Learn when to use formal and informal Hungarian
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Simone: Hi everyone, Simone here! This is Absolute Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 3: Getting Formal in Hungarian. |
| Gergo: And I am Gergo. Sziasztok! |
| Simone: In this lesson we’re going to learn how to greet someone in a formal situation. |
| Gergo: That’s right, we are going formal. The conversation takes place in Anne’s future office. |
| Simone: It is between Anne and her boss, Mr. Szabó.. |
| Gergo: Since Mr. Szabó is her new boss, they are using the formal speech. |
| Simone: OK, Listen carefully everyone. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Anne: Jó napot kívánok! |
| Szabó úr: Jó napot, kisasszony. Hogy van? |
| Anne: Jól vagyok, köszönöm. És ön? |
| Szabó úr: Én is, köszönöm szépen. Foglaljon helyet. |
| Anne: Köszönöm. |
| English Host: Let's listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Anne: Jó napot kívánok! |
| Szabó úr: Jó napot, kisasszony. Hogy van? |
| Anne: Jól vagyok, köszönöm. És ön? |
| Szabó úr: Én is, köszönöm szépen. Foglaljon helyet. |
| Anne: Köszönöm. |
| With Translation |
| Anne: Jó napot kívánok! |
| Anne: “Good afternoon!” |
| Szabó úr: Jó napot, kisasszony. Hogy van? |
| Mr. Szabó: “Good afternoon, miss! How are you?” |
| Anne: Jól vagyok, köszönöm. És ön? |
| Anne: “I’m fine, thank you. How about you?” |
| Szabó úr: Én is, köszönöm szépen. Foglaljon helyet. |
| Szabó úr: “Me too, thank you very much. Please take a seat.” |
| Anne: Köszönöm. |
| Anne: “Thank you.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Simone: So this gentleman Anne is talking to is her new boss, right? |
| Gergo: That's right. Szabó úr, or “Mister Szabó,” is the boss at the language school Anne is going to work for. |
| Simone: They used a whole new set of greetings today. This is because it's a formal situation. |
| Gergo: Yes. The basic situations where formal language is used are when someone is visibly much older than you are, when someone is your superior, or when you don’t know someone, like a store clerk. This last one is used noticeably less, however. |
| Simone: That means you can say “hi” to store clerks, but not your boss. |
| Gergo: Yes, most of the time. When you are in doubt, wait for them to greet you first then adapt to that. We’ll talk about this more in detail soon. |
| Simone: All right, shall we get to it now? |
| Gergo: One more thing that I want to tell our listeners. Hungarian people will be ecstatic that you even try learning Hungarian and dare speaking it to locals. Absolutely nothing happens if you screw up the conjugations. |
| Simone: That is reassuring. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Simone: Now let’s take a look at the phrases and expressions of this lesson. |
| Gergo: Jó napot kívánok! |
| Simone: “Good afternoon!” |
| Gergo: Jó napot kívánok! |
| Gergo: Jó napot kívánok! |
| Gergo: jó |
| Simone: “good” |
| Gergo: jó |
| Gergo: jó |
| Gergo: kisasszony |
| Simone: “miss” |
| Gergo: kisasszony |
| Gergo: kisasszony |
| Gergo: nap |
| Simone: “day” |
| Gergo: nap |
| Gergo: nap |
| Gergo: kíván |
| Simone: “wish” |
| Gergo: kíván |
| Gergo: kíván |
| Gergo: van |
| Simone: “he/she/it is” or “you are (formal)” |
| Gergo: van |
| Gergo: van |
| Gergo: jól |
| Simone: “well” |
| Gergo: jól |
| Gergo: jól |
| Gergo: köszönöm |
| Simone: “thank you” |
| Gergo: köszönöm |
| Gergo: köszönöm |
| Gergo: és |
| Simone: “and” |
| Gergo: és |
| Gergo: és |
| Gergo: ön |
| Simone: “you” (formal) |
| Gergo: ön |
| Gergo: ön |
| Gergo: szépen |
| Simone: “very much” “nicely” |
| Gergo: szépen |
| Gergo: szépen |
| Gergo: Foglaljon helyet! |
| Simone: “Take a seat.” |
| Gergo: Foglaljon helyet! |
| Gergo: Foglaljon helyet! |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Simone: OK, let`s take a look at some of the words and phrases for this lesson. |
| Gergo: For sure. The first sentence was Jó napot kívánok. |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Jó napot kívánok. |
| Simone: This is a very polite way to say “Good afternoon.” |
| Gergo: The first two words, jó napot means “good day”. This is actually already enough to say “Good afternoon”. |
| Simone: Yes, we will see and hear this shorter form a lot. |
| Gergo: Right. But this time, since Anne is meeting her boss for the first time, she added kívánok, or “I wish” to sound even more polite. Jó napot kívánok. Very polite. |
| Simone: And the reply was? |
| Gergo: Jó napot, kisasszony. |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Jó napot, kisasszony. |
