Learn about the uses of the endings -ra and -re using an informal conversation as an example
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Simone: Hello everyone and welcome. This is our Absolute Beginner, season 1, lesson 24: Let’s Drink to the Successful Hungarian Semester, I’m Simone. |
| Gergo: And I am Gergo. |
| Simone: In this lesson, we’re going to learn more about case endings and what to say around a Hungarian table. |
| Gergo: The dialogue takes place in a crowded restaurant. |
| Simone: Anne and Balázs are speaking, but there are other friends present. |
| Gergo: They use the formal language. |
| Simone: Take it away. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Anne: Sziasztok, üljetek le. |
| Balázs: Mire iszunk? |
| Anne: Igyunk a sikeres tanévre és a téliszünetre. |
| Balázs: Egészségedre. |
| Anne: Sziasztok. |
| Balázs: Na egyetek valamit, jó étvágyat! |
| Anne: Jó étvágyat! |
| English Host: Let's listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Anne: Sziasztok, üljetek le. |
| Balázs: Mire iszunk? |
| Anne: Igyunk a sikeres tanévre és a téliszünetre. |
| Balázs: Egészségedre. |
| Anne: Sziasztok. |
| Balázs: Na egyetek valamit, jó étvágyat! |
| Anne: Jó étvágyat! |
| With Translation |
| Anne: Sziasztok, üljetek le. |
| Anne: “Hi guys, take a seat!” |
| Balázs: Mire iszunk? |
| Balázs: “What are we drinking to?” |
| Anne: Igyunk a sikeres tanévre és a téliszünetre. |
| Anne: “Let’s drink to the successful semester and the winter holiday.” |
| Balázs: Egészségedre. |
| Balázs: “Cheers.” |
| Anne: Sziasztok. |
| Anne: “Cheers.” |
| Balázs: Na egyetek valamit, jó étvágyat! |
| Balázs: “Eat something guys, enjoy your meal.” |
| Anne: Jó étvágyat! |
| Anne: “Enjoy your meal.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Simone: All righty, they are wrapping up the semester. |
| Gergo: And there are some rules you and Anne have to learn to follow around a Hungarian table. |
| Simone: What are those? |
| Gergo: When everyone is drinking together, you have to make sure to look into each other’s eyes when the glasses clink. |
| Simone: That is normal. |
| Gergo: It is also polite not to cross hands with anyone, and not to put the glass on the table once you raised it. That is, without drinking out of it first. |
| Simone: Do I have to put the entire drink back in one go? |
| Gergo: Not necessarily, but it’s best you keep one eye open while drinking to see what others do. The same is true when you’re drinking beer. Hungarians didn’t used to toast with beer. |
| Simone: This is changing nowadays, as I remember. |
| Gergo: Right, just pay attention to how others do it. |
| Simone: Okay, let’s go to vocab now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gergo: ül |
| Simone: “sit” |
| Gergo: ül |
| Gergo: ül |
| Gergo: le |
| Simone: “down” |
| Gergo: le |
| Gergo: le |
| Gergo: iszik |
| Simone: “drink” |
| Gergo: i-szik |
| Gergo: iszik |
| Gergo: sikeres |
| Simone: “successful” |
| Gergo: si-ke-res |
| Gergo: sikeres |
| Gergo: tanév |
| Simone: “school year” |
| Gergo: ta-név |
| Gergo: tanév |
| Gergo: téliszünet |
| Simone: “winter holiday” |
| Gergo: té-li-szü-net |
| Gergo: téliszünet |
| Gergo: Egészségedre! |
| Simone: “Cheers!” |
| Gergo: E-gész-sé-ged-re! |
| Gergo: Egészségedre! |
| Gergo: eszik |
| Simone: “eat” |
| Gergo: e-szik |
| Gergo: eszik |
| Gergo: étvágy |
| Simone: “appetite” |
| Gergo: ét-vágy |
| Gergo: étvágy |
| Gergo: Jó étvágyat! |
| Simone: “Enjoy your meal” |
| Gergo: Jó ét-vá-gyat! |
| Gergo: Jó étvágyat! |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Simone: This is the vocab for today, what do you have to say to us? |
| Gergo: In this lesson, the vocab section contains a lot of useful expressions to be used around the table. The first one is egészségedre, or “cheers.” |
| Simone: That sounds awful. |
