Learn how to use the passive voice
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to HungarianPod101.com. This is Upper Intermediate, Season 1 Lesson 4 - A Tense Situation in Hungary. Eric here. |
| Lena: Hello. I'm Lena. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll continue to learn about the passive voice in Hungarian. The conversation takes place at an office. |
| Lena: It's between Tom and Reka. |
| Eric: The speakers are co-workers, so they will use informal Hungarian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Réka: Úristen, Tamás, mi történt veled? Tisztára be van dagadva a szemed! |
| Tom: Nem mondod. Tegnap este meccsen voltam.. |
| Réka: Mi történt? Belédkötöttek? |
| Tom: Vesztésre állt a Ferencváros és a szurkolók nem bírták a feszültséget. Törtek-zúztak mindenütt. |
| Réka: Te verekedtél??? |
| Tom: Úgy nézek ki, mint aki verekszik? |
| Réka: Hááát... |
| Tom: Az előttem ülők estek egymásnak, én csak megpróbáltam közbelépni. Nem az én hibám volt. |
| Réka: A főnök ki fog akadni, ha meglát, holnap neked kellett volna bemutatni az új projektet. |
| Tom: Otthon kellett volna maradnom.. |
| Eric: Okay, now listen to the conversation once more with the English translation. |
| Reka: Oh my God, Tom, what happened to you? Your eyes are so swollen! |
| Tom: No kidding... I was at a football match last night. |
| Reka: What happened? Did they provoke you into a fight? |
| Tom: Ferencvaros was losing and the fans couldn't stand the tension. They caused a lot of damage everywhere. |
| Reka: Did you fight? |
| Tom: Do I look like someone who fights? |
| Reka: Well... |
| Tom: The guys sitting in front of me started to fightーI just tried to separate them. It wasn’t my fault. |
| Reka: If the boss sees you, he is going to freak out. You were supposed to present the new project tomorrow. |
| Tom: I should have stayed at home. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Lena, I know that Hungarians have a great sense of irony. |
| Lena: Yes. But, I guess this is good news only for those who understand the funny side of irony. |
| Eric: True. Unfortunately, there is no rule for recognizing irony... |
| Lena: But facial expressions or the unnatural tone of the sentence can help you figure out that "this can't be serious". Sometimes, the context helps you realize that this is a joke, or a criticism, and if it's not the case, you can still answer Ne már! |
| Eric: which means “No way” |
| Lena: because it can mean “that’s hard to believe” and also “stop joking”! |
| Eric: That’s a good tip. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Lena: bedagad [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to swell |
| Lena: bedagad [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: bedagad [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Lena: bír [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to stand, to bear |
| Lena: bír [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: bír [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Lena: beleköt [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to provoke into a fight, to pick on somebody |
| Lena: beleköt [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: beleköt [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Lena: vesztés [natural native speed] |
| Eric: defeat |
| Lena: vesztés [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: vesztés [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Lena: verekszik [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to fight |
| Lena: verekszik [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: verekszik [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Lena: kinéz [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to look like |
| Lena: kinéz [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: kinéz [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have |
| Lena: közbelép [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to step in |
| Lena: közbelép [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: közbelép [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have |
| Lena: hiba [natural native speed] |
| Eric: fault, mistake |
| Lena: hiba [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: hiba [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Lena: kiakad [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to freak out |
| Lena: kiakad [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: kiakad [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Lena: bemutat [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to present |
| Lena: bemutat [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: bemutat [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Lena: bírja a feszültséget |
| Eric: which means “to stand the tension” |