| Simone: “Good afternoon, miss.” |
| Gergo: Yes, we have jó napot again, than the word kisasszony, which means “miss”. |
| Simone: All right, what is the next sentence? |
| Gergo: Hogy van? Hogy van? |
| Simone: “How are you?” |
| Gergo: Then we have: Yes, but it is formal this time. |
| Simone: Kind of like “how are you sir?” |
| Gergo: Yes, but politeness is expressed even without the word “sir”. |
| Simone: All right, how do I answer? Please repeat. |
| Gergo: Jól vagyok, köszönöm. |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Jól vagyok, köszönöm. Yes, jól is “well”, and vagyok is “I am”, as you may remember. |
| Simone: And it is high time we learned the word for “thank you”. |
| Gergo: Köszönöm. |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Köszönöm. |
| Simone: Yes, naturally you hear this a lot. So she goes on to say... |
| Gergo: És ön? És ön? |
| Simone: Literally: “and you?”. |
| Gergo: Right, but this time “you” is formal. Ön. Ön. |
| Simone: All right, go on. |
| Gergo: Én is, köszönöm szépen. Én is, köszönöm szépen. |
| Simone: Én is means “me too”, right? |
| Gergo: Right, good job. Köszönöm szépen is like köszönöm, but even more elaborate. Köszönöm szépen. Köszönöm szépen. |
| Simone: What is szépen here? |
| Gergo: Szépen originally means “beautifully, nicely”, but here you can just say, “very much”. |
| Simone: OK, finally we had “take a seat, please”. |
| Gergo: Foglaljon helyet. |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Foglaljon helyet. Something like “take a place”, but the suffixes imply a polite request, so there isn’t actually a “please” here, only covertly. |
| Simone: That does it for the dialogue. Now it's time for a bit of grammar, everyone. |
| Gergo: Definitely. |
Lesson focus |
| Simone: So, Gergo, what’s the grammar point for today? |
| Gergo: This time, we’ll spend some time talking about the whole issue of politeness. |
| Simone: All right, but be considerate. Spare us all the technical lingo. |
| Gergo: Don’t worry, it’ll be as painless as possible. |
| Simone: OK, so in a nutshell, what’s the deal here? |
| Gergo: Hungarian has a complicated system of using the right form when trying to be polite. Luckily, you don’t have to know the whole thing just yet, only the first step. |
| Simone: Give us an example. |
| Gergo: We’ll use the last lesson’s material again. You remember how we said: “Are you a teacher?”. |
| Simone: Tanár vagy? |
| Gergo: Good. Now say: “Is he a teacher?”. |
| Simone: Ő tanár? I remember this: no verb, just a pronoun and the noun. |
| Gergo: Exactly. Now, if you want to be polite, you use third person conjugation and/or pattern with a second person pronoun, which is similar to “thee” in English. A polite you, essentially. |
| Simone: So say it please, Gergo. “Are you a teacher?” - formal. |
| Gergo: Ön tanár? Ön tanár? |
| Simone: “Are you a teacher?” - formal. Now what was the sentence in the dialogue? |
| Gergo: Hogy van? “How are you?” |
| Simone: Van means “he is” in this dialogue, right? |
| Gergo: Yes, hogy – “how?” and van – “he is”. |
| Simone: But it is aimed at the other person, right? |
| Gergo: Exactly, it is third person used in place of a second person verb form. |
| Simone: Is it always like this? |
| Gergo: Yes. Polite “you” equals “he/she” And of course all the conjugation, verb endings and whatnot that comes with the third person. |
| Simone: All right, a couple more examples please. |
| Gergo: Olasz vagy? Olasz vagy? |
| Simone: “Are you Italian?” - informal. |
| Gergo: Ön olasz? Ön olasz? |
| Simone: “Are you Italian?” - formal. |
| Gergo: This pronoun, ön, actually serves as a tool to distance yourself from the other person. It implies no personal connection beyond what your social role is. |
| Simone: Isn’t it a bit cold? |
| Gergo: Well, people who work together all the time very quickly go to tegeződés, which in Hungarian means “using the informal language.” |
| Simone: Yes, it is like a celebration of abandoning cumbersome language, which, if I recall correctly, involves a lot of booze. |
| Gergo: Yes, it does, quite often. Well, I think we did good today. |
| Simone: Just a question though. If I mess up...? |
| Gergo: No problem. Like I said, Hungarians will be extremely happy just to see you trying to speak their language. So don’t worry, just start talking. |
| Simone: And that is today’s PSA. Thanks, Gergo. |
| Gergo: So until next time... |
| Simone: Bye! |
| Gergo: Sziasztok. |
30 Comments
HideJó napot kívánok listeners!
