Learn how to use possessives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Simone: Hi everyone and welcome to Upper Beginner Hungarian season one, lesson four, You Can't Blame the Dog This Time in Hungary. My name is Simone. |
| Csaba: And my name is Csaba. |
| Simone: In this lesson we’re going to continue learning about the Hungarian possessive. |
| Csaba: The conversation takes place at Susan’s school. |
| Simone: The conversation is between Susan and a schoolkid. |
| Csaba: Teachers normally address the younger students in a informal way, while the sutdents answer in formal. |
| Simone: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Susan: Tamásnak nincs házija. Kinek van? |
| Diák: Nekem van házim. Viszont nincs ceruzám. |
| Susan: Várj, adok. Ööö, nincs ceruzám, tollam van. Jó lesz? |
| Diák: Persze, köszönöm. Máris befejezem az írást. |
| Susan: De azt mondtad, hogy van házi feladatod... |
| Diák: Bocsánat. |
| Susan: Szétrobban a fejem... |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Susan: Tamásnak nincs házija. Kinek van? |
| Diák: Nekem van házim. Viszont nincs ceruzám. |
| Susan: Várj, adok. Ööö, nincs ceruzám, tollam van. Jó lesz? |
| Diák: Persze, köszönöm. Máris befejezem az írást. |
| Susan: De azt mondtad, hogy van házi feladatod... |
| Diák: Bocsánat. |
| Susan: Szétrobban a fejem... |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Susan: Tamásnak nincs házija. Kinek van? |
| Simone: Thomas doesn't have his homework. Who does? |
| Diák: Nekem van házim. Viszont nincs ceruzám. |
| Simone: I have my homework. But I don't have a pencil. |
| Susan: Várj, adok. Ööö, nincs ceruzám, tollam van. Jó lesz? |
| Simone: Wait, I'll give you one. Umm, I don't have a pencil, I have a pen. Will that do? |
| Diák: Persze, köszönöm. Máris befejezem az írást. |
| Simone: Sure, thank you. I'll finish writing in a second. |
| Susan: De azt mondtad, hogy van házi feladatod... |
| Simone: But you said you had your homework. |
| Diák: Bocsánat. |
| Simone: I'm sorry. |
| Susan: Szétrobban a fejem... |
| Simone: My head's about to explode. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Simone: When do start school in Hungary? |
| Csaba: We start elementary school or általános iskola at the age of six, which is called first grade. We graduate from elementary school at fourteen, or 8th grade. |
| Simone: Do you go to high school after that? |
| Csaba: if you’re planning on going on to university, you’ll most probably go to a gimnázium, which does not mean “gym,” but “high school” or “grammar school.” At grade twelve, when you’re eighteen you have to take the final exams, called érettségi. |
| Simone: I’ve heard about that. |
| Csaba: It still gives me nightmares. Every May I dream with my maths finals. |
| Simone: All right, we’ll leave you alone with this topic now. Let’s see the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Simone: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Csaba: házi [natural native speed] |
| Simone: homework |
| Csaba: házi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: házi [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Csaba: toll [natural native speed] |
| Simone: pen |
| Csaba: toll [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: toll [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Csaba: befejez [natural native speed] |
| Simone: finish |
| Csaba: befejez [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: befejez [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Csaba: szétrobban [natural native speed] |
| Simone: explode |
| Csaba: szétrobban [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: szétrobban [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Csaba: fej [natural native speed] |
| Simone: head |
| Csaba: fej [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: fej [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Csaba: feladat [natural native speed] |
| Simone: task, exercise |
| Csaba: feladat [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: feladat [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Csaba: vár [natural native speed] |
| Simone: wait |
| Csaba: vár [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: vár [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Csaba: ceruza [natural native speed] |
| Simone: pencil |
| Csaba: ceruza [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Csaba: ceruza [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. |
| Simone: What is the first expression? |
| Csaba: Szétrobban a fejem. |
| Simone: “My head is about to explode.” |
| Csaba: Szétrobban a fejem. You can say this when you have a terrible headache or when you’re getting angry with the people around you. Szétrobban means “explodes.” |
