Learn how to use -ig and meddig to talk about directions and times
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Simone: Hi, this is Absolute Beginner season 1, lesson 4: Riding the Bus in Budapest. I'm Simone. |
| Gergo: And I am Gergo. Sziasztok! |
| Simone: In this lesson we’re going to learn to say where you want to get off the bus. |
| Gergo: Yes, and this conversation takes place, surprise surprise, on a bus. |
| Simone: It is between Anne and Balázs. |
| Gergo: They are on friendly terms already, therefore they use the informal language. |
| Simone: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Anne: Á, szia! |
| Balázs: Szia Anne. |
| Anne: Ez már a Blaha? |
| Balázs: Igen. Meddig mész? |
| Anne: Az Astoriáig megyek. |
| Balázs: A következő az Astoria. |
| Anne: Köszi. |
| Slow speed: |
| Anne: Á, szia! |
| Balázs: Szia Anne. |
| Anne: Ez már a Blaha? |
| Balázs: Igen. Meddig mész? |
| Anne: Az Astoriáig megyek. |
| Balázs: A következő az Astoria. |
| Anne: Köszi. |
| With English: |
| Anne: Á, szia! |
| Anne: “Oh, hi!” |
| Balázs: Szia Anne. |
| Balázs: “Hi, Anne!” |
| Anne: Ez már a Blaha? |
| Anne: “Is this Blaha already?” |
| Balázs: Igen. Meddig mész? |
| Balázs: “Yes. Where do you get off?” |
| Anne: Az Astoriáig megyek. |
| Anne: “I’m going to Astoria.” |
| Balázs: A következő az Astoria. |
| Balázs: “The next one is Astoria.” |
| Anne: Köszi. |
| Anne: “Thanks.” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Simone: Okay, so what’s going on here Gergo? |
| Gergo: Anne is commuting in Budapest. |
| Simone: Always a pleasure. |
| Gergo: Actually if you’re not too far from downtown, the 4-6 trams and the subways make it pretty convenient. |
| Simone: Well, I used to live in the suburbs. That is a different case entirely. |
| Gergo: Yes, especially during the rush hour, the buses get quite unbearable. Still, all things considered, public transport in Budapest is quite all right. |
| Simone: There are three subway lines at the moment, correct? |
| Gergo: Ooh, I know where you’re going with this... Don’t get me started. |
| Simone: (laughs) Listeners, take note. Mentioning the fourth subway line, which has been under construction for longer than anyone cares to remember, gets Budapest people aggravated immediately. |
| Gergo: Yes. Well, the first plans and promises came out in the nineties. In 2011 we’re still not riding it. |
| Simone: Let’s go to the vocab before you explode! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gergo: ez |
| Simone: “this” |
| Gergo: ez |
| Gergo: ez |
| Gergo: már |
| Simone: “already” |
| Gergo: már |
| Gergo: már |
| Gergo: a |
| Simone: “the” |
| Gergo: a |
| Gergo: a |
| Gergo: az |
| Simone: “that” |
| Gergo: az |
| Gergo: az |
| Gergo: meddig |
| Simone: “until where/when” |
| Gergo: med-dig |
| Gergo: meddig |
| Gergo: megy |
| Simone: “go” |
| Gergo: megy |
| Gergo: megy |
| Gergo: következő |
| Simone: “next” |
| Gergo: kö-vet-ke-ző |
| Gergo: következő |
| Gergo: köszi |
| Simone: “thanks” |
| Gergo: kö-szi |
| Gergo: köszi |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Simone: Any comments on these Gergo? |
| Gergo: The first one we want to talk about is megy. This is the dictionary form and the third person singular form of the verb “go.” Two sentences about Hungarian dictionaries: More often than not, you find the third person singular form for the verbs in dictionaries. That is convenient, since you can already use them in one form, straight out of the dictionary. |
| Simone: Sometimes you may also find the infinitive. Those are more tricky, but you can easily recognize them from having the ending -ni. |
| Gergo: Right. In our lessons, we prefer to give you the third person form in the vocab lists. If not, we’ll tell you in advance. |
| Simone: So like you said, “go.” |
| Gergo: Like we said, the dictionary / third person form is megy. Please repeat: megy. |
