Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

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

Simone:Until next time, see you!
Csaba:Sziasztok.

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