Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

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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