| Simone: This will come in handy, working with you... |
| Csaba: I’ll choose to ignore this comment. The next phrase is jó lesz? |
| Simone: “Will it work?” or “Will this do?” |
| Csaba: Jó lesz? Lesz is the future tense of “to be.” |
| Simone: Can you use this short phrase in a longer sentence? |
| Csaba: Sure. Ez a csoki jó lesz? |
| Simone: “Will this type of chocolate do?” |
| Csaba: Ez a csoki jó lesz? |
| Simone: All right, anything else here? |
| Csaba: Let’s look at this sentence now |
| Simone: “But you said you had homework...” |
| Csaba: De azt mondtad, hogy van házi feladatod... The first half of this sentence is de azt mondtad. |
| Simone: “But you said...” |
| Csaba: The second half is hogy van házi feladatod. |
| Simone: “That you have homework.” |
| Csaba: This is reported speech, we’re reporting the words of someone else. For now, what you have to remember is that the second clause is always lead in with hogy, or “that.” Hungarian reported speech is very simple. The part you report is in the same verb tense. |
| Simone: We’ll have lessons on reported speech soon. Now let’s go to grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Simone: In this lesson we’re going to learn more about Hungarian possessives and learn to say things like “Thomas has a...” and “Thomas doesn’t have a...” |
| Csaba: In Hungarian there is no special word like the English “have” to express possession. Instead, we use a whopping three elements to express things like you mentioned. We’ll follow the order of the dialogue. The first such sentence was Tamásnak nincs házija. |
| Simone: “Thomas doesn't have his homework.” |
| Csaba: Tamásnak nincs házija. There are three things in play here. Tamás is the name of the possessor to which we attached the -nak ending. Tamásnak. The next element is nincs, a negative meaning something like “there is no.” |
| Simone: So far we have |
| Csaba: Finally, we have the possessed noun, házi, with the third person ending attached. Házija. Tamásnak nincs házija. This means that the poor kid didn’t do his homework. |
| Simone: Could this be more convoluted? |
| Csaba: You have to attach one ending to the possessor, than you have to say nincs, then and ending to the possessed. |
| Simone: Say the sentence again and stress these components. |
| Csaba: Tamásnak nincs házija. |
| Simone: All right. Dare I ask for another example? |
| Csaba: At this point, what do you have to lose? |
| Simone: Go ahead. |
| Csaba: Tamásnak van házija. |
| Simone: “Thomas has homework.” |
| Csaba: Tamásnak van házija. This time we only changed nincs to van. This is now a positive sentence. |
| Simone: All right, let’s move on with the dialogue. |
| Csaba: Susan asks |
| Simone: “Who has?” She means “homework” of course. |
| Csaba: You see, we attached the -nek ending to the question word too |
| Simone: And the answer to this was what again? |
| Csaba: Nekem van házim. |
| Simone: “I have my homework.” |
| Csaba: Nekem van házim. Nekem is the pronoun here, it means “I.” Imagine it this way |
| Simone: And if I’m guessing right, the second person pronoun will be something else. |
| Csaba: As it is with pronouns. Neked is the answer. |
| Simone: Well, I expect you’ve put them all in the pdf guide. |
| Csaba: I knew you didn’t read them. Yes, I did put them in the PDF. You guys should check that out as usual. It will also contain the key to last lesson’s quiz. |
Outro |
| Simone: That just about does it for today. |
| Csaba: Listeners, can you understand Hungarian TV shows, movies or songs? |
| Simone: How about friends and loved ones? conversations in Hungarian? |
| Csaba: If you want to know what's going on, we have a tool to help. |
| Simone: Line-by-line audio. |
| Csaba: Listen to the lesson conversations Line-By-Line, and learn to understand natural Hungarian fast! |
| Simone: It's simple really. |
| Csaba: With a click of a button, listen to each line of the conversation. |
| Simone: Listen again and again, and tune your ear to natural Hungarian. |
| Csaba: Rapidly understand natural Hungarian with this powerful tool. |
| Simone: Find this feature on the lesson page under Premium Member resources at HungarianPod101.com. |
| Simone: Well, until next time, see you. |
| Csaba: Sziasztok. |
Comments
HideHi everyone!
What do you think about having more than one possesive verb in Hungarian?
Szia Anneke!
Thank you for your comment. Nekem is the first person singular pronoun in this construction, in these sentences. However, it is a different construction like when you only say e.g. "nekem a tollam", "neki a házija" = "my pen", "my homework".
