Learn about how to use Hungarian cases using a formal conversation as an example
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Simone: Hello everyone. I’m Simone, and this is Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 18: Hungarian Hotel Reservation. |
| Gergo: And this is Gergo. |
| Simone: In this lesson, we’re going to learn about noun cases and while doing that, we’ll cover some sentences that will help you book a room. |
| Gergo: This conversation is on the phone. |
| Simone: And it’s between the phone operator at the hotel and Anne. |
| Gergo: They use the informal language. |
| Simone: Ok, take it away. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Anne: Halló, Vízpart Szálló? |
| Kezelő: Halló, igen, miben segíthetek? |
| Anne: Szeretnék szobát foglalni. |
| Kezelő: Hány személyre? |
| Anne: Két személyre. |
| Kezelő: És mikorra? |
| Anne: Július 24-től, négy éjszakára. |
| Kezelő: A nevét kérem. |
| English Host: Let's listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Anne: Halló, Vízpart Szálló? |
| Kezelő: Halló, igen, miben segíthetek? |
| Anne: Szeretnék szobát foglalni. |
| Kezelő: Hány személyre? |
| Anne: Két személyre. |
| Kezelő: És mikorra? |
| Anne: Július 24-től, négy éjszakára. |
| Kezelő: A nevét kérem. |
| With Translation |
| Anne: Halló, Vízpart Szálló? |
| Anne: “Hello, is this Hotel Vízpart?” |
| Kezelő: Halló, igen, miben segíthetek? |
| Operator: “Hallo, yes, how can I help you?” |
| Anne: Szeretnék szobát foglalni. |
| Anne: “I’d like to book a room.” |
| Kezelő: Hány személyre? |
| Operator: “For how many people?” |
| Anne: Két személyre. |
| Anne: “For two.” |
| Kezelő: És mikorra? |
| Operator: “To when?” |
| Anne: Július 24-től, négy éjszakára. |
| Anne: “From July 24, for four nights.” |
| Kezelő: A nevét kérem. |
| Operator: “Your name please.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Simone: All right, are you wondering who she’s going to spend her holiday with? |
| Gergo: I know already, but I hate spoilers... |
| Simone: She said Vízpart Szálló... |
| Gergo: It means “Waterside Hotel” or a hostel of some sorts. Szálló is usually not the most expensive. |
| Simone: What other accommodation do you encounter in Hungary. |
| Gergo. You’ll have hotels of course, that’s a very international word. Also, fogadó, which is more like an “inn.” The word szálloda also means “hotel.” |
| Simone: “Waterside” sounds like a stretch though... |
| Gergo: Don’t be unfair, there are lakes and rivers you can go to in Hungary. The Hungarian sea, or as it is less romantically known, Lake Balaton, is packed in summer. Clean water, good wine – it’s a good destination. |
| Simone: Ok, you’ve convinced me. Let’s go through the vocab section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gergo: szoba |
| Simone: “room” |
| Gergo: szo-ba |
| Gergo: szoba |
| Gergo: foglal |
| Simone: “book” |
| Gergo: fog-lal |
| Gergo: foglal |
| Gergo: személy |
| Simone: “person/head” |
| Gergo: sze-mély |
| Gergo: személy |
| Gergo: mikorra |
| Simone: “when?” |
| Gergo: mi-kor-ra |
| Gergo: mikorra |
| Gergo: július |
| Simone: “July” |
| Gergo: jú-li-us |
| Gergo: július |
| Gergo: éjszaka |
| Simone: “night” |
| Gergo: éj-sza-ka |
| Gergo: éjszaka |
| Gergo: Miben segíthetek? |
| Simone: “How can I help you?” |
| Gergo: Mi-ben se-gít-he-tek? |
| Gergo: Miben segíthetek? |
| Gergo: segít |
| Simone: “help” |
| Gergo: se-gít |
| Gergo: segít |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Simone: Key vocab everyone. What do you have for us Gergo? |
| Gergo: The first one is not much to talk about, but it deserves a mention. You answer the phone in Hungary saying... |
| Simone: Halló? |
| Gergo: Halló? t is not something you wouldn’t recognize, but it is these small things that give away that you’re a foreigner immediately, unless you really pay attention to the intonation. |
| Simone: Say it again please. |
| Gergo: Halló? |
| Simone: Halló? |