| Simone: But in this lesson we also had “you go” and “I go.” |
| Gergo: The first person form is megyek. Please repeat: megyek. |
| Simone: “I go.” In Hungarian, you don’t always need to use pronouns, since the conjugation already tells the other speaker who you’re talking about. |
| Gergo: The second person, “you go” is mész. Mész. |
| Simone: Nice. Give us an example. |
| Gergo: Well, a simple conversation is Mész? Megyek. |
| Simone: “Are you going? Yes, I am.” We’re going to talk a lot more about conjugation and these verbs. But now? |
| Gergo: We heard the word: köszi. |
| Simone: Please repeat! |
| Gergo: Köszi. This is an informal way to say “thanks.” This is to be used with friends only. |
| Simone: Finally, we had the demonstratives. |
| Gergo: Ez - “this.” Az - “that.” |
| Simone: Again please. |
| Gergo: Ez - “this.” Az - “that.” Two examples: Ez kávé? |
| Simone: “Is this coffee?” |
| Gergo: Az drága. |
| Simone: “That’s expensive.” |
| Gergo: One last thing. The demonstrative az also means “the” in Hungarian. There are two words for “the.” One is used before words starting with a consonant and the other one with vowels. |
| Simone: Give us two examples of this please. |
| Gergo: Az elefánt. “Elephant” starts in a vowel, so we use az. This means “the elephant.” But we also have a kutya - “the dog.” It starts in a consonant, therefore we use a. |
| Simone: All right, let’s go to grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Simone: In this lesson, we’re going to focus on how to say “to, up to” a location. |
| Gergo: In Hungarian, words like “on, in, inside, up to etc” are expressed with certain endings that you attach to nouns. The first one of these, which you can use relatively safely, is the ending -ig. |
| Simone: This one attached to a place means “all the way to.” The reason why we use this ending, somewhat cumbersome in translation, is because it is easy to use. Just stick it to a noun. Gergo, an example please! |
| Gergo. Az Astoriáig megyek. Astoria is a downtown location in Budapest. Astoriáig is “to Astoria.” Megyek is “I go” or “I’m going.” |
| Simone: Again please. |
| Gergo: Az Astoriáig megyek. You can also use it with town names, which will help you buy tickets. For example: Pécsig megyek. |
| Simone: “I’m going to Pécs.” Pécs is a nice town in the south. |
| Gergo: I’ll repeat that. Pécsig megyek. All you do is attach -ig to the name. |
| Simone: You can also attach it to time words. |
| Gergo: I’ll give you an example. Hatig alszom. Hatig is “until six” and alszom is “I sleep.” |
| Simone: Let’s repeat that. |
| Gergo: Hatig alszom. |
| Simone: There was also a question in the dialogue... |
| Gergo: Meddig mész? Meddig is “until where/when?” Basically, in our context you can translate is as “Where do you get off?” Please repeat after me: Meddig mész? |
| Simone: All right. Now a question with times, please. |
| Gergo: Meddig maradtok? |
| Simone: Please repeat. |
| Gergo: Meddig maradtok? “How long are you staying?” “You” in plural here. |
| Simone: Let’s say “we’re staying until Monday.” |
| Gergo: Hétfőig maradunk. Hétfő is “Monday” and maradunk is “we’re staying.” |
| Simone: Repeat please. |
| Gergo: Hétfőig maradunk. This could come in useful at a hotel. |
| Simone: All right. One last example please. |
| Gergo: We’re going to say: “All the way to that corner.” You can tell that to the cab driver, he’ll understand this as the place you want to get out. |
| Simone: Ok, please repeat. |
| Gergo: A sarokig kérem. |
| Simone: “To the corner please.” |
| Gergo: A sarokig kérem. |
| Simone: Let’s wrap it up now. |
| Gergo: Make sure you read our PDF lesson notes for all the ready-made goodness you will find there. |
| Simone: And come back for lesson five soon! See you next time. |
| Gergo: Sziasztok. |
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