Learn how to make questions and question tags in Hungarian
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| Michael: How are questions made in Hungarian? |
| Krisztina: And what about question tags? |
| Michael: At HungarianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Gabriella Gulyas is asking his neighbour whether they'll join their party. Mark Lee wants to join but seeks confirmation from his wife. |
| "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Gulyás Gabriella: Jöttök a bulinkra? |
| Dialogue |
| Gulyás Gabriella: Jöttök a bulinkra? |
| Mark Lee: Megyünk, ugye? |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Gulyás Gabriella: Jöttök a bulinkra? |
| Michael: "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Mark Lee: Megyünk, ugye? |
| Michael: "We're going, aren't we?" |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson, you will be learning how questions are made in Hungarian. The Hungarian word for "question" is |
| Krisztina: kérdés. |
| Michael: As with so many other languages, asking questions in Hungarian involves, among other things, making use of the usual question words. These include, "what," "where," "when," "who," "which and "how." We will be looking at these as well as at one or two common questions that you might find useful if you happen to be in Hungary or talking to a Hungarian person. You will also be learning about Hungarian question tags and how to ask "yes" and "no" questions. |
| We'll begin this lesson with some of the most common question words. I must mention that these words often have different endings, depending on number and case. Naturally, we will not have time to discuss all the endings in this one lesson, so we will have to stick with covering the fundamental form of each of these question words. The first one we will look at is also the most common. It sounds like this: |
| Krisztina: mi |
| Michael: and it means "what." It takes this form when you are using it before a noun, as in the question "What is your phone number?" |
| Krisztina: Mi a telefonszámod? |
| Michael: This could be a useful question to know if you are planning to call a colleague, for instance. If you take the train and you see an empty seat next to someone, a good question to know will be |
| Krisztina: Ki ül itt? |
| Michael: which means "Who is sitting here?" The question word is "who" or |
| Krisztina: ki. |
| Michael: Perhaps, as you are travelling, you don't catch the name of the station that the train has stopped at. In that case, you will want to ask "Which station is this?" |
| Krisztina: Melyik állomás ez? |
| Michael: The question word in this sentence is "which" of course and in Hungarian it sounds like this: |
| Krisztina: melyik. |
| Michael: Let's imagine that the station you asked about was not your station, but you are already almost late. A good question word to know in this case is "How much…?" or |
| Krisztina: mennyi? |
| Michael: You can use it to ask "How much time is left?," for instance. This is what it sounds like in Hungarian: |
| Krisztina: Mennyi idő van még hátra? |
| Michael: There is another way to ask about time, by using the question word "when" instead. In Hungarian, "when" sounds like this: |
| Krisztina: mikor. |
| Michael: And the alternative question you can ask is "When will the train arrive?" or |
| Krisztina: Mikor érkezik meg a vonat? |
| Michael: Hopefully, with these questions at your command, you will successfully navigate your train journey and arrive safely at your destination. And, speaking of arriving, we have now arrived at the end of this part of the lesson. Coming up, you will learn about question tags and "yes" and "no" questions in Hungarian. You will also learn some useful questions to know when first meeting someone. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Gabriella Gulyas says "Are you coming to our party?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Krisztina as Gulyás Gabriella: Jöttök a bulinkra? |
| Michael: Here, Gabriella is asking "Are you coming to our party?." At least, this is how we translate it into English. The more direct, literal translation is "You're coming to our party?" It's a statement that has been turned into a question simply by using the right tone of voice. In Hungarian writing, you can do the same thing by adding a question mark at the end of the statement. If you think about it, this is something we do in English too, but usually to express surprise or wonderment. If, for instance, the person you've invited doesn't usually attend parties you might ask, "You're coming to our party?" with some surprise. The difference in Hungarian, of course, is that one can change a statement into a question even if you aren't expressing surprise. |
| Let's try another example. Imagine one person asking another person if a third person has seen a particular film. In English, we would ask, "Did he see the film?" In Hungarian, however, one can take the declarative sentence, "He saw the film," and change it simply through intonation, like so: "He saw the film?." As you can hear, it's a declarative sentence that becomes a question simply because of intonation. It sounds like this in Hungarian: |
| Krisztina: Látta a filmet? |
| Michael: This is one of the more convenient Hungarian language conventions, I must say. I can imagine it has saved many people from developing a headache while learning the language. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Mark Lee says "We're going, aren't we?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Krisztina as Mark Lee: Megyünk, ugye? |
| Michael: In his reply, Mark Lee has made use of a question tag. Were you able to identify it? If so, well done. It sounds like this: |
| Krisztina: ugye. |
| Michael: This is also one of the more economical features of the Hungarian language because this is the only question tag you need to know. Similarly to "yes" and "no" questions, this tag is added to a statement in order to change it into a question. You can put it at the end or at the beginning of a statement, like this: |
