Learn how to ask where you can buy something
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sziasztok. Hello and welcome to Hungarian Survival Phrases brought to you by HungarianPod101.com, this course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Hungary. You will be surprised at how far a little Hungarian will go. |
| Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by HungarianPod101.com and there, you will find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
Lesson focus |
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| Have you ever been in a city you don't know at all, and you are desperately looking for something you need and cannot find it? It has happened to me so many times! I wandered around without knowing where to go to find, for example, a bar, a phone, or a restroom! But don't worry! Thanks to our Survival Phrases, if you go to Hungary you will always be able to ask for information and help. |
| In this lesson, we would like to introduce you to a phrase that will help you track down that specific something you're looking for. "Where can I find...," in Hungarian is Hol találok egy ...-t? Then, you add the name of the specific thing you are looking for. |
| In this sentence, you can use a basic structure in any situation in which you will need to get something. |
| This structure is made up of the adverb hol ("where"), followed by the verb találok ("can"), and then the indefinite article egy ("a/an"). After adding the place or thing you're looking for, you must pronounce a -t after the noun, to make it accusative. |
| Let's break it down by syllable: Hol ta-lá-lok egy...-t. |
| Now let's hear it once again: Hol találok egy ...-t? |
| Now let's see what kinds of things you might need if you're traveling abroad. |
| Let's imagine you're walking around in Budapest, it's very hot, and you need to get something to drink. Let's go and ask where you can find a bar! "Where can I find a bar?" in Hungarian is Hol találok egy kocsmát? |
| In Hungary, the answer is: around every corner. |
| As you can easily see, you have the structure you have just seen, Hol találok egy ...-t?, followed by the thing you are looking for, kocsma ("a bar"). In this case, kocsma has a suffix to mark the accusative, and it has to be pronounced kocsmát. |
| Let's break down this sentence. Hol ta-lá-lok egy kocs-mát? |
| Now let's hear it one more time: Hol találok egy kocsmát? |
| With this form, you can go anywhere you need and ask for anything you are looking for. You could use another form if you wanted to be more polite and wanted to use a different expression. |
| Let's imagine you are looking for a phone this time. |
| "Excuse me, could you tell me where I can find a phone?" Elnézést, meg tudná mondani hol találok egy telefont? |
| Elnézést, meg tudná mondani hol találok egy telefont? |
| Don't you think this is more formal? Of course it is! So what do we have here? |
| We have elnézést ("excuse me"), then the construction meg tudná mondani, which means, "could you tell me". |
| There is really no reason to break this construction down any more, just remember, meg tudná mondani plus what you want to know is a polite way to ask for some information. |
| After ,we have said Elnézést, meg tudná mondani ("excuse me, could you tell me"), we have to add what we want to be told! In this case, we want to find a phone, which is hol találok egy telefont? Very similar to our previous sentence, this time the object is telefon ("telephone") plus the -t at the end. |
| telefont. |
| Let's see the whole sentence again: Elnézést, meg tudná mondani hol találok egy telefont? |
| To ask for any other item, we can just replace kocsmát or telefont with any other word and the phrase works brilliantly! Let's try it with "tobacco shop," which in Hungarian is trafik. |
| Let's break this word down. tra-fik. |
| Now let's hear it once again: trafik. |
| "Excuse me, could you tell me where I can find a tobacco shop," in Hungarian is Elnézést, meg tudná mondani hol találok egy trafikot? |
| You may notice that sometimes, adding a -t for the accusative is not that simple, like in this case trafik became trafikot. Basically, we added -ot. |
| Don't worry about this yet—if you get the first part of the sentence right, you'll be fine. |
Outro |
| Okay, to close out today's lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for shouting it aloud. You'll have a few seconds before I give you the answer; so, sok szerencsét, which means "good luck" in Hungarian. |
| "Where can I find...?" - Hol találok egy ...-t? |
| Hol találok egy ...-t? |
| Hol találok egy ...-t? |
| "Where can I find a bar?" - Hol találok egy kocsmát? |
| Hol találok egy kocsmát? |
| Hol találok egy kocsmát? |
| "Excuse me, could you tell me where I can find a phone?" - Elnézést, meg tudná mondani hol találok egy telefont? |
| Elnézést, meg tudná mondani hol találok egy telefont? |
| Elnézést, meg tudná mondani hol találok egy telefont? |
| "Excuse me, could you tell me where I can find a tobacco shop?" - Elnézést, meg tudná mondani hol találok egy trafikot? |
| Elnézést, meg tudná mondani hol találok egy trafikot? |
| Elnézést, meg tudná mondani hol találok egy trafikot? |
| All right. That’s is going to do it for today. Remember to stop by HungarianPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. Sziasztok! |
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