Learn start to learn about present tense verb conjugation
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Simone:Hi everyone and welcome to HungarianPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 2, An Exciting Day in Hungary. I’m Simone. |
| Csaba:And I am Csaba. Sziasztok. |
| Simone:In this lesson we’re going to lay the foundation for systematic verb conjugation. |
| Csaba:Yes, a very important topic. This dialogue takes place on the phone. |
| Simone:And it is between Anne and Balázs. |
| Csaba:You know them already, they are good friends, therefore they use the informal conjugation. |
| Simone:Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Simone:Seems easy enough. |
| Csaba:You’re probably the first one to say so. Hungarian has been called devilishly difficult, a novelty and crazy in presence. |
| Simone:Well, it definitely sounds somewhat jumbled and alien when you hear native Hungarian speakers talk fast. |
| Csaba:This is why Hollywood so often finds use of this language in Transylvanian vampire movies, where oddly enough, all the locals speak good English, except for the gnomes, goblins and other monsters, who scream in Hungarian. I’ve heard this happen. |
| Simone:Whereas in reality? |
| Csaba:In reality, all our monsters speak good English too. No, seriously, Hungarian is not more difficult than any other European language, just a bit less often heard. Unless you watch the Usual Suspects, Van Helsing or Blade Runner. |
| Simone:I’m sure it’s not more than a couple of lines. |
| Csaba:Of course, but they are all there to somehow give an exotic ring to the scene. They are almost always doing much worse in the pronunciation department than any of our listeners after just 5 lessons. |
| Simone:All right, all right, this isn’t your big shot at Hollywood. Let’s see the vocab section. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Simone:What is the first word you’re going to talk about? |
| Csaba:The first one is éppen. This word means “right now, at the moment.” |
| Simone:Listeners, please repeat: |
| Csaba:Éppen zuhanyozom. 2X |
| Simone:“I am taking a shower right now.” |
| Csaba:This word is very handy when you want to express the English continuous tenses in Hungarian. Since there is no such thing in Hungarian, using éppen is the closest you can to expressing that the action is going on at the moment of speaking. |
| Simone:How do you say this: “Thomas is sleeping right now.” |
| Csaba:Please repeat: Tamás éppen alszik. 2X |
| Simone:OK. What is the second word today? |
| Csaba:The second one is the beginning of a sentence. Na jó. |
| Simone:Please repeat again. |
| Csaba:Na jó. If you start your sentence saying this, that is like saying “all right” in English. |
| Simone:An example please. |
| Csaba:Na jó, kezdjük. 2X |
| Simone:In English, “all right, let’s begin.” |
| Csaba:Yes. Changing the tone a little bit, you convey reluctant agreement. |
| Simone:“All right, all right.” Like this? How would this sound in Hungarian? |
| Csaba:Na jó, na jó. |
| Simone:Let’s hear a full sentence. “All right, all right, I’ll do as you say.” |
| Csaba:Na jó, na jó, hallgatok rád. 2X |
| Simone:Right. One last word for this section. |
| Csaba:We heard the word mindjárt. |
| Simone:“Right away, soon.” |
| Csaba:Yes, it means exactly that. You may hear often: Mindjárt vége a sulinak. |
| Simone:Or school is over soon. But a slightly more practical sentence please. “I’ll be going in a minute.” |
| Csaba:Please repeat: Mindjárt megyek. 2X |
| Simone:All right, let’s move to our grammar section. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Simone:In this lesson, we’re going to talk about verb conjugation. We’ve done a couple of conjugation tables before, but that was more example-based learning. |
| Csaba:Whereas in this lesson, we’re also going to start teaching you the system of conjugation, which will later enable you to conjugate words without having to look them up in tables. |
| Simone:Now, this lesson is less about examples and more about rules. We promise there won’t be many of these in this season, but there are a couple of things we have to make clear for you. Csaba, why don’t you start explaining. |
| Csaba:The first thing is something we have mentioned before. In Hungarian, there is different conjugation for verbs depending on whether the following object is definite or indefinite. Not surprisingly, this is called definite conjugation and indefinite conjugation. |
| Simone:In practice, this will mean that the verb in the sentence “I see the dog” will be different from the verb in the sentence “I see a dog.” |
| Csaba:Right. You may remember this example from before. We will start by teaching you the indefinite conjugation. |
| Simone:How do I know if the noun is indefinite or definite? |
| Csaba:There are some clues. Indefinite nouns are often preceded by egy or “the.” Also, they can be preceded by a numeral, or a word referring to quantities, like sok. |
| Simone:Or “many.” |
| Csaba:And finally, some verbs like “sleep,” “come,” and “go” can’t have objects. These are normally conjugated indefinite. |
| Simone:All right. |
| Csaba:We are teaching you to conjugate indefinite, present tense verbs. Regular verbs, which is most of them, take the ending -ok, -ek, or -ök in first person. |
| Simone:So for example, the word tanul... |
| Csaba:will be tanulok. “I study.” We chose the ending -ok, this is determined by the vowel harmony. |
| Simone:Second person, or “you study?” |
| Csaba:Tanulsz. The ending is -sz. |
| Simone:Third person is always the dictionary form, therefore “he studies” is... |
| Csaba:Tanul. |
| Simone:Let’s go like this. I say the full phrase, you translate, but you also say all the possible forms of the ending. “We study.” |
| Csaba:Tanulunk. 2X -unk, -ünk. |
| Simone:“You study?” |
| Csaba:Tanultok. 2X -tok, -tek, -tök |
| Simone:“They study? |
| Csaba:Tanulnak. 2X -nak, -nek. |
| Simone:All right, what you’ve just heard is the indefinite conjugation of the word study, which is a regular verb, in present tense. |
Outro |
|---|
| Csaba:Right. Next time, we are going to practice conjugating other regular words in present tense, practice all this, and then learn a bit more. |
| Simone:We’ll take all this grammar nice and slow, don’t worry. Until next time, bye bye. |
| Csaba:Sziasztok. |
14 Comments
HideHave you watched any of the movies mentioned in this lesson? Did you notice the Hungarian dialogues in them?
