Learn about the verb "to be," van, which is a very important building block for learning Hungarian
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gergo: Sziasztok. Gergó vagyok. |
| Simone: Hi, Simone here! Welcome to HungarianPod101.com. Absolute Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 1: Finding New Friends in Hungary! In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say hi to people and ask their names. |
| Gergo: Sziasztok! That’s right. |
| Simone: So, where does this conversation take place? |
| Gergo: It takes place on the train, where Anne, our main character, speaks with Balázs, a Hungarian guy who sits next to her. Balázs noticed she had a foreign accent and he wants to get to know her better. |
| Simone: Ok, so listen carefully everyone! |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Anne: Jó reggelt! |
| Balázs: Szia! Hogy hívnak? |
| Anne: Anne Smith. |
| Balázs: Én Pál Balázs vagyok. |
| Anne: Szia, ööö, Balázs? |
| Balázs: Igen, Balázs. Örülök, hogy megismertelek. |
| Anne: Én is. |
| English Host: Let's listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Anne: Jó reggelt! |
| Balázs: (smiling) Szia! Hogy hívnak? |
| Anne: Anne Smith. |
| Balázs: Én Pál Balázs vagyok. |
| Anne: Szia, ööö, Balázs? |
| Balázs: Igen, Balázs. Örülök, hogy megismertelek. |
| Anne: Én is. |
| With Translation |
| Anne: Jó reggelt! |
| Anne: “Good morning!” |
| Balázs: (smiling) Szia! Hogy hívnak? |
| Balázs: ”Hi! What is your name?” |
| Anne: Anne Smith. |
| Anne: “Anne Smith.” |
| Balázs: Én Pál Balázs vagyok. |
| Balázs: “I’m Balázs Pál.” |
| Anne: Szia, ööö, Balázs? |
| Anne: “Hi, er, Balázs?” |
| Balázs: Igen, Balázs. Örülök, hogy megismertelek. |
| Balázs: “Yes, Balázs. Nice to meet you.” |
| Anne: Én is. |
| Anne: “Nice to meet you too.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Simone: Alright, so Anne meets a new person on the morning train, Balázs. Is that a common name, by the way? |
| Gergo: Yes, I know a lot of men with that name among twenty-somethings in Hungary. By the way, you should remember that Hungarian names don’t follow the Western order. |
| Simone: That means that in Hungarian, family names come first. |
| Gergo: And to complicate matters even further, Hungarians will assume you don’t know this, so they switch it to the western order for you convenience. |
| Simone: But now that you know it, you’ll probably just switch it back mentally. |
| Gergo: When in doubt, don’t be afraid to ask, just like our main character Anne did. So, Simone, shall we go over the vocabulary we have for this lesson? |
| Simone: Let’s do that. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Simone: Now let’s take a look at the vocabulary in this lesson. |
| The first expression is: |
| Gergo: Jó reggelt! |
| Simone: “Good morning!” |
| Gergo: Jó reg-gelt! |
| Gergo: Jó reggelt! |
| Gergo: Szia! |
| Simone: “Hi.” |
| Gergo: Szi-a! |
| Gergo: Szia! |
| Gergo: Hogy hívnak? |
| Simone: “What is your name?” |
| Gergo: Hogy hív-nak? |
| Gergo: Hogy hívnak? |
| Gergo: Én … vagyok. |
| Simone: “I am ...” |
| Gergo: Én … vagy-ok. |
| Gergo: Én … vagyok. |
| Gergo: Örülök, hogy megismertelek. |
| Simone: “Nice to meet you.” |
| Gergo: Ö-rü-lök, hogy me-gis-mer-te-lek. |
| Gergo: Örülök, hogy megismertelek. |
| Gergo: Én is. |
| Simone: “Me too.” |
| Gergo: Én is. |
| Gergo: Én is. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Simone: Alright, so what other vocabulary and phrases are we going to mention in this lesson? |
| Gergo: Well, we’ll start with the two greetings. Jó reggelt and szia. |
| Simone: Jó reggelt is “Good morning” and szia is “hi”, right? |
| Gergo: Right. Now, you can say hi to other young people, but usually not to the elderly or superiors, unless you have already agreed to use this form. |
| Simone: This has to do with the formal-informal language. We’ll always try to give the listeners the appropriate form in a certain situation. Can we hear those two again? |
| Gergo: Sure. Jó reggelt! Jó reggelt! |
| Simone: “Good morning.” This is easier to use – with anyone, basically. |
| Gergo: Szia! Szia! |
