Learn about the verb "to like, love" szeret using an informal conversation as an example
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Simone: Hello everyone, this is absolute beginner, season 1, lesson 16: Do You Love Hungarian Badminton? My name is Simone. |
| Gergo: And I am Gergo. |
| Simone: In this lesson you are going to learn how to use the verb “like,” and inquire about someone’s hobbies. |
| Gergo: The conversation takes place on the street. |
| Simone: Between Anne and Balázs. |
| Gergo: You are all familiar with them by now, they use the informal speech. |
| Simone: Take it away. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Anne: Szeretsz tollasozni? |
| Balázs: Szeretek, de nem nagyon tudok. Pingpongozni jobban szeretek. |
| Anne: Azt én is szeretek. Ráérsz szombaton? |
| Balázs: Persze. Mikor? |
| Anne: Délelőtt tízkor találkozzunk. |
| Balázs: Oké. |
| English Host: Let's listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Anne: Szeretsz tollasozni? |
| Balázs: Szeretek, de nem nagyon tudok. Pingpongozni jobban szeretek. |
| Anne: Azt én is szeretek. Ráérsz szombaton? |
| Balázs: Persze. Mikor? |
| Anne: Délelőtt tízkor találkozzunk. |
| Balázs: Oké. |
| With Translation |
| Anne: Szeretsz tollasozni? |
| Anne: “Do you like playing badminton?” |
| Balázs: Szeretek, de nem nagyon tudok. Pingpongozni jobban szeretek. |
| Balázs: “Yes, but I am not very good. I prefer playing pingpong.” |
| Anne: Azt én is szeretek. Ráérsz szombaton? |
| Anne: “I like that too. Are you free on Saturday?” |
| Balázs: Persze. Mikor? |
| Balázs: “Of course. When?” |
| Anne: Délelőtt tízkor találkozzunk. |
| Anne: “Let’s meet at ten am.” |
| Balázs: Oké. |
| Balázs: “OK.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Simone: That’s it for this lesson. A date and sports at the same time, huh? |
| Gergo: Yep. You have to admit though, pingpong is a lot more romantic than soccer practice. |
| Simone: Or a water polo game. There is a lot of screaming there. |
| Gergo: Both in and out of the pool. That’s just how the sport is. On the other hand, you should probably go to a game once in your life. |
| Simone: Yes, it is a lot of fun when the national team plays. Everyone is very excited and there is a lot of emotion. |
| Gergo: No wonder, Hungary’s always been good and the European championships are exciting, with a lot of worthy opponents. |
| Simone: And crying, every now and than. |
| Gergo: Fortunately not very often. Less often than the aforementioned soccer games. Those are often painful to watch. |
| Simone: Let’s not get into that today; I’ve heard you complain enough about team Hungary! |
| Gergo: All right, for the sake of civility, let’s just do vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gergo: szeret |
| Simone: “likes, loves” |
| Gergo: sze-ret |
| Gergo: szeret |
| Gergo: tollasozik |
| Simone: “plays badminton” |
| Gergo: tol-la-so-zik |
| Gergo: tollasozik |
| Gergo: tud |
| Simone: “knows” |
| Gergo: tud |
| Gergo: tud |
| Gergo: pingpongozik |
| Simone: “plays pingpong” |
| Gergo: ping-pon-go-zik |
| Gergo: pingpongozik |
| Gergo: jobban |
| Simone: “better, more” |
| Gergo: job-ban |
| Gergo: jobban |
| Gergo: ráér |
| Simone: “has time” |
| Gergo: rá-ér |
| Gergo: ráér |
| Gergo: szombat |
| Simone: “Saturday” |
| Gergo: szom-bat |
| Gergo: szombat |
| Gergo: délelőtt |
| Simone: “morning” |
| Gergo: dé-le-lőtt |
| Gergo: délelőtt |
| Gergo: találkozik |
| Simone: “meets” |
| Gergo: ta-lál-ko-zik |
| Gergo: találkozik |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Simone: Let’s talk about some of these in more detail. |
| Gergo: The first useful expression is ráér or in English “has time to do something.” |
| Simone: How would you use it in a sentence? For example, “do you have time tomorrow?” |
| Gergo: Please repeat: Ráérsz holnap? |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Ráérsz holnap? |
| Simone: Let’s hope for a positive answer! Please repeat. |
| Gergo: Ráérek. |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Ráérek. These are already conveniently pre-conjugated for you. If you want to say “I don’t have time” the expression changes a bit. |
| Simone: Let’s hear it. |
| Gergo: Nem érek rá. |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Nem érek rá. |
| Simone: Then we had “know, can.” |
| Gergo: Right, in the first person singular, you’d have to say tudok. |
| Simone: “I know, I can.” Give us an example, like, “I know a good place.” |
| Gergo: Tudok egy jó helyet. |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Tudok egy jó helyet. |
| Simone: How do you ask the question: “Can you swim?” |
| Gergo: Please listen carefully: Tudsz úszni? |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Tudsz úszni? Basically, the first person is tudok, the second is tudsz, the third is tud. Just pop an infinitive after these to get a correct question-answer. |
| Simone: And remember, the infinitive ends in -ni. |
| Gergo: One more thing and then we go on to the grammar section. |
| Simone: “Let’s meet.” |
| Gergo: Right. In Hungarian, you can’t say “meet me,” or at least we use “let’s meet” more often. Please repeat. Találkozzunk! |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Találkozzunk! This verb is first person plural, imperative. |