Hello Efrat!
The conjugation of indefinite and definite forms are affected by accusative cases.
A verb can get an indefinite conjugation if it does not refer to an object, or if it does, but the object is indefinite.
Example 1: 'mosolyogsz' (you are smiling). (Does not have an object.)
Example 2: 'megnézek valamit' (I'm going to watch something). (Has an indefinite object.)
In general we don't use 'azt', etc. with indefinite forms, and definite forms are not used
with 'valamit' or 'semmit' either.
If the verb in the definite case does refer to an object it has to be a specific object so adding 'semmit' would not be correct.
Example: 'megnézem azt' (I'm going to watch that). (Definite object.)
Vivien
Team HungarianPod101.com
Szia! :)
In my understanding, (please correct me if I got it wrong) the conjugation of definite and indefinite forms are affected by accusative cases.
So even if there's an: Ez, Ezt, A, AZ, Azt ... in a sentence, the verb will still get an indefinite ending in case there is no definite object that is "influenced" by the verb?
1. I'll very much appreciate some examples for this phenomena.
2. Does it work both ways, even if there's an: Egy, Valamit, Semmit ... in a sentence, the verb will get a definite ending in case there is a definite object that is "influenced" by the verb?
Hope my question is understandable, it felt a little complicated to explain...
Best regards,
Efrat.
Szia Armond,
"most" is simply "now"
"most rögtön" means "immediately"
"éppen" means "right now"
Thanks for your comment!
Zsuzsanna
Team HungarianPod101.com
What is the difference between using "most" "most rogton" and "éppen" ?
Szia Chris,
You can find more explanations on Vowel Harmony in the following lessons:
https://www.hungarianpod101.com/2011/08/23/all-about-3-learning-hungarian-grammar/
https://www.hungarianpod101.com/2011/08/30/all-about-4-learning-how-to-pronounce-the-hungarian-alphabet/
For your second point, I'm not sure I understand. I have checked the lesson and the audio is perfectly fine, the pronunciation corresponds exactly to the text.
Please don't hesitate to send us another comment with more information,
Best,
Dorottya
Team HungarianPod101.com
Szia,
Hello,
-ok, -ek, -ök > szeretek , 3 choices, I read the explication but still don't understand. which one to choose,
and here: -unk, -ünk > szeretünk
-tok, -tek, -tök > szerettek
-nak, -nek > szerenek
I cannot despite the explication how to determine which one ?.
Can I get more detailed explication how to know which suffix?
Second issue:
Here https://www.hungarianpod101.com/hungarian-phrases/07052017?meaning
A legtöbb cukor cukornádból vagy répából készült, természetes édesítőszer. Vagy is not said but
other word instead (magreda or sounding like that).
kockacukrok I read this pronounced like "kockachurok", he says "kochachurok"
Dear Thomas,
Thank you for your comments.
Could you please indicate the reference where we can find the sentence with the front and back vowels?
To answer your first comment, the phrase "az ő házuk" is the only solution possible.
Thus, we can not say "az ők házuk". You will learn more about possessive form a little later. :sunglasses:
If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to send us a comment!
Best,
Dorottya
Team HungarianPod101.com
Sorry my comments were for a different lesson. I will re-post them.
Regarding the lesson notes, I have two corrections. The first is in the table and the second in the explanation just below:
*az ő ("their") házuk --- I think this should be. --- *az ők ("their") házuk
The nouns are e, e, o, a front and a back vowel. --- I think this should be. -- The vowels are e, e, o, a front and a back vowel.
Thanks.
Tom
Hi Raph,
You are correct, sorry about that!
Egy is of course "a/an" and not "the."
We'll get on fixing that.
Csaba
Team HungarianPod101.com