How are you today? Hogy van?
Jó napot poom!
Örülök, hogy itt van!
We wish you good luck with your studies! 😇
Zsuzsanna
Team HungarianPod101.com
Jó napot kívánok mindenkinek!
Szia Vanja Petkovic,
Thank you so much for your kind message! 😇❤️️
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Good luck with your language studies.
Üdvözlettel:
Levente
Team HungarianPod101.com
This is the best application what you can find. 😍😍😍 I love it! ❤️
Hi Pang,
"Foglaljon helyet!" is a formal way to express: "Take a seat."
"Foglal" is the verb stem, means "take" in this case. (Other meaning is "reserve")
"-jon" ending shows that it is imperative.
Third person singular form should be used in formal sentences.
Let's see the other word: "helyet"
"hely" means "place" / "seat"
"-t" ending is added as it is accusative.
Jó tanulást!
Zsuzsanna
Team HungarianPod101.com
How could we understand the word Foglaljon helyet,
Could you seperate them and explain the each word meaning.
Thank you.
Szia Walt!
Thank you for your questions, it is important to make sure you get answers to your questions!
Actually, the word kisasszony is not at all an exception, and the "ny" is pronounced exactly the same way as in other words. However, there can be small differences depending on the pronunciation of each person, but it is the same for other languages!
If I pronounce it in a natural way, the "ny" kind of sounds like the beginning of the english word "new" pronounced in a British way: /njuː/ or the spanish niño.
There is actually no secret for pronunciation in Hungarian, the letters are always pronounced the same way! So, if you hear it in one word and not in another, it is perhaps simply because of the person or the audio recording. ?
Don't worry, your ears will get used to it!
Good luck,
Dorottya
Szia Dorottya.
Please forgive me, but I'm not sure you understand Boris's question. He asked, "you does not pronounce the 'y' in kisasszony and the second 'i' in kívánni ?"
I think Boris is asking the same question I have about the combination "ny", namely, how this combination is pronounced at the end of a word. I followed your suggestion and listened to the words "lány" and "hány" in the recorded dictionary, and also to "kisasszony". Here are the results according to my ears:
"lány": The recording of "lány" has some sort of sound after the "n", almost as if the word has two syllables: "lá" + "nyuh" (English "uh"). This terminal sound is clear in the slow recording and sort of audible in the fast recording.
"hány": The terminal "nyuh" sound may be audible in the dictionary's recording of "hány", but is not clear.
"kisasszony": No matter how hard I try, I cannot hear a terminal sound after the "n" in "kisasszony", even in the slow recording in the dictionary. Is the "y" silent at the end of this word? And if the "y" is in fact silent at the end of this word, why? And if so, should the result be similar to the Russian soft "n"?
What should Boris and I be listening for and saying when "ny" is at the end of a word?
Köszönöm,
Walt
Kedves Boris!
Thank you for your comment.
You are perfectly right! The combination of the letters "ny" is different from n + y in English.
If you would like to practice the pronunciation, please look up the following words in the dictionary (write these words in the search box on the upper right corner):
nyúl
lány
nyolc
anya
hány
aranyos
If you need any other examples, please don't hesitate to contact us!
Good luck,
Dorottya
Team HungarianPod101.com
you does not pronounce the "y" in kisasszony and the second "i" in kívánni ?