Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Simone:Hello everyone and welcome to Lower Beginner, season 2, lesson 25, Are You Having Trouble Sleeping in Hungary? I’m Simone.
Csaba:And I’m Csaba.
Simone:In this lesson of our series, we’re going to learn about Hungarian conditionals.
Csaba:The conversation takes place in Anne’s apartment complex.
Simone:Where Anne is talking to one of the maintenance people.
Csaba:They use the formal language.
Simone:Let’s listen to the conversation.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Csaba:This is somewhat unrealistic. In Hungary, it is really hard to find these maintenance people anymore.
Simone:What do you mean? Why?
Csaba:Well, many of them are really hard to schedule with, painting and plumbing and all these are busy jobs nowadays. A huge chunk of the blue-collar workforce is moving west, to Great Britain and Germany.
Simone:I’ve heard about that. I guess it is just understandable during the years of the financial crisis.
Csaba:Exactly. Their salaries are somewhat better now at home too, but it is nothing compared to Western Europe.
Simone:So once you manage to schedule a job, try to stick to it.
Csaba:Absolutely.
Simone:All right, let’s go to the vocabulary now.
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Simone:All right, what is the first word of the day?
Csaba:Ugye. This word works the same way as the “right?” in the end of a sentence.
Simone:Let’s hear it in practice.
Csaba:Te is kérsz, ugye?
Simone:“You’d like some too, right?”
Csaba:Te is kérsz, ugye?
Simone:Is it always the end of the sentence?
Csaba:No, not at all. You know that in Hungarian word order is not as strict as in English.
Simone:Let’s hear another example then.
Csaba:Ugye te is amerikai vagy?
Simone:“You’re American too, right?”
Csaba:Ugye te is amerikai vagy?
Simone:All right, let’s move on.
Csaba:The next word is muszáj. It means “have to, must.”
Simone:Let’s use it in a sentence.
Csaba:Holnap muszáj dolgoznom.
Simone:“I must work tomorrow.”
Csaba:Holnap muszáj dolgoznom.
Simone:If you negate it, you get “don’t have to” and not “mustn’t,” right?
Csaba:That is correct. Listen to this: Nem muszáj kifizetned.
Simone:“You don’t have to pay for it.”
Csaba:Nem muszáj kifizetned. Kifizetned is “for you to pay for it.”
Simone:All right. I’m getting dead tired of these explanations.
Csaba:Wonderful segue.
Simone:The next word we’ll learn is “dead tired.”
Csaba:Hullafáradt. It is a compound noun, hulla is “corpse” and fáradt is “tired.”
Simone:Let’s put it in a sentence.
Csaba:Hullafáradt vagyok, nem aludtam.
Simone:“I’m dead tired, I didn’t sleep.”
Csaba:Hullafáradt vagyok, nem aludtam.
Simone:Me neither. Let’s go to grammar, before we fall asleep!
GRAMMAR POINT
Simone:In this lesson we’re going to learn the conditional.
Csaba:At least in the first part of this grammar anyway.
Simone:What are conditional sentences and when do we use them?
Csaba:In this lesson, we’re going to start with a couple of ready made examples, than explain the grammar.
Simone:The first use is creating hypothetical situations. Like the English sentence: “I’d be glad if you dropped by.”
Csaba:Örülnék, ha beugranál.
Simone:Say again, and please give extra emphasis to the conditional ending.
Csaba:Örülnék, ha beugranál. Both of these verbs are conditional.
Simone:All right, what other situations do we use them in?
Csaba:The second use is polite requests.
Simone:For example: “Could you explain this again?”
Csaba:Elmagyarázná meg egyszer?
Simone:Again, please.
Csaba:Elmagyarázná meg egyszer? This sentence sounds formal.
Simone:So, hypothetical situations and polite requests.
Csaba:Also asking for permission: Használhatnám a telefonját?
Simone:“May I use your phone?”
Csaba:Használhatnám a telefonját?
Simone:Is there anything else?
Csaba:Yes, you also express your heart’s desires using this construction. Last week we had Bárcsak ne esne!
Simone:“If only it didn’t rain!” Say that again, please.
Csaba:Bárcsak ne esne!
Simone:All right, and how do we conjugate these?
Csaba:Basically, you want to get an infinitive from the dictionary. Take zavarni.
Simone:“To bother.”
Csaba:Than you cut off the -ni ending, so zavarni becomes zavar.
Simone:Then you look at the conjugation table, I guess.
Csaba:Yes, and attach the ending you need for the given person. For first person, the ending is -nék.
Simone:So “I’d bother” is...
Csaba:Zavarnék. What you have to keep in mind is that there is definite and indefinite conjugation here as well and the vowel harmony still rules. So to speak.
Simone:Very good Csaba. Where do we find the endings?
Csaba:In the lesson notes, as usual. We encourage you to look up the table and play around with it a bit.

Outro

Simone:That’s the last lesson in this series, but we’ll see you in our next series. Thanks everyone!
Csaba:Sziasztok!

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