Learn how to ask and answer the question "Where are you going?" from an informal conversation between two friends on the street
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Simone: Hi everyone, and welcome to Absolute Beginner series 1, lesson 12: Where in Hungary Are You Going? |
| My name is Simone. |
| Gergo: And I am Gergo. |
| Simone: In this lesson, you are going to learn how to use the verb “to go” and ask questions like “where are you going?” |
| Gergo: The conversation is on the street, possibly quite late. |
| Simone: And it is between Balázs and Anne. |
| Gergo: Which of course means that they talk informally. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Anne: Hová mész? |
| Balázs: A kisboltba megyek. Te is jössz? |
| Anne: Én is megyek. Hol van a bolt? |
| Balázs: Itt a sarkon. Nincs messze. |
| Anne: Menjünk. |
| English Host: Let's listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Anne: Hová mész? |
| Balázs: A kisboltba megyek. Te is jössz? |
| Anne: Én is megyek. Hol van a bolt? |
| Balázs: Itt a sarkon. Nincs messze. |
| Anne: Menjünk. |
| English Host: Let's listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| Anne: Hová mész? |
| Anne: “Where are you going?” |
| Balázs: A kisboltba megyek. Te is jössz? |
| Balázs: “I’m going to the shop. Are you coming too?” |
| Anne: Én is megyek. Hol van a bolt? |
| Anne: “I am going too. Where is the shop?” |
| Balázs: Itt a sarkon. Nincs messze. |
| Balázs: “Right around the corner. Not far.” |
| Anne: Menjünk. |
| Anne: “Let’s go.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Simone: So they are going to a seven-eleven kind of thing? |
| Gergo: Yes, you’ll find quite a lot of places to buy stuff at night in Hungary. |
| Simone: Yeah, that doesn’t mean good food though. |
| Gergo: Unfortunately not. Normally you can find any kind of restaurant in Budapest, but once it’s past ten o’clock... |
| Simone: You either drink until you’re not hungry anymore, or go to a McDonald’s. |
| Gergo: Well, besides all the junk food, you can also find Turkish restaurants that are open all night. If you don’t mind that all of them taste exactly the same. |
| Simone: That’s your punishment for staying out too late and not cooking at home! |
| Gergo: On the other hand, getting up early will reward you with a lot of good food at markets. |
| Simone: Enough of this, the microphone is picking up your rumbling stomach. Let's get to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gergo: megy |
| Simone: “go” |
| Gergo: megy |
| Gergo: megy |
| Gergo: kisbolt |
| Simone: “store, grocer” |
| Gergo: kis-bolt |
| Gergo: kisbolt |
| Gergo: jön |
| Simone: “come” |
| Gergo: jön |
| Gergo: jön |
| Gergo: hol |
| Simone: “where” |
| Gergo: hol |
| Gergo: hol |
| Gergo: bolt |
| Simone: “shop, store” |
| Gergo: bolt |
| Gergo: bolt |
| Gergo: itt |
| Simone: “here” |
| Gergo: itt |
| Gergo: itt |
| Gergo: sarok |
| Simone: “on the corner” |
| Gergo: sarok |
| Gergo: sarok |
| Gergo: nincs |
| Simone: “don’t have, not” |
| Gergo: nincs |
| Gergo: nincs |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Simone: What are we talking about now? |
| Gergo: The first word is kisbolt, “small store.” Or to be more precise, it also had a case marker attached: kisboltba, “to the store.” |
| Simone: And I believe we also had a shorter word, bolt. |
| Gergo: That also means “store, grocer.” They are heading to one of the smaller stores that usually stay open longer, some of them all night. |
| Simone: Yes, they have a special non-English English name if I remember correctly. |
| Gergo: Non-stop. |
| Simone: That is almost English. Shall we move on? |
| Gergo: Sure. The next word is menjünk. This literally means “let’s go.” |
| Simone: A useful word to have. |
| Gergo: Usually there is a place after menjünk, or at least, just like in this lesson, we already know which place we were talking about. |
| Simone: How would you say “let’s go” in a more general sense? |
| Gergo: If you want to use the Hungarian version of “let’s go” to urge people to do something, you have to say gyerünk. |
| Simone: It is more about “let’s do it, come on come on.” |
| Gergo: Right. Next word? |
| Simone: Gyerünk! |
| Gergo: Well used. The next word is nincs. This can be translated into English at least three ways. |
| Simon: Let’s go through them now. The sentence from the lesson was nincs messze. |
| Gergo: This means “it isn’t far.” But the same word is used for “don’t have.” |
| Simone: Let’s see: “I don’t have a younger sister.” |
| Gergo: Too bad...haha. Repeat: Nincs húgom. |
| Simone: And what’s the third meaning than? |
| Gergo: Finally, please repeat: Nincs itt senki. |
| Simone: This one means: “There is no-one here.” In this case we use nincs like “there is not.” |
| Gergo: Right. We’ll have more to say about these later. |
| Simone: Grammar? |
| Gergo: Gyerünk! |
Lesson focus |
| Simone: Grammar time. Brought to you by Gergo. |
| Gergo: In this lesson, we’re going to focus on how to ask and answer the question: “Where are you going?” or in Hungarian, please repeat: Hova mész? |
| Simone: Hova is? |
| Gergo: Hova means “to where.” I think we have already covered mész, which is “you are going.” |
| Simone: This is the informal version. These guys are already great friends, right? |
| Gergo: Sure. If you want to use the more polite version, please repeat: Hova megy? |
| Simone: “Where are you going?” - formal. And as usual, we remind you that the formal 'you' is like he/she. |
| Gergo. Therefore the question also means “where is he going?” |
| Simone: All right, how do we answer “where are you going”? |
| Gergo: Please repeat: A kisboltba megyek. |
| Simone: “I’m going to the store.” Now, anything plus megyek means “I’m going to...” |
| Gergo: Well done. |
| Simone: All right, how do you say “I’m going downtown.” |
| Gergo: Please repeat: A belvárosba megyek. |
| Simone: Let’s do “I’m not going to the store” now. |
| Gergo: Repeat: Nem megyek a boltba. Nem of course means “no, not, don’t.” |
| Simone: How do you say “I’m not going to school.” |
| Gergo: Repeat: Nem megyek az iskolába. All right, we’ll do little trick with the word order now. By rearranging the word order, you get a very different meaning. |
| Simone: Let’s see.... |
| Gergo: Say: nem a boltba megyek. |
| Simone: This one means something like “It is not the store I’m going to.” |
| Gergo: Right. Look at the word order again: Nem a boltba megyek. The idea is that in Hungarian, whatever is put before the verb is called the focus of the sentence. It gets a bit of emphasis, basically. |
| Simone: How do you say: “It’s not that way I’m going.” |
| Gergo: Listen and repeat: Nem arra megyek. |
| Simone: Well, that was pretty cool. |
| Gergo: I’m glad you’re so much into grammar. |
| Simone: Haha, I was just being polite. Everyone, please tune in again next time too. Until then: bye! |
| Gergo: Sziasztok. |
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