| Lena: The verb bír is used in a large variety of expressions. |
| Eric: It means “to bear,” “to stand,” and “to be able to”. |
| Lena: Hungarians often use bír” in the expression ahogy csak bírtam |
| Eric: which means “as..(blank)..as I could” |
| Lena: Or alig bírta |
| Eric: which in English is… “he could barely…” |
| Lena: Or nem bírom tovább |
| Eric: “I can't do it anymore” |
| Lena: You can also say nem bírja az alkoholt |
| Eric: which means “Can't stand alcohol” |
| Lena: or...nem bírja a stresszt |
| Eric: “Can’t bear stress”. Lena, can you give us an example sentence using this word? |
| Lena: Sure. For example, you can say.. Nem bírom tovább, kilépek! |
| Eric: ..which means “I can't take it anymore, I quit!”. Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Lena: úgy néz ki |
| Eric: “to look like” |
| Lena: úgy néz ki comes from the verb kinéz which means “to look” or “to look out”. |
| Eric: You can use it to compare two appearances. |
| Lena: Right. For example, úgy néz ki, mint aki nem aludt |
| Eric: “He looks like he didn't sleep”. |
| Lena: You can also say… úgy néz ki, esni fog |
| Eric: This means “It might rain later” |
| Lena: Sándor teljesen úgy néz ki, mint a bátyja! |
| Eric: which means “Sandor and his brother look totally alike!” |
| Lena: Hungarians will often say Na, jól nézünk ki! which means “Now we are in a fine mess!” |
| Eric: Okay, what's the last phrase? |
| Lena: ki fog akadni, ha |
| Eric: which means “somebody will freak out if...” |
| Lena: The verb kiakad is an informal way to say “to freak out”. |
| Eric: It’s usually combined with the conditional form to describe that somebody will freak out if something happens. |
| Lena: You can say, for example, ki fog akadni, ha meglát or megtudja or meghallja or rájön... |
| Eric: …. saying “He/she will freak out if he/she sees, discovers, hears or finds out.” Can you give us another example using this word? |
| Lena: Sure. You can say.. Teljesen ki fogsz akadni, ha ezt meghallod! |
| Eric: .. which means “You will totally freak out if you hear that!” Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll continue to learn about the passive voice in Hungarian. In the previous lesson, we discovered two basic ways of expressing passive voice – the third person plural and intransitive verbs. |
| Lena: The focus of this lesson is the ‘van or lett, plus -va, or -ve’ structure. |
| Eric: This structure is very similar to passive voice in English and you can use it only with transitive verbs with a prefix. |
| Lena: Right. Van or lett are the modals, corresponding to the English “to be” or “to become”. And the -va, or -ve endings are a sign of the adverbial participle form. Listeners, do you remember the following prefixes in Hungarian ki-, be-, át-, oda-, meg-, fel-, le- ? |
| Eric: Just like in the case of a negation, the passive voice will separate prefixes from the verb by adding the modals... |
| Lena: van or lett |
| Eric: Lena, what's the difference between them? |
| Lena: The difference between the modals van and lett is the same as in English between “it is done” and “it has been done”. |
| Eric: For example, “it has been done” in Hungarian will be…. |
| Lena: meg lett csinálva. You can see that the verb ends with -va -, csinálva. This is the sign of the same adverbial participle that you can see in nyitva or zárva.. |
| Eric: ..which means “open” and “closed” respectively. |
| Lena: So, you can say...Ki van nyitva - “It is opened” or be van zárva - “It is closed” |
| Eric: Can you give us some sample sentences? |
| Lena: Sure. Az ügy el lett intézve a múlt héten. |
| Eric: Literally, “The matter has been dealt with last week.” |
| Lena: A könyv be lett fejezve kedden. |
| Eric: Literally, “The book has been finished on Tuesday.” |
| Lena: Ki van írva a nyitvatartás az ajtóra. |
| Eric: “The opening hours have been written on the door.” Ok! Now, let’s revise all the ways to express the passive voice in Hungarian. The first one is the third person plural. We use it in a context where we can’t or don’t want to specify the subject of the action. |
| Lena: Right. For example...Múlt héten kirabolták a boltot. |
| Eric: “Last week the shop was broken into” |
| Lena: Felújították a templomot. |
| Eric: “The church has been renovated.” The second way to express passive voice is with intransitive verbs in Hungarian. For example... |
| Lena: Budapesten születtem. |
| Eric: “I was born in Budapest.” |
| Lena: Már megint elromlott a távirányító. |
| Eric: “The remote controller is broken again.” |
| Lena: And the third way is to use the van or lett, plus -va or -ve structure. |
| Eric: For example… |
| Lena: Össze vannak hajtva a ruhák a szekrényben. |
| Eric: “The clothes are folded in the wardrobe.” |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Lena: Viszontlátásra |
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