INTRODUCTION |
Simone:Hi everyone, welcome back to HungarianPod101.com This is Lower Beginner, season 1, lesson 14, Do You Know That Hungarian Person? I’m Simone. |
Csaba:And I’m Csaba. |
Simone:In this lesson we’re going to cover a bit more about definite conjugation. In a way, this is a continuation of our last lesson. |
Csaba:That’s right, and the dialogue takes place on the street. |
Simone:As usual, it’s between Anne and Balázs. |
Csaba:They use the informal language. |
Simone:Let’s listen to the conversation. |
POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
Simone:This is the dialogue for this lesson and I have a feeling you’ll have a lot of grammar to explain. |
Csaba:I will, but only after noticing how much confidence the students have in Anne. Always talking to her in Hungarian. |
Simone:Don’t you think it might just be their bad English? |
Csaba:Well, if not “bad” than maybe inexperienced? Most of the post-’89 educated students will speak some English. But it is true that not many had chances to try their language abilities on actual foreigners. |
Simone:I see, and what about the older generation? |
Csaba:Well, very few of the elderly speak any English. Middle-aged people also had to spend long hours studying Russian and German instead. These two were preferred to English in Hungary for a long time. |
Simone:So, your best bet if you want to speak English is young people. |
Csaba:Why would you do that? We gave you enough Hungarian already... |
Simone:(laughs) All right, that’s our message for the day: Use your Hungarian. Let’s go to the vocab. |
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
Simone:What is the first expression we have to learn? |
Csaba:Srác is the first word we have. It means “guy, dude.” |
Simone:Give us a sentence with that. How do you say: “Hi guys!” |
Csaba:Sziasztok srácok. |
Simone:“Hi guys!” |
Csaba:Sziasztok srácok. Remember however that this excludes women. For girls, you can say csaj. |
Simone:“Girl, chick.” How do you say “hi girls” then? |
Csaba:Sziasztok csajok. |
Simone:“Hi girls!” |
Csaba:Sziasztok csajok. |
Simone:What’s next? |
Csaba:You can say halihó when you want to draw attention to yourself. |
Simone:Say it like you were entering the room and you wanted me to pay attention to me. |
Csaba:Halihó! |
Simone:Again. |
Csaba:Halihó! |
Simone:This sounds somewhat cutesy. |
Csaba:And it is. If you are going into the immigration office, you probably don’t want to be this cute. |
Simone:Ok, so what do I say there? |
Csaba:Just “good afternoon” or Jó napot will do. |
Simone:I’ll remember that. What else do you want to mention? |
Csaba:One last word today. Anne uses the word suli. |
Simone:“School.” |
Csaba:Suli. This actually is an informal way of calling your school. Suli. |
Simone:What is the normal word for “school?” |
Csaba:Iskola. 2X |
Simone:But you don’t use it? |
Csaba:Well, unless you are in a very formal situation, you’d probably say suli instead. |
Simone:All righty. One sentence with this please. |
Csaba:A suli bezárt. |
Simone:“School’s out.” |
Csaba:A suli bezárt. |
Simone:Thanks. Now let’s go to the grammar. |
GRAMMAR POINT |
Simone:In this lesson we’re going to start working on the definite present tense conjugation of verbs. |
Csaba:Right. Do you remember from our first few lessons of this season that Hungarian has definite and indefinite conjugation? |
Simone:Of course. We learned indefinite conjugation before. This is used when the object following the verb is indefinite. Just like in “I see a dog.” |
Csaba:Yes. Now we’re going to learn the definite conjugation. When you say something like... |
Simone:...“I see the dog.” |
Csaba:Right. |
Simone:So how do we do this? |
Csaba:I’ll pick a verb from this lesson. Lát. |
Simone:“See.” |
Csaba:Now, you say the person, I say the Hungarian. |
Simone:“I see.” |
Csaba:Látom. 2X |
Simone:“You see.” |
Csaba:Látod. 2X |
Simone:“He/she sees.” |
Csaba:Látja. 2X |
Simone:“We see.” |
Csaba:Látjuk. 2X |
Simone:“You see.” Plural. |
Csaba:Látjátok. 2X |
Simone:“They see.” |
Csaba:Látják. 2X |
Simone:As usual, you can read the full conjugation table with all the vowel variants in the lesson notes. |
Csaba:And we strongly suggest you get into those! |
Simone:That’s right. Let’s hear a couple of examples now. “I see the guy.” |
Csaba:Látom a srácot. |
Simone:“I see the guy.” |
Csaba:Látom a srácot. |
Simone:How do you say: “Do you know Peter?” |
Csaba:Ismered Pétert? Here, the base word is ismer or “know/is familiar with.” |
Simone:Repeat again, please: |
Csaba:Ismered Pétert? |
Simone:Let’s answer now. “I don’t know Peter.” |
Csaba:Nem ismerem Pétert. |
Simone:Again. |
Csaba:Nem ismerem Pétert. |
Simone:All right. So basically we go back to the tables and try our luck with verbs from the dictionary. |
Csaba:Exactly. You have a good chance of producing grammatically correct conjugated verbs, unless you pick -ik verbs or verbs ending in -s, -sz, -z. |
Simone:And we’ll cover those later. Anything else? |
Csaba:Right. There is a strange anomaly in verb conjugation. That is, if the subject is “I” and the object is “you,” both singular and plural, then the ending changes. |
Simone:So in sentences like “I see you.” |
Csaba:Látlak. |
Simone:The ending is -lak. |
Csaba:Or -lek. |
Simone:Wait a minute. So “I love you” will be something similar. |
Csaba:And I’m guessing some of our listeners know that already. Szeretlek. |
Simone:Say that again. |
Csaba:Szeretlek. |
Simone:Since the ending itself contains the meaning “I you,” you don’t need anything else into the sentence. |
Csaba:This is true in all cases. |
Simone:Well, I think that is enough for now. |
Csaba:I agree. Go look at the conjugation table and refresh your knowledge of vowel harmony as well. That is essential for doing all of this. |
Outro
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Simone:Until next time, see you! |
Csaba:Sziasztok. |
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