grammar requires separate study.
Why does the subject take a different ending sometimes?
Because Basque is ergative. The subject of a transitive verb is marked with -k, while the subject of an intransitive verb is unmarked. Getting that split right is one of the clearest signals that a learner has moved past memorised phrases.
How is my level calculated?
Each question is worth the rank of its level, from 1 point for A1 to 6 for C2. A wrong answer gives back a third of that weight, exactly what random guessing earns on a four-option question, so guessing is worth nothing on average and skipping costs nothing extra.
Is the test free? Do I need an account?
Completely free, no signup, no email. Your answers stay in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.
I got B1. What should I do next?
Use the result as a starting point. Review the structures you missed and practise sentences with native audio and spaced repetition, built around what you personally need to say. Hyperpolyglot helps you build that practice habit.
Can I retake the test?
As often as you like, but the questions never change, so an immediate retake measures memory rather than Basque. Leave a few weeks between attempts if you want a meaningful comparison.
Check how long Basque will take you, see how close it is to languages you already speak, or take the which language should I learn quiz.
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