Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Simone:Hello and welcome back to HungarianPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, season 2, lesson 18, See the Hungarian Elephants. I’m Simone.
Csaba:And I am Csaba.
Simone:In this lesson we’re going to combine two grammar points from before and learn how to pluralize and turn nouns into accusative.
Csaba:The conversation takes place in the Budapest zoo.
Simone:Between Anne and Balázs.
Csaba:Who use the informal language.
Simone:Let’s listen to the conversation.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Simone:Listener, you will run into none of these animals in Hungary.
Csaba:That is correct. Unfortunately, there aren’t really any huge predators or other cool stuff, like big cats trying to get you out of your car.
Simone:Which makes hiking in the Hungarian hills quite pleasant.
Csaba:If uneventful. Actually, there are a couple of poisonous snakes, but I have yet to see one outside a zoo. The vipers are very common in Europe, but it seems to me they only exist in tales in Hungary.
Simone:You miss being bitten?
Csaba:Well, no, but it would be cool to tell someone not to cross that patch of forest at night. Or something along those lines.
Simone:I’ve heard that for birdwatchers Hungary is a paradise.
Csaba:How does that compare to huge bears and wolves?
Simone:You can always go to the zoo...
Csaba:Let’s just go to vocab.
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Csaba:The first word we’re going to learn is darab.
Simone:Which means “piece.” Can you use it in a sentence, please?
Csaba:Hat darabot kérek.
Simone:“I’d like six pieces, please.”
Csaba:Hat darabot kérek. You can say this with any number of course, while pointing at the thing you are asking for. This is a neat trick to avoid the noun you may not know how to say.
Simone:Good. In that last sentence it was in the accusative, right?
Csaba:Right. Darabot.
Simone:Do I really need this in the sentence?
Csaba:No. We use it often, to replace the noun we have already mentioned in the previous discussion, but the sentence works without it too.
Simone:You could just say: “I’d like six.”
Csaba:Hatot kérek. 2X
Simone:Let’s move on.
Csaba:The next one is, and please pay attention to the tone here: De jó!
Simone:Again, please.
Csaba:De jó!
Simone:“So cool.”
Csaba:Something like that. I can also produce the same words with a different tone to sound sarcastic.
Simone:Go ahead!
Csaba:De jó!
Simone:“That’s just perfect.”
Csaba:Yep. Listen to this part again to master the tone. Sarcasm cannot be half-hearted.
Simone:All right. One more vocab item before we go to grammar?
Csaba:Repeat this: Nagyon állat!
Simone:“Very... animal?!”
Csaba:In Hungarian slang, if something is “very animal,” that thing is “cool, awesome.”
Simone:Nice. let’s hear it again.
Csaba:Nagyon állat.
Simone:Is this dirty in any way?
Csaba:Not at all. You probably don’t hear it from your grandmother or at the office, but it is not bad language. That’s about it for this part, let’s go to grammar.
Simone:De jó! (sarcastically)
Csaba:Ha ha, well remembered.
GRAMMAR POINT
Simone:In this lesson we’re going to combine two all-time favorites: plurals and accusatives.
Csaba:It was a mistake to introduce Simone to sarcasm.
Simone:(laughs)
Csaba:But she’s right. The first thing you have to realize is that a sentence may contain a noun that is plural and in the object position, and therefore accusative.
Simone:And in that case you have to add both the plural and the accusative ending. What was the first word?
Csaba:Zsiráfokat
Simone:“The giraffes.” Walk us through how it is built up.
Csaba:Zsiráf is the base noun.
Simone:Then you add the plural.
Csaba:Zsiráfok.
Simone:Than you add the accusative ending.
Csaba:Zsiráfokat. We talked about choosing the right plural ending before and in lesson 5 we also mentioned accusative endings. This time, when we need to make a plural noun accusative, there are two endings you can choose from.
Simone:What are those endings?
Csaba:-at and -et, depending on the vowels, as usual.
Simone:All right. I’ll give you a word, you make it plural, then accusative, then use it in a sentence. “Parent.”
Csaba:Szülő, szülők, szülőket. Meglátogatom a szülőket.
Simone:“I am visiting the parents.” The next one should be “beer.”
Csaba:Sör, sörök, söröket. Hozom a söröket.
Simone:“I am bringing the beers.”
Csaba:What you should remember is that the order of the endings is always like this. First plural, then accusative.
Simone:Just out of curiosity, how many endings can you stack up on a noun?
Csaba:Let’s not get into this now... We don’t want to scare anyone...
Simone:Is it that bad?
Csaba:Well, Hungarian is a prime example of what is called agglutinative languages. These are the languages that like to join obscene amounts of stuff to words to get to certain meanings.
Simone:De jó...
Csaba:I am totally ignoring this. There is logic in this all, however. Just stick with these lessons and in time we’ll explain it all.
Simone:All right, listener. This is the takeaway: first attach the plural ending, then the accusative.

Outro

Csaba:That’s the spirit. Go check out the lesson notes and we’ll catch you for the next lesson.
Simone:Bye!

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