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. |
9 Comments
HideWhat time do you usually have breakfast?
Hi Valentina,
There is a difference in meaning:
"sarok" means "corner"
"sarkon" means "at the corner"
Thanks for the comment!
Zsuzsanna
Team HungarianPod101.com
Hello! I have a question regarding the word "corner" featured here.
In some parts of the transcript it says "Sarkon" and in others it says "Sarok". Even in the audio lesson they use both but it's never explained whether it's just two ways of saying the same word. Is that the case?
Thank you in advance for your help!
Szia Maggie!
Good question! 😎
The first sentence: "De én nem Debrecenbe megyek." means, that Debrecen is not the town I'm going to. I'm going to an other town. The town is emphasised.
The second sentence: "De én nem megyek Debrecenbe." means that I'm not going to Debrecen, someone else is going there. In this sentence the subject (me) is emphasised.
Thanks for your comment.
Zsuzsanna
Team HungarianPod101.com
szia😄
From the lesson note ：
"De én nem Debrecenbe megyek." means
"but I'm not going to Debrecen."
How about "De én nem megyek Debrecenbe."means?
Szia Robin!
Köszönjük a hozzászólásod!
You weak up early...:wink:
on weekdays - hétköznap
on weekends - hétvégén
Why do you have to weak up so early on weekends?
Szép napot!
Gergő
Team HungarianPod101.com
Fél hétkor eszem reggelit (on weekdays), hétkor ezem reggelit (on weekends).
Szia Patrick!
Thank you for your answer!
I hope you dont mind if I fix few things in your sentence:
Nem eszem reggelit, csak egy kávét vagy egy csésze teát(iszom). Azutan megyek dolgozni (vagy munkába) nyolckor.
Milyen messze van a munkahelyed az otthonodtól?
Szép napot kívánok!
Gergo
Team HungarianPod101.com
Nem eszem reggelit csák egy kávé vagy csésze teát. Azután megyyek dolgozba nyolckor.