| Gergo: I know, foreigners often find it impossible to remember. Please everyone, repeat after me. Egészségedre. |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Egészségedre. This one is conjugated informal, singular. Should there be many people around the table, you have to say: Egészségetekre. |
| Simone: Wow, you are really not making this easy... |
| Gergo: Sorry, that’s just how it is. I’ll repeat: Egészségetekre. |
| Simone: But I’ve heard something easier in the dialogue too... |
| Gergo: That’s a cop out, but I’ll teach it anyway. Some people when giving a toast just say sziasztok. This is totally acceptable, but I recommend you try the harder one to win over your audience. Besides, egészségedre is also used when someone has finished the food you cooked or bought. |
| Simone: What else is there? |
| Gergo: The second one is to be used when you start eating. You say jó étvágyat. |
| Simone: “Enjoy your meal.” |
| Gergo: Jó étvágyat! Étvágy is “appetite.” The whole phrase means “I wish you a good appetite.” |
| Simone: What is an acceptable response to this? |
| Gergo: Nothing, you just repeat the same phrase. |
| Simone: What if I don’t have an appetite? |
| Gergo: Than you say: nincs étvágyam. I’ll repeat that. Nincs étvágyam. |
| Simone: “I have no appetite.” A useful phrase at the doctor’s office. |
| Gergo: One last thing for the vocab section. The word tanév means one “school year.” If you want to say “semester” in Hungarian, that is... |
| Simone: ...drum rolls.... |
| Gergo: szemeszter. |
| Simone: We’ll go to grammar now. |
Lesson focus |
| Simone: In this lesson, we’re going to learn the expressions that you can use around the table. |
| Gergo: Right, we are going to learn a couple of phrases that all mean “to something.” |
| Simone: What was the first sentence? |
| Gergo: Igyunk a sikeres tanévre! |
| Simone: “Let’s drink to the successful school year.” |
| Gergo: Igyunk a sikeres tanévre! The first word, igyunk is the first person plural imperative for “drink.” Sikeres is “successful” and then we have tanév plus a case ending, -re. Tanévre. This means “to the, for the school year.” |
| Simone: Another use of the endings -ra, -re. |
| Gergo: As usual, the vowel setup of the base noun decides which ending to be used. |
| Simone: All right, let’s hear another example now. “Let’s drink to friendship.” |
| Gergo: Please repeat: Igyunk a barátságra. |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Igyunk a barátságra. Barátság is friendship, the ending is -ra. |
| Simone: Can you help us out with those vowels and endings again? |
| Gergo: If you can’t remember which vowel is front and which one is back, remember this: Disregarding vowel length, the word autó has all the back vowels. |
| Simone: “Car”, right? |
| Gergo: Yes. The other memory hook is teniszütő, which means “tennis racket.” This one has all the front vowels, again, disregarding length. |
| Simone: OK, back to this lesson. |
| Gergo: Right, here is another use of the ending, -ra, -re. Please repeat: Mire költöd a pénzed? |
| Simone: “What are you spending your money on?” |
| Gergo: Mire költöd a pénzed? The fist word is the question word mi plus -re. Mire means “on what” actually. Költöd is “you spend” and pénzed is “your money.” |
| Simone: Let’s say I’m spending it on clothing. |
| Gergo: Ruhára költöm. |
| {pause} |
| Gergo: Ruhára költöm. Ruhára is “on clothing” and költöm is “I spend.” |
| Simone: Any other examples? |
| Gergo: The question “what are you thinking about” also uses this case. Mire gondolsz? |
| Simone: And of course the answer as well. |
| Gergo: A jövőmre gondolok. |
| Simone: “I’m thinking about my future.” |
| Gergo: A jövőmre gondolok. Jövőm is “my future” and gondolok is “I’m thinking about.” |
| Simone: All right, that does it for today. |
| Gergo: Make sure you pick up our lesson notes for more info and try all the cool features at the website. |
| Simone: Okay, bye everyone. |
| Gergo: Sziasztok. |
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