| Simone: “Let’s meet at the pub.” How would you say this? |
| Gergo: Találkozzunk a kocsmában. |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Találkozzunk a kocsmában. |
| Simone: All right now, let’s go to grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Simone: In this lesson, we’ll learn how to make sentences by using the verb “like, love.” |
| Gergo: You’ll be able to ask and answer questions about your hobbies and the like. |
| Simone: So where do we start? |
| Gergo: First, I’ll tell you that the verb szeret in Hungarian means “like” when you use it with things, object and actions, but “love” when used with people. So keep this in mind, unless you really want to confess your love to someone. |
| Simone: You never know. How do you say “do you like playing badminton?” |
| Gergo: Szeretsz tollasozni? Szeretsz is “you like” and tollasozni is “to play badminton.” |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Szeretsz tollasozni? |
| Simone: In the first person singular, like in “I like, I do?” |
| Gergo: The short answer is szeretek. A full sentence: Szeretek tollasozni. |
| Simone: “I like to play badminton.” How do you say: “Do you like cooking?” |
| Gergo: Szeretsz főzni? |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Szeretsz főzni? Now, if you want to put a noun and not an infinitive after the verb, the conjugation changes a bit. |
| Simone: Let’s ask the question: “Do you like pork?” Please repeat: |
| Gergo: Szereted a sertéshúst? |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Szereted a sertéshúst? |
| Simone: Let’s say I do. |
| Gergo: Then you have to say: Szeretem. Szeretem a sertéshúst. |
| Simone: All right, what else do you have? |
| Gergo: This one is for the romantic minded listener. Let’s add no object to the verb. Repeat: Szeretsz? |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Szeretsz? |
| Simone: This way it means “do you love me?” |
| Gergo: Right. And the short answer is Szeretlek. |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Szeretlek. “I love you.” |
| Simone: Aww, that’s so nice, I like hanging out with you too. |
| Gergo: (laughs) That’s a bummer. But actually, you are right, Hungarians rarely use “love” when referring to people. For example the English “I love that guy” wouldn’t work with this verb. |
| Simone: How do you say that? |
| Gergo: Kedvelem az a fickót. Kedvelem is “fancy, like” and azt az fickót is “that guy.” |
| Simone: Repeat it please. |
| Gergo: Kedvelem az a fickót. Even between couples, you hear less of the “love you, love you too” than you would from English speakers. |
| Simone: Your point is... |
| Gergo: Say it only if you really mean it. |
| Simone: Haha, ok. That’s our message for today, and see you guys next time. |
| Gergo: Sziasztok. |
7 Comments
HideWhat is your favorite sport?
Hi Katie!
Beginner or not, we welcome your questions and we're glad your thinking about improving your vocab and language skills! Kepp up the good work!:thumbsup:
The noun you're looking for is szeretet.
Let me give you an example sentence:
A szeretet nagyon fontos.:heart:
"Love is very important."
A szeretet nem féltékeny.:heart:
"Love cannot be jealous."
:smile:
Do you have a specific sentence in mind?
Csaba
Team HungarianPod101.com
Szia!
I think I understand this lesson on how to use the word "love" as a verb in Hungarian. I am trying to figure out how to use it as a noun like in the sentence "Love makes a family". The use of that word in that sentence translates directly to "Szeretlet" in a translator, but I do not trust a translator to create proper use in a sentence. Sometimes it translates to a literal meaning. In this lesson, Gedgar talks about how serious it is to use Seret when talking about people. I am just a beginner here so maybe I am getting ahead of myself, but I am trying to make sense of the different uses :grin:
Hopefully you can help!
Koszonom, Katie (I haven't learned how to type the Hungarian alphabet on the keyboard yet so I apologize for the terrible spelling :disappointed:)
Hi Rich,
Most Hungarian verbs have an indefinite and definite conjugation.
You can find more details about verb conjugations in these lessons:
https://www.hungarianpod101.com/2012/07/09/lower-beginner-2-an-exciting-day-in-hungary/ , https://www.hungarianpod101.com/2012/07/16/lower-beginner-3-take-some-time-to-relax-in-hungary/ (indefinite),
https://www.hungarianpod101.com/2012/10/01/lower-beginner-14-do-you-know-that-hungarian-person/ (definite)
Please let us know if you need more help!
Thank you,
Ofelia
Team HungarianPod101.com
In this lesson you explain the use of different conjugations of szeret. Like szeretsz and szeretek. You them make mention of the difference when adding a noun. Is there a section on the rules of grammar for magyar nyelv.
Hi Amy,
Good question!
"találkozunk" - we meet
"találkozzunk" - let's meet
Enjoy learning with us!
Szép napot!
Gergő
Team HungarianPod101.com
In this lesson "találkozzunk" is spelled with two z's, but in lesson 25 it is spelled "találkozunk". Is it the same word? They sound the same to me.
Írja "találkozzunk" vagy "találkozunk"?