Learn how to ask "Do you have a _____?"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Simone: Hi everyone, I'm Simone and this is Absolute Beginner, season 1, lesson 13: An Innocent Little Hungarian Question. |
| Gergo: And this is Gergo. |
| Simone: In this lesson, you are going to learn how to use the verb “to have, to be” and ask questions like “do you have a ...?” |
| Gergo: Right. Without further ado, here is the dialogue. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Balázs: Ööö, Anne. |
| Anne: Tessék. |
| Balázs: Van barátod? |
| Anne: (smiling) Nincs barátom. Neked van barátnőd? |
| Balázs: Nincs. |
| Anne: Miért kérdezed? |
| Balázs: Csak úgy. |
| English Host: Let's listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Balázs: Ööö, Anne. |
| Anne: Tessék. |
| Balázs: Van barátod? |
| Anne: (smiling) Nincs barátom. Neked van barátnőd? |
| Balázs: Nincs. |
| Anne: Miért kérdezed? |
| Balázs: Csak úgy. |
| With Translation |
| Balázs: Ööö, Anne. |
| Balázs: “Er... Anne!” |
| Anne: Tessék. |
| Anne: “Yes?” |
| Balázs: Van barátod? |
| Balázs: “Do you have a boyfriend?” |
| Anne: (smiling) Nincs barátom. Neked van barátnőd? |
| Anne: “I don’t have a boyfriend. Do you have a girlfriend?” |
| Balázs: Nincs. |
| Balázs: “No, I don’t.” |
| Anne: Miért kérdezed? |
| Anne: “Why are you asking?” |
| Balázs: Csak úgy. |
| Balázs: “No reason.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Simone: A bit of romance developing in Hungary? I wonder where it will go... |
| Gergo: Let’s hope it goes all the way to marriage, because that would mean we have season 23 on the way. And it would help the economy too. |
| Simone: Right, I remember the state encouraging people to have more children in Hungary. |
| Gergo: It is a thing they’re doing. There are just way too many pensioners at the moment, and young people are less and less willing to get married or have three kids nowadays. |
| Simone: That is following the western trend very closely. |
| Gergo: Unfortunately. There are fewer and fewer Hungarians every year. |
| Simone: I’ve just heard that the number is now below 10 million. |
| Gergo: Hmm. We’re totally communicating the wrong message here. Let’s go to vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gergo: tessék |
| Simone: “please” |
| Gergo: tessék |
| Gergo: tessék |
| Gergo: barát |
| Simone: “friend/boyfriend” |
| Gergo: barát |
| Gergo: barát |
| Gergo: barátnő |
| Simone: “girlfriend” |
| Gergo: barátnő |
| Gergo: barátnő |
| Gergo: miért |
| Simone: “why” |
| Gergo: miért |
| Gergo: miért |
| Gergo: kérdez |
| Simone: “ask” |
| Gergo: kérdez |
| Gergo: kérdez |
| Gergo: Csak úgy. |
| Simone: “No reason.” |
| Gergo: Csak úgy. |
| Gergo: Csak úgy. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Simone: All right, this is it once again, the vocab section. The first word we had was? |
| Gergo: Please repeat: Tessék. With this intonation, it means “yes, it’s your turn to speak.” |
| Simone: This word has so many meanings... |
| Gergo: Yes. For example, if you just mumble something to me, I can say... |
| Simone: (mumbles) |
| Gergo: Tessék? This time it means “excuse me?” or “come again?” |
| Simone: Much more interesting is the question of boyfriends and girlfriends. |
| Gergo: In this lesson, there are quite a lot of those. We’ve heard, please repeat: barátod... |
| Simone: “Your boyfriend.” |
| Gergo: And barátom. |
| Simone: “My boyfriend.” |
| Gergo: These words can either mean boyfriend or just friend, depending on the context. Obviously, when Balázs is asking Anne, he probably doesn’t mean “do you have any friends.” |
| Simone: Probably not. |
| Gergo: We also heard barátnőd, which means “ your girlfriend.” Most of the time, from guys, it means romantic involvement, but girls can also just use this to refer to any female friends. |
| Simone: Now that we’ve cleared that up, what’s next? |
| Gergo: This is very useful, please repeat: Csak úgy. |
| Simone: Its meaning is as close to nothing as possible. |
| Gergo: Yes. If you want to avoid any kind of question that starts with “why” you can just use this to deflect. It means something like “no reason,” “just because”. Let’s try it! |
| Simone: Yes, Anne is saying: Miért kérdezed? “Why are you asking?” |
| Gergo: Csak úgy! |
| Simone: Very helpful. |
| Gergo: Well, Balázs may not be very good at flirting. But enough of all this, let’s go to grammar. |
| Simone: OK. |
Lesson focus |
| Simone: In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to ask and answer the question “ do you have a … ?” Gergo, can you repeat the key question for this section? |
| Gergo: Please repeat: Van barátod? Van is the third person singular form of “to be.” “Is” essentially. Barátod means “your friend.” |
| Simone: This sounds simple enough. |
| Gergo: Yes, the trick is to find the right suffix and attach it to the noun. |
| Simone: It is always about these suffixes. |
| Gergo: Well, you chose Hungarian. Fear not, we’ll give you some ready-made examples. What’s the first one, Simone? |
| Simone: “Do you have any siblings?” |
| Gergo: Repeat: Van testvéred? |
| Simone: Now try this “Do you have a car?” |
| Gergo: Van autód? |
| Simone: Now, what’s the simplest way to answer. "Yes, I do." |
| Gergo: Just repeat: Van. |
| Simone: And if you don’t have that thing? |
| Gergo: You have to say nincs. |
| Simone: Yes, I remember talking about this word in the previous lesson. Now, how would you say a full sentence like “We have a table.” |
| Gergo: Please repeat: Van asztalunk. Not really different, as far as the word order goes. |
| Simone: “I have a boyfriend.” |
| Gergo: Good for you. But in Hungarian, and now pay close attention to avoid bar fights: Van barátom. |
| Simone: Balázs will be happy to know that Anne doesn’t have one, though. |
| Gergo: Now, when Anne is throwing the question back, saying “do you have a girlfriend?” she says Neked van barátnőd? |
| Simone: What’s the extra word? |
| Gergo: Neked gives extra emphasis to “you” in the sentence. “Do you have a girlfriend?” It carries the meaning of “how about you?” |
| Simone: Which means, it would be weird to start a conversation like that. |
| Gergo: It isn’t impossible, but most of the time it is only in the follow-up question. |
| Simone: How would you say: “Do you have a dog?” |
| Gergo: Please repeat: Neked van kutyád? |
| Simone: Good enough. Are you tired yet? |
| Gergo: Are you trying to finish the lesson? Because I can just lie and say that I am. |
| Simone: (smiling) Haha. All right, see you guys next time! |
| Gergo: Sziasztok! |
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