| Krisztina: Megyünk, ugye? |
| Michael: or like this: |
| Krisztina: Ugye megyünk? |
| Michael: If one puts it before the statement, it more strongly implies that one is expecting a positive answer. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned how to form questions in Hungarian. You learned some basic question words as well as how to form "yes" and "no" questions. You also learned about the question tag |
| Krisztina: ugye |
| Michael: which can be placed at either the beginning or the end of a statement in order to form a question. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: So far, we've talked about quite a few question words, but we have not yet covered the important area of interrogative adverbs. In order to do this, let's compare two Hungarian questions. The first question is |
| Krisztina: Hol vagy? |
| Michael: and the second question is |
| Krisztina: Hogy vagy? |
| Michael: You will have noticed that the word |
| Krisztina: vagy |
| Michael: occurs in both questions. This means "you are." As I've pointed out previously, Hungarian doesn't require a word order change when it comes to asking questions, so the statement "you are" means the same as "are you?" in an English sentence, if it occurs within a question. In the first question you heard, the person was asking "Where are you?" |
| Krisztina: Hol vagy? |
| Michael: From this, you can deduce that the word |
| Krisztina: hol? |
| Michael: means "where." Later, in this lesson, you will be learning how to use the form of "where" in Hungarian that means the same as the English "whence," or "from where." In Hungarian, it sounds like this: |
| Krisztina: honnan? |
| Michael: You will also learn how to ask "Where are you from?." However, before we get to that, there is a third form of "where" as well and it sounds like this: |
| Krisztina: hová? |
| Michael: This form is the equivalent of the English word "whither" or "to where." You can use it in a question like, "Where is this train going?" |
| Krisztina: Hova megy ez a vonat? |
| Michael: I'm sure you will find that question useful if you are travelling in Hungary. Now, let's return to the other question word we are discussing, which is "how." Earlier, we talked about using it in the phrase "how much," but, in this part of the lesson, we will be looking at it only in terms of its function as an interrogative adverb. It can be used to ask about the manner in which something is done. For instance, if you would like to know how to make goulash soup, you could ask |
| Krisztina: Hogyan készíted el a gulyáslevest? |
| Michael: which means, obviously, "How do you make goulash soup?." You could also use it to ask something like, "How do I get to the bank?" |
| Krisztina: Hogyan jutok el a bankba? |
| Michael: I'm sure you will find it a very useful question word to know. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Gabriella Gulyas says |
| "Are you coming to our party?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Krisztina as Gulyás Gabriella: Jöttök a bulinkra? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Krisztina as Gulyás Gabriella: Jöttök a bulinkra? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Krisztina as Gulyás Gabriella: Jöttök a bulinkra? |
| Michael: And do you remember how Mark Lee says "We're going, aren't we?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Krisztina as Mark Lee: Megyünk, ugye? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Krisztina as Mark Lee: Megyünk, ugye? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Krisztina as Mark Lee: Megyünk, ugye? |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: If you happen to be travelling in Hungary, or chatting with a Hungarian person, there are some simple, essential questions you might find useful to know. Perhaps, the most essential of these is "What's your name?" Whether you are the one doing the asking or being asked, it is a good one to know for sure. It will come up all the time. In Hungarian, it sounds like this: |
| Krisztina: Mi a neved? |
| Michael: You will, no doubt, have recognized the question word |
| Krisztina: mi. |
| Michael: which we discussed earlier in this lesson. In case you've forgotten, it means "what" in Hungarian? But now, how does one answer a "what" question like this? It's simple really. You can either just tell them your name or, if your name is Paul, for instance, then a common way to answer would be a simple: |
| Krisztina: A nevem Paul. |
| Michael: Once this question has been asked and answered and the Hungarian person you are talking to realizes that you are not from Hungary, they might ask, "Where are you from?" The question sounds like this in Hungarian: |
| Krisztina: Honnan származol? |
| Michael: Hopefully, you recognized the word |
| Krisztina: honnan |
| Michael: from our earlier discussion of the interrogative adverbs. It means "whence" or "from where." |
| Now, if the conversation continues and you are struggling to understand each other, you might want to ask the Hungarian person you are speaking to if they can understand your native language. In this example, I am going to use the word "English," but, of course, you can replace it with the Hungarian word for your own native language, if it is not English. The way to ask "Do you speak English?" in Hungarian is like this: |
| Krisztina: Beszélsz angolul? |
| Michael: Hopefully, the person you are speaking to will say "yes!" |
| With these three questions at your disposal, you should, at least, be able to break the ice with the Hungarian person you are speaking to. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Krisztina: Viszontlátásra! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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