| Gergo: This is really good radio, us hallóing for the listeners... |
| Simone: (laughs) All right, let’s go complicate things more. |
| Gergo: The phone operator said Miben segíthetek? |
| Simone: “How can I help you?” |
| Gergo: The first word is miben. This is question word mi or “what” with a suffix -ben attached. With this ending, the question word means “in what.” |
| Simone: You basically attach -ben, to give the noun the extra meaning “in, inside.” |
| Gergo: This is not the whole picture, but yes, to many nouns you can add -ben. We’ll come back to these in the grammar section of this lesson and the next. |
| Simone: These will be a bit more grammar heavy, but absolutely necessary. |
| Gergo: Either way, Miben segíthetek is a standard question from those in the service industry. Segít is “help.” |
| Simone: How do you say “can you give me a hand?” Listeners, please repeat. |
| Gergo: Tudnál segíteni? |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Tudnál segíteni? The formal version is: Tudna segíteni? |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Tudna segíteni? |
| Simone: All right, let’s dive into all that grammar, I see you dying to start explaining. |
| Gergo: I am. I am. Let’s do it. |
Lesson focus |
| Simone: In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to use Hungarian cases. Cases indicate the grammatical function a certain noun or pronoun takes in a sentence. |
| Gergo: Right. This lesson will be a good starting point for those who are interested in more theoretical, long-term stuff. |
| Simone: But, like we said, we didn’t forget about ready-to-use, more down-to-earth examples. So Gergo, you wanted to talk about cases. What are those? |
| Gergo: Simply put, cases indicate what function a certain noun or a pronoun fulfills in a sentence. The usual example to illustrate this is the following two sentences. |
| Simone: “He killed the dog.” |
| Gergo: and |
| Simone: “The dog killed him.” |
| Gergo: See, in the first sentence we used “he,” and in the second we used “him.” These are two cases, the first one is called nominative, the second is accusative. |
| Simone: In English, this is not too bad, only the personal pronouns change according to their role in the sentence. |
| Gergo: In Hungarian, cases are marked on every noun practically. In our vocab list you found the word személy “person.” But in the dialogue we heard: Hány személyre? |
| {pause} |
| Gergo. Hány személyre? |
| Simone: This means “for how many people?” |
| Gergo: Right, the -re ending that is attached to the base noun személy carries the meaning “for, to” and it also means “onto, movement towards the surface of something.” |
| Simone: This is very abstract, give us an example. |
| Gergo: You have the word “chair,” in Hungarian szék. If you want to say: “Sit on that chair,” you say: Ülj a székre! |
| Simone: Again, we added -re to the noun to have the meaning “onto something.” How do you say “put it on the table?” |
| Gergo: Tedd az asztalra! |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Tedd az asztalra! |
| Simone: Uh-oh. This time we added a different ending. |
| Gergo: Well observed, sometimes the ending is -re, sometimes it’s -ra. They both carry the same meaning, how to decide will be our next grammar point. |
| Simone: So just to recap, we have learned that adding a certain ending to a noun changes the grammatical case. |
| Gergo: In this lesson we had -ra and -re, and they mean “onto something” or “to, for.” Just one more example from the dialogue. |
| Simone: We had “for four nights.” |
| Gergo: Négy éjszakára. |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Négy éjszakára. |
| Simone: All right, this is heavy stuff. |
| Gergo: I know, but once we’re clear with all the basics, we can later turn to more practical examples. |
| Simone: OK, that about does it for now, tune in to our next lesson too. |
| Gergo: Sziasztok. |
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