| Simone: “Hi.” |
| Gergo: There is another thing about szia. It should only be used to address one person. When we want to say hi to multiple friends, say sziasztok. Sziasztok. |
| Simone: Let’s move on Gergo, we’ll have plenty of time to explain this to our listeners in other lessons too. |
| Gergo: Sorry. Hogy hívnak? Hogy hívnak? |
| Simone: “What is you name?” |
| Gergo: Yes. Again, you should only use it when addressing young people. Asking someone’s name outright is a bit weird sometimes, but in this situation it is perfectly fine. |
| Simone: Also, it is really hard to hit on someone without knowing her name. |
| Gergo: Right. Again: Hogy hívnak? Hogy hívnak? |
| Simone: “What is your name?” Good. What else do we have? |
| Gergo: One last expression then a bit of grammar. |
| Simone: All right, in this order, please. |
| Gergo: Örülök, hogy megismertelek. Örülök, hogy megismertelek. |
| Simone: “Nice to meet you!” Do you want to break it down for us? |
| Gergo: Not at this point, if you don’t mind. All I’m going to say is that this is to be used in informal situations. |
Lesson focus |
| Simone: OK. Let’s hear that again and move on to the grammar point. |
| Gergo: Örülök, hogy megismertelek. |
| Grammar Point: |
| Simone: So, Gergo, what’s the grammar point for today? |
| Gergo: We’re going to talk about the verb vagyok. |
| Simone: Which is? |
| Gergo: “I am.” Our sentence was: Pál Balázs vagyok. Just state your name and say vagyok to express who (or what) you are. |
| Simone: I noticed that Hungarians sometime say just their names in this situation, though, without any verbs. |
| Gergo: That happens too, yes. Are you trying to mess with my authority? |
| Simone: Absolutely not. Don’t worry. |
| Gergo: Haha, good. Now try this: Diák vagyok. Diák vagyok. |
| Simone: Diák vagyok. What does it mean? |
| Gergo: “I’m a student.” |
| Simone: Nice one. I got it. No more unwanted questions. Say that again please, and let’s make them practice a bit. |
| Gergo: Diák vagyok. |
| Gergo: Now that we've got that out of the way, say: Amerikai vagyok. Amerikai vagyok. |
| Simone: Yeah, it’s simple. Amerikai vagyok. I’m American, right? |
| Gergo: Yes, good job Simone. Repeat that a couple times. Amerikai vagyok. |
| Simone: You can pretty much pick up any kind of noun or even adjective, and stick it before vagyok, to express “I am something.” Can you go for an adjective now? |
| Gergo: Sure. Éhes vagyok. Éhes vagyok. |
| Simone: “I am hungry.” But before you all run to the shop, we’re going to cover second and third person singular as well. |
| Gergo: In second person singular the verb “to be” is vagy. Vagy. It works the very same way as vagyok, just use it with any noun or adjective. Orvos vagy. Orvos vagy. |
| Simone: “You are a doctor.” |
| Gergo: Amerikai vagy. Amerikai vagy. |
| Simone: “You are American.” These sentences sound a bit unnatural. |
| Gergo: I know, but change your intonation a bit and bam, you have questions: Orvos vagy? Orvos vagy? |
| Simone: “Are you a doctor?” Nice. Give us a few more examples, please, and we’ll also give the listeners a few moments to repeat after you. |
| Gergo: Szomjas vagy? Szomjas vagy? |
| Simone: “Are you thirsty?” |
| Gergo: Magyar vagy? Magyar vagy? |
| Simone: “Are you Hungarian?” |
| Gergo: All right, we can now ask and answer. Ready? |
| Simone: Shoot. |
| Gergo: Szomjas vagy? |
| Simone: Szomjas vagyok. “Are you thirsty?” and “I am”. I’ll ask another one: Amerikai vagy? |
| Gergo: Amerikai vagyok. “I’m an American” - which is not true, but we are still on lesson one, no need to explain everything just yet. One thing though: Remember that these are all informal sentences. |
| Simone: All right, I think that is enough for one lesson. They’ll have plenty of time to pick these up. |
| Gergo: Just make sure you listen to the conversation a couple times and you’ll be speaking Hungarian in no time. |
| Simone: In the meantime, if you have any questions... |
| Gergo: … post them in the comments section. Sziasztok! |
| Simone: See you next time! |
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