Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Simone: Hi everyone and welcome to Absolute Beginner, season 1, lesson 23: Do you Speak Hungarian? My name is Simone.
Gergo: And I am Gergo.
Simone: In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to use the names of countries and nationalities.
Gergo: The dialogue is at Anne’s apartment complex.
Simone: The dialogue is between Anne and a friendly neighbor.
Gergo: They are using the informal language because they are on friendly terms.
Simone: Let’s listen to the dialogue now.

Lesson conversation
Szomszéd: Beszélsz magyarul?
Anne: Egy kicsit beszélek.
Szomszéd: Á, nagyon jól beszélsz!
Anne: Nem, tényleg csak egy kicsit.
Szomszéd: Ne szerénykedj! Biztos jó a tanárod is.
Anne: Az igaz.
English Host: Let's listen to the conversation one time slowly.
Szomszéd: Beszélsz magyarul?
Anne: Egy kicsit beszélek.
Szomszéd: Á, nagyon jól beszélsz!
Anne: Nem, tényleg csak egy kicsit.
Szomszéd: Ne szerénykedj! Biztos jó a tanárod is.
Anne: Az igaz.
With Translation
Szomszéd: Beszélsz magyarul?
Neighbor: “Do you speak Hungarian?”
Anne: Egy kicsit beszélek.
Anne: “I speak a little.”
Szomszéd: Á, nagyon jól beszélsz!
Neighbor: “Wow, you speak very well.”
Anne: Nem, tényleg csak egy kicsit.
Anne: “No, really just little.”
Szomszéd: Ne szerénykedj! Biztos jó a tanárod is.
Neighbor: “Don’t be so modest. I’m sure your teacher is very good too.”
Anne: Az igaz.
Anne: “That’s true.”
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Simone: She is very modest compared to her excellent pronunciation.
Gergo: I think she’s already gotten used to the Hungarian modesty thing.
Simone: Yes, don’t take credit for anything...
Gergo: That’s how it is, it’s just more polite to say “no, no” than thanking someone right away. That doesn’t mean that a little bit of a compliment doesn’t help things...
Simone: And you seem to take them well enough, without being too modest.
Gergo: (mumbles) No, no, I am really nothing special...
Simone: All right, cut it out. Let’s do some vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Gergo: beszél
Simone: “speak”
Gergo: be-szél
Gergo: beszél
Gergo: magyar
Simone: “Hungarian”
Gergo: ma-gyar
Gergo: magyar
Gergo: kicsit
Simone: “a little”
Gergo: ki-csit
Gergo: kicsit
Gergo: tényleg
Simone: “really”
Gergo: tény-leg
Gergo: tényleg
Gergo: csak
Simone: “just”
Gergo: csak
Gergo: csak
Gergo: szerénykedik
Simone: “being modest”
Gergo: sze-rény-ke-dik
Gergo: szerénykedik
Gergo: biztos
Simone: “sure”
Gergo: biz-tos
Gergo: biztos
Gergo: tanár
Simone: “teacher”
Gergo: ta-nár
Gergo: tanár
Gergo: igaz
Simone: “true”
Gergo: i-gaz
Gergo: igaz
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Simone: Well, what do you have for us now?
Gergo: First, we have the expression “Ne szerénykedj.” which means “don’t be so modest.”
Simone: Please repeat.
Gergo: Ne szerénykedj.
{pause}
Gergo. Ne szerénykedj. Ne is “don’t,” szerénykedj is “be modest.”
Simone: Just like we said before, Hungarians are very often overly modest. A friendly pat on the back complemented with this sentence is a polite way to acknowledge someone’s achievement.
Gergo: Very good assessment Simone. The first word is ne. You can stick this in front of any kind of verb.
Simone: How would you ask me not to leave?
Gergo: I wouldn’t.
Simone: Come on, concentrate. Everyone, please repeat.
Gergo: Ne menj!
{pause}
Gergo: Ne menj!
Simone: How do you ask someone not to smoke around you.
Gergo: Kérem ne gyújtson rá.
{pause}
Gergo: Kérem ne gyújtson rá.
Simone: This is conjugated formal, right?
Gergo: Yes, for maximum effect.
Simone: What else is there?
Gergo: We had the word biztos...
Simone: which means “surely, for sure.”
Gergo: Right. You can stick this in front of any sentence when you need a bit of confirmation.
Simone: How do you say: “you must be tired.” Please everyone, repeat the sentence.
Gergo: Biztos fáradt vagy.
{pause}
Gergo: Biztos fáradt vagy.
Simone: How do you say “I’m not sure yet.”
Gergo: This is a very useful sentence, please repeat: Még nem biztos.
{pause}
Gergo: Még nem biztos. The good thing about this phrase is that it can be used to refer to anything, it is not conjugated to “me” as such.
Simone: So for example I ask you: Ő jön? “Is she coming?”
Gergo: Még nem biztos. “Not sure yet.”
Simone: All right, let’s go to grammar.

Lesson focus
Simone: In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to use the words referring to nationalities and languages.
Gergo: If you guys remember, last time we learned a couple of country names, many of which ended in the word ország.
Simone: Which in itself means “country.”
Gergo: If you want to turn those into an adjective to say something like “a person or a thing from that country” you have to cut off ország from the end.
Simone: So give us an example.
Gergo: The most obvious one is Magyarország.
Simone: “Hungary”
Gergo: Magyar.
Simone: Hungarian. Say the two of them together please.
Gergo: Magyarország – magyar. There is one last step though. Before you can say “in Hungarian” or “Hungarian language” you need to add one of the two following endings: -ul, -ül. Which one is used with which noun? You have to go back to the rules of vowel harmony we discussed before.
Simone: So let’s hear all three of them now.
Gergo: Magyarország – magyar – magyarul.
Simone: “Hungary, Hungarian, in Hungarian.”
Gergo: Magyarország – magyar – magyarul.
Simone: “Hungary, Hungarian, in Hungarian.” That’s how we had “Do you speak Hungarian?”
Gergo: Beszélsz magyarul?
Simone: These work with all country names that have the word ország in them. Now what about the others?
Gergo: Well, others are tricky, the best way is to learn them one by one. But we’ll give you a few examples anyway.
Simone: How do you say: “America” and “American?”
Gergo: Amerika – amerikai. This one is also possible to add the ending to, but it is not used.
Simone: Just like you rarely hear “in American.” How about English though? Say “England, English, in English.”
Gergo: Anglia, angol, angolul.
Simone: Again please.
Gergo: Anglia, angol, angolul.
Simone: How do you say: “I don’t speak English.”
Gergo: Nem beszélek angolul.
{pause}
Gergo: Nem beszélek angolul.
Simone: One last: “Italy, Italian, in Italian.”
Gergo: Olaszország, olasz, olaszul.
{pause}
Gergo: Olaszország, olasz, olaszul.
Simone: How do you say: “I speak Italian well.”
Gergo: Jól beszélek olaszul.
{pause}
Gergo: Jól beszélek olaszul. Remember to pick up our lesson notes, with more countries and examples as well as the conjugation table for “speak.”
Simone: That is a good outro. See you guys next time.
Gergo: Sziasztok.

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