Learn how to build Hungarian sentences
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Simone: Hi everyone and welcome to Upper Beginner Hungarian, season 1, lesson 10. Moving Houses and Building Sentences in Hungary. I am Simone. |
| Csaba: And I am Csaba. |
| Simone: In this lesson we’re going to learn some sentence building 101. |
| Csaba: The conversation takes place at Susan’s place. |
| Simone: The conversation is between Susan and Dani. |
| Csaba: They use the informal language. |
| Simone: Let’s listen to it now. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Susan: Elfáradtam. Te mit csinálsz? |
| Dani: Ládákat pakolok. Még sok edény is van. |
| Susan: Kipakolom az edényeket. |
| Dani: Akkor én megyek aludni, lakótárs. |
| Susan: Hééé, csaló! |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Susan: Elfáradtam. Te mit csinálsz? |
| Dani: Ládákat pakolok. Még sok edény is van. |
| Susan: Kipakolom az edényeket. |
| Dani: Akkor én megyek aludni, lakótárs. |
| Susan: Hééé, csaló! |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Susan: Elfáradtam. Te mit csinálsz? |
| Simone: I'm tired. What are you doing? |
| Dani: Ládákat pakolok. Még sok edény is van. |
| Simone: I'm organizing boxes. There are still a lot of pots. |
| Susan: Kipakolom az edényeket. |
| Simone: I'll unpack the pots. |
| Dani: Akkor én megyek aludni, lakótárs. |
| Simone: I'll go to bed then, roommate. |
| Susan: Hééé, csaló! |
| Simone: Hey, that's cheating! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Csaba: One thing that you wouldn’t think of when you think of Hungary is beautiful ceramics and china. |
| Simone: I have to tell you that I rarely think about ceramics and china at all. |
| Csaba: Just... just roll with it. Listeners, when you’re in Hungary, there are two porcelain companies whose products you have to buy and I’ll guarantee that it will be a good investment. The first factory is called Herendi. |
| Simone: Which is manufactured in Herend. |
| Csaba: Not manufactured but crafted. If you buy a piece, you’ll join the elite club of the British Royal Family, Tzars, Habsburg Emperors and Emperor Akihito as well. They all own Herendi. |
| Simone: All right, the normal crowd I hang around with. What is the other? |
| Csaba: Zsolnay also produces top quality china. These are not as well-known as they should be, but the price tag might scare people off too. |
| Simone: All right, let’s take a look at the vocabulary section. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Simone: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Csaba: elfárad [natural native speed] |
| Simone: grow tired, tire |
| Csaba: elfárad [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: elfárad [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Csaba: láda [natural native speed] |
| Simone: crate, box |
| Csaba: láda [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: láda [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Csaba: pakol [natural native speed] |
| Simone: pack, organize |
| Csaba: pakol [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: pakol [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Csaba: edény [natural native speed] |
| Simone: pot, dish |
| Csaba: edény [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: edény [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Csaba: kipakol [natural native speed] |
| Simone: unpack, unbox |
| Csaba: kipakol [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: kipakol [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Csaba: alszik [natural native speed] |
| Simone: sleep |
| Csaba: alszik [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: alszik [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Csaba: lakótárs [natural native speed] |
| Simone: roommate |
| Csaba: lakótárs [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: lakótárs [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Csaba: csaló [natural native speed] |
| Simone: cheater, con man |
| Csaba: csaló [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: csaló [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Simone: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Csaba: The first word in the vocabulary section is pakol or “pack.” But this verb can have many different meanings, depending on what prefix you attach. |
| Simone: Let’s hear an example. |
| Csaba: Kipakolok a dobozból. |
| Simone: “I'll unpack the box.” |
| Csaba: Kipakolok a dobozból. Ki- means “out-.” But you can also “pack away” in Hungarian, or elpakol, which means “tidy up.” |
| Simone: Use it in a sentence. |
| Csaba: Elpakolom a bögréket. |
| Simone: “I’ll tidy up the mugs.” |
| Csaba: Elpakolom a bögréket. The magic of prepositions. Always a new meaning. |
| Simone: All right, let’s move on to the next expression. |
| Csaba: Csaló means “cheater.” Csaló vagy. |
| Simone: “You're a cheater.” |
| Csaba: Csaló vagy. This is also a case where you really have to pay attention to your prepositions. Megcsal means “to cheat on somebody.” |
| Simone: Well, let’s put it in a sentence than. |
| Csaba: Well, let’s say |
| Simone: “Did you cheat on me?” |
| Csaba: Megcsaltál? Why would we need this sentence? |
| Simone: Well, who knows. Let’s do one more of this word. |
| Csaba: Let’s say this now |
| Simone: “I never cheat.” |
| Csaba: Én sosem csalok. Sosem means “never ever.” |
| Simone: All right, there is a lot to cover in the grammar section, so I suggest we move on. |
| Csaba: Let’s do that. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Simone: In this lesson we’re going to take ALL WE’VE LEARNED and do a bit of sentence building 101. |
| Csaba: Yes, we’ll shamelessly over-analyze every single sentence now. |
| Simone: Where do we start from? |
| Csaba: We’ll repeat a well-known but false adage. “Hungarian word order is free.” This is true in a sense that the same phrase can appear in various positions and word order is less rigid than in English. |
| Simone: I’m guessing there is a “but.” |
| Csaba: But it doesn’t mean that you can throw phrases and words around with no restrictions. Actually, by moving elements around the sentence, you give emphasis and stress to certain information in the sentence. |
| Simone: What is the first sentence for the lesson? |
| Csaba: in this lesson we’re going to build neutral sentences. These are sentences where no element receives extra stress, no element is more important than the other. These sentences often answer the question |
| Simone: “I'm unpacking crates.” |
| Csaba: Ládákat pakolok. Two words. first we had láda or crate. This is then pluralized, ládák. Finally, since it is the object in the sentence, you need the accusative. Ládákat. |
| Simone: “Crates” in accusative. |
| Csaba: Pakolok is the verb pakolni, in the first person singular present tense. Pakolok. You should remember from our all about series and also from the absolute beginner series that verbs have definite and indefinite conjugation, depending on the noun object. The noun is indefinite, therefore we used the indefinite conjugation. Pakolok. |
| Simone: The word order was noun – verb or object – verb. No pronoun, the conjugation tells us who the subject is. |
| Csaba: Now repeat this |
| Simone: “I'll unpack the pots.” |
| Csaba: Kipakolom az edényeket. This time we start with the verb. Pakolom is “I pack” and it is now definite conjugation, because there is a definite article before the noun. With the prefix attached, kipakolom means “out-pack” or “unpack.” |
| Simone: And the noun object is? |
| Csaba: Az edényeket. The base noun is edény. In plural |
| Simone: This time the word order is verb-object. |
| Csaba: We flipped the word order, because when there is an article before the object, VO order is more common. When there is no article, OV order is more common in neutral: sentences. |
| Simone: Again, this is for neutral sentences. |
| Csaba: For sentences with an element in focus, we may change the word order a bit. We’ll talk about that later. |
| Simone: In the meantime, please go to the PDF guide and look at these sentences. You’ll find more sentence building and examples. |
Outro |
| Simone: That just about does it for today. |
| Simone: Bye! |
| Csaba: And until next time: sziasztok. |
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