In a sentence you don't use articles: "Nekem van egy macskám." = 'I have a cat.' -> Nekem here is just an extra emphasis, you could simply say "Van egy macskám."
I hope this helps!😇 Have fun learning Hungarian and let us know if you have any questions.
Szép estét!
Erika
Team HungarianPod101.com
, I am a bit confused. I thought one has to use the definite article ( a az) in possessive forms always. Why is it not nekem van a kutyám?
Szia Zuzanna!
Thank you for your comment.😄 Well, it is indeed quite unique in Hungarian.😁
Have fun with practicing and let us know if you have any questions!
Szép napot!
Erika
Team HungarianPod101.com
I must admit, that Hungarian way of expressing possesives with "van" and "nincs" is quite unique. It gives the special flavor to learning Hungarian. Although, sometimes szétrobban a fejem!
Hello marti_mg!
Yes, you are absolutely right! Thank you for your insight! 😇
We would also like to add that even after the different types of school that you mentioned there is still another layer to érettségi:
there is a regular version of it and there is an advanced version of it. This latter one is called emelt szintű érettségi.
Cheers and have a great day,
Vivien
Team HungarianPod101.com
in re: "Cultural Insights: The School System in Hungary"
Since the Hungarian government's 2016 educational reforms, the érettségi is only required in gimnázium, BUT ALSO since the reforms there are now 2 types: gimnázium + szakgimnázium. There are also 2 types of 'final exam': érettségi + szak-érettségi.
Magyarországon a nemzeti köznevelésről szól törvény 2016. szeptember 1-től a középfokú szakoktatásnak 3 intézményi formáját határozta meg:
-szakgimnáziumok (amelyet 2016 előtt szakközépiskolának neveztek)
-szakközépiskolák (2016 előtt szakmunkásképzőnek neveztek)
-szakiskolák (közbeszédben OKJ képzésnek hívják)
For more info + very clear (and colorful!) chart: https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szakk%C3%B6z%C3%A9piskola
Hello Monta!
'Házi' in this case is a shortened version for 'home-made alcohol'. Mostly when Hungarians ask about 'házi' and they don't mean 'homework', they refer to 'pálinka' which is a Hungarian alcoholic beverage that can be made at home in Hungary. There is not really an English version of this drink, so that is why the example uses brandy.
Hope this clears it up!
Cheers,
Vivien
Team HungarianPod101.com
Hello! I noticed some mistake at vocabulary list, next to word "házi" there are given examples, and one example: "Van itthon egy kis házid?" translation there is : "Do you have some homemade brandy at home?" But in the sentence isn't mentioned brandy at all, then how should I translate this sentence?
Hi Marc,
'fejem' is a shortened version but both are correct.
Thanks for the question! 😉
Zsuzsanna
Team HungarianPod101.com
Hello!
Why do we use "bevertem a fejem" instead of "bevertem a fejemet" with accusative?
Kössz!
Szia David!
Absolutely, that's perfect! Szuper! 😉
Szép estét,
Dorottya
Team HungarianPod101.com
Is this correct? Dave vagyok. Nekem van Lakasom
Hello Raph,
Anytime! Thanks for posting. :smile:
Have a great day!
Erica
Team HungarianPod101.com
Great, thanks for correcting my mistake and providing a detailed explanation !
Hi Raph,
You did very well on that. There is just one small thing missing.
barátnő - "girlfriend"
barátnőm - "my girlfriend"
barátnőmnek - "my girlfriend's"
The second step was missing. :smile:
Keep up the good work! Kitartás!
Thank you for your patience, let us know if you have any questions,
Csaba
Team HungarianPod101.com
Oh, I think I have my answer in the next lesson - what about :
Az én baratnőnek a parfüme
:sweat_smile: ?
Hi there !
Thanks for all the lessons - very nice study material :)
This lessons only contains "partial" answers to the quiz from the previous one ; in particular, I was wondering about the following sentence :
"my girlfriend's perfume"
Could someone translate that for me, please ? So far we've only seen "one level" of possession, it probably goes slightly beyond what we're studying here, but I'd love to know :-?
Thanks !
Hi Lee,
Thank you for pointing this spelling mistake out! :thumbsup::wink:
Have fun learning with us!
Szép napot!
Gergő
Team HungarianPod101.com
'bejezte' is incorrect. Please check spelling :smiling_imp: