Hungarian/Lesson 3

Lessons: 1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — Vocab

So you've already mastered one group of the Hungarian words and you should be able to express virtually any quantity. Now let's continue with the most common groups of words: nouns, adjectives and verbs.

Besides, now it's time to start building your vocabulary. The vocabulary section at the end of the lesson gives you a great opportunity to check how you mastered the most important words. If you fail to remember one of them at a later stage of the course, just turn up the Vocabulary chapter at the end of the book.

Words part 2

Nouns

There are two main types of nouns: proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns include all unique entities and in the Hungarian language we capitalize every such word: Kovács is a surname, István is a christian name, Budapest is a geographical place, Wikipédia is the name of the free dictionary. Every other noun is called common noun and we never capitalize them (only at the beginning of the sentence): asztal means "table", fiú means "boy", lány (archaically leány) means "girl". Note that while in English nationalities are considered proper nouns and thus are capitalized, in Hungarian these are considered common nouns: magyar means "Hungarian", angol means "English", francia means "French". Now let's have a look at the most common Hungarian common nouns (note that in Hungarian there is no grammatical gender):

fiú	boy
lány	girl
ember	man (in plural (emberek) refers to any group of people regardless of their sex)
férfi	man (only masculine)
nő	woman
asztal	table
szék	chair
város	town, city
ország	country
könyv	book
alma	apple
narancs	orange
ház	house

Plural

Here we're going to learn a difficult but crucial part of the Hungarian grammar: how to suffix, where to use link vowels and how to apply vowel harmony.

If you were observant enough, you may already know that the plural morpheme (-k) in Hungarian is suffixed to the end of nouns. The following rule may seem a bit too complicated, but you'll soon get used to this as the same (or almost the same) rule should be followed every time you use suffixes:

• when the noun ends in -á (rare), -é, -í, -ó, -ő, -u, -ú, -ü (rare) or -ű (long vowels and -u, -ü) (we could have mentioned -o and -ö as well, but there are virtually no words ending in -o or -ö): simply add -k to the singular form e.g. nő - nők ("women"), fiú - fiúk ("boys")
• when the noun ends in -a or -e: replace the last letter with -á or -é and add -k to the singular form e.g. alma - almák ("apples") lepke - lepkék (butterflies)
• when the noun ends in -i it's not so clear-cut but there are only a few such words that you will be able to remember e.g. férfi - férfiak ("men", where a link vowel -a appears)

• when the noun ends in a consonant: add a link vowel (based on vowel harmony -ö or -e for front words, -a or -o for back words, but there are some exceptions) and add -k to the singular form e.g. kör - körök ("circles"), ember - emberek ("men"), ház - házak ("houses"), barát - barátok ("friends")

As mentioned above, it is crucial to get familiar with these rules. Don't memorise them, but learn how to use them (solve the exercises at the end of every lesson).

Adjectives

In Hungarian, the adjectives always stand before the noun in the noun phrase (szép lány="beautiful girl", kis ország="small country"). If there are more adjectives belonging to the same noun, their order is usually optional. Now let's see the most common Hungarian adjectives:

SZÍNEK	COLOURS	nagy	big
fehér	white	kis	small (used only attributively before a noun, adjective or adverb)
fekete	black	kicsi	small (used in all other cases, see next lesson)
piros	red (vivid)	szép	beautiful
vörös	red (dark)	csúnya	ugly
kék	blue	magas	tall, high
zöld	green	alacsony	short (opposite of tall), low
barna	brown	kerek	round
sárga	yellow	négyszögletes	square
narancsszín(ű)/narancssárga	orange	vékony	thin
szürke	grey	vastag	thick, gross
rózsaszín(ű)	pink	hosszú	long
lila	purple	rövid	short (opposite of long)

éhes	hungry
szomjas	thirsty
fáradt	tired
álmos	sleepy

Verbs

Substantive verb

Here you can see the conjugation of the substantive verb lenni (this is the infinitive form of the verb, so don't worry if you can't observe any similarities between lenni and the following forms; it used to be useful though to note that in a dictionary, you would have always found the infinitive form of the verbs, however now, most dictionaries will present the declarative present third person singular) in present tense, declarative mode (it's also important to know what tense and mode we are in, as you'll perceive later):

Person	Singular	Plural
1	(én) vagyok	(mi) vagyunk
2	(te) vagy	(ti) vagytok
3	(ő) van	(ők) vannak

(Note: though the formal and official forms of te (maga and ön) and ti (maguk and önök) are in second person, they use the 3rd person verb forms: maga van, ön van, maguk vannak, önök vannak)

Omitting "van"

When the subject is in 3rd person, a unique rule is in effect. In these so-called equational sentences the substantive verb is not used. Later we will learn the cases of the omission, for now remember only the most common case: when using 3rd person (and the official or formal forms of 2nd person) we don't use the substantive verb (van) when the predicate is an adjective:

• A könyv piros. ("The book is red", "The"=A, "book"=könyv, "red"=piros, "is" omitted)
• A város szép. ("The town is beautiful", "The"=A, "town"=város, "beautiful"=szép, "is" omitted)
• Maga fáradt. ("You (formal) are tired.", "You"=Maga, "tired"=fáradt, "are" omitted)

BUT

• Én éhes vagyok. ("I'm hungry.", it's 1st person, so we don't use the rule)

This rule is used in plural 3rd person as well, we'll see an example when learning the plural form of nouns and adjectives in the next lesson.

Infinitive

In nearly every Hungarian dictionary verbs are NOT presented in their infinitive form. Instead, they are presented in the third singular present indefinite form, which is usually the most basic form of the verb. To form the infinitive, you normally just add -ni to that basic form. For example> olvas (he-she reads), olvasni (to read). ír (he writes), írni (to write). szeret (he-she loves"), szeretni (to love). There are a handful of exceptions, but it's a bit too early to care about them.

Articles

"A" and "az" are the definite articles. Remember to pronounce it like aw and not like the English indefinite article "a". A corresponds to the English "the" and before a word beginning with a vowel, A becomes Az. e.g. a könyv but az asztal.

The indefinite article ("a"/"an") is "egy": egy könyv, egy asztal. Note that the numeral for "1" is the same word, so it's easy to confuse them: Ez egy könyv. can mean "This is a book." or "This is one book (and not two).". In speech, you have to emphasize egy when it means "one" for easier understanding.

Examples

-Van testvéred?	-Do you have any brothers or sisters?
-Van egy húgom.	-I have a younger sister.
-Fiútestvéred nincsen?	-Don't you have a brother?
-Nem, nincs.	-No, I haven't.
-Nem zavar/bánod, hogy nincs fiútestvéred?	Does it not bother you that you don't have a brother?

anya	mother
apa	father
testvér	sibling
húg	younger sister
nővér	older sister
öcs	younger brother
bátya	older brother
fiútestvér, fivér	brother (rarely used; mostly when not knowing the relative age of the brother)
lánytestvér	sister (rarely used; mostly when not knowing the relative age of the sister)

nagybáty	uncle
nagynéni	aunt
néni	old lady
nagy	big
nagyi, nagymama, nagyanya	grandmother
nagyapa, apó	grandfather
keresztapa	godfather
keresztanya	godmother
kereszt	cross

lány	girl
lányom	my daughter (literally "my girl")
fiú	boy
fiam	my son (literally "my boy")
fiúm	my boyfriend (literally "my boy")
barátnő	friend (who is actually a girl) or girlfriend
barát	friend (male or female) or boyfriend
férfi	man
pasi	man (some consider it vulgar)
nő	woman
csaj	woman (some consider it vulgar)
pasim	my boyfriend (clarity has a price)
csajom	my girlfriend
férj	husband
feleség	wife
Szeretlek.	I love you.
Kedvellek.	I like you.
Szeretem a csokifagyit.	I like chocolate icecream.
Szeretném, ha szeretnének.	I'd like to be liked.
Szeretném, ha elmosogatnál helyettem.	I'd like you to wash the dishes instead of me.
Szeretlek, mint anyját a gyermek.	I love you, as a child loves its mother.
Szeretlek, mint élni szeretnek1 halandók, amíg meg nem halnak2.	I love you as mortals love1 to live until they die2.

A nagy testvér figyel téged.	Big brother is watching you.
A háború béke.	War is peace.
A szabadság szolgaság.	Freedom is slavery.
A tudatlanság erő.	Ignorance is strength.
A nagy testvér szeret téged.	Big brother loves you.

Big brother is translated to Hungarian as "nagy testvér" because there's no such a thing in Hungarian as "nagy fiútestvér". And the phrase "nagybáty" is already used for uncle.

Some jokes which cannot be translated to Hungarian:

In America you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia party finds you.

Doesn't work in Hungarian because:

political party	párt
party as entertainment	party or parti or buli

In America you're watching Big Brother. In Soviet Russia Big Brother is watching you.

Doesn't work in Hungarian because:

watch television	tévét (TV-t) néz
watch somebody	figyel valakit

If you got bored from all of this, watch the Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook from Monty Python.

Exercises

Solutions (Lesson 2)

11:

tizenegy

18:

tizennyolc

23:

huszonhárom

76:

hetvenhat

391:

háromszázkilencvenegy

1614:

ezerhatszáztizennégy

Guess

Guess which one is in Hungarian

roller

scooter

Guess which one is "nagyi"

Pronunciation

Using your knowledge on the Hungarian letters, try to pronounce (and memorise) the following Hungarian words, then listen to the audio file to check yourself:

erős (strong)   szőlő (grape)   győz (win)
csat (buckle)	csík (stripe)	csacsi (donkey)
kutya (dog)	latyak (slush)	tyúk (hen)
rózsa (rose)	zsúr (party)	zsák (sack)
nyár (summer)	kenyér (bread)	nyeremény (prize)

Check your pronunciation

New exercises

• Recall the meaning of the words in the Vocabulary section.
• The words are essentially in alphabetical order, but there are two mistakes. Can you spot them?
• Suffixes (Plural)
  • Suffix the following nouns with the plural morpheme (-k): könyv, föld, kör, sál, kád, lány, ember, ország, város, fogas, híd, narancs, nyeremény, zsák, kenyér, rózsa, kutya, csík, szőlő, tyúk, nyár

(For the solutions see the Exercises section of the next chapter.)

Vocabulary

Alacsony, alma, álmos, asztal, barát, barna, csacsi, csak, csík, csúnya, ember, éhes, erős, fáradt, fehér, fekete, férfi, fiú, fogas, fogás, föld, győz, hát, ház, híd, hit, hosszú, ír, kád, kék, kenyér, kérdez, kerek, kis/kicsi, köd, könyv, kör, kutya, lány, lenni (= inf. of van), lepke, lila, magas, nagy, narancs(színű), négyszögletes, nő, nyár, nyeremény, ország, öröm, piros, rövid, rózsa, rózsaszín, sál, sárga, só, süt ve, szék, szép, szeret, szó, szőlő, szürke, szomjas, tyúk, ülni, város, vastag, vékony, vér, vörös, zöld, zsák

(If you are in trouble, see Vocabulary.)

Lessons: 1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — Vocab