Learn how to talk about nationalities and countries in Hungarian using an informal conversation as an example
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| 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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