Learn about color nuance in Hungarian
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Michael: What is the difference between |
| Krisztina: piros |
| Michael: and |
| Krisztina: vörös? And how do you know which one to use? |
| Michael: At HungarianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Gabriella Gulyas came back home after work, and she is preparing a shopping list. She says, |
| "I would like some red wine. " |
| Gulyás Gabriella: Vörösbort szeretnék. |
| Dialogue |
| Gulyás Gabriella: Vörösbort szeretnék. |
| Gulyás Gáspár: Én pedig egy piros almát szeretnék. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Gulyás Gabriella: Vörösbort szeretnék. |
| Michael: "I would like some red wine." |
| Gulyás Gáspár: Én pedig egy piros almát szeretnék. |
| Michael: "And I would like a red apple." |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson, we will be discussing the difference between |
| Krisztina: piros |
| Michael: and |
| Krisztina: vörös, |
| Michael: both of which denote the color red in Hungarian. As you can imagine, having two words for the same color can lead to some confusion as to when one should use which. In this lesson, we hope to clear up some of that confusion. Let's start by looking at how these two words were used in the dialogue for this lesson. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Do you remember how Gabriella Gulyas says "I would like some red wine?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Krisztina as Gulyás Gabriella: Vörösbort szeretnék. |
| Michael: In this question, Gabriella uses the word |
| Krisztina: vörös |
| Michael: to refer to the red color of wine. Why did she use this word instead of |
| Krisztina: piros |
| Michael: —the other word for "red" in Hungarian? Well, for one thing, the word she used is the word that all Hungarians use when talking about red wine. This is important because, even though this lesson will help you to gain a better understanding of when to use which word, it's still a good idea to simply learn them as a unit with the words that they are associated with. The rules around the usage of these two terms are very difficult to define. Researchers and linguists have been trying to determine what the rules are for decades, and there is still no consensus around the issue. One of the problems is that, in most languages, there are eleven major colors, but, in Hungarian, there are twelve. This has led some of the most recent researchers to conclude that |
| Krisztina: vörös |
| Michael: is a secondary color term. While this is interesting, it does not really help us to know which of the two to use and when. If you ask a Hungarian person, you will most likely be told that |
| Krisztina: vörös |
| Michael: is associated with natural things. It is used to talk about a "red star," for instance. In Hungarian, "red star" is |
| Krisztina: vörös csillag. |
| Michael: A "red onion" is also a natural object and, in Hungarian, it is: |
| Krisztina: vöröshagyma. |
| Michael: Some people might also point out to you the linguistic association that |
| Krisztina: vörös |
| Michael: has with blood. The Hungarian word for "blood" is |
| Krisztina: vér |
| Michael: which might not sound much like the word we are discussing, but when you listen to the adjective "bloody" in Hungarian, you will hear the similarity. It sounds like this: |
| Krisztina: véres. |
| Michael: I mention this because blood is often associated with passion and feelings, as well as some of the negative things that come with them. Many Hungarians will tell you that |
| Krisztina: vörös |
| Michael: is used for things that have emotional connotations. It is also seen as the more negative of the two words for red, and is often associated with Communism, which Hungarians do not view in a positive light. That said, it is also the word that Hungarian people see as carrying associations with love. That's probably why the Hungarian for "red rose" is |
| Krisztina: vörös rózsa. |
| Michael: Roses are usually associated with passion and love. Wine is too, which is possibly why we heard Gabriella use |
| Krisztina: vörös |
| Michael: when talking about "red" wine. |
| Please remember that what I am telling you is a general pattern, rather than a rule. Even the research has not managed to clearly define when to use which of these two adjectives. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Gaspar Gulyas says "And I would like a red apple?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Krisztina as Gulyás Gáspár: Én pedig egy piros almát szeretnék. |
| Michael: In this sentence, Gaspar is saying that he wants a "red apple" and he uses the word |
| Krisztina: piros |
| Michael: for "red." This seems to go against what I told you before—that most Hungarians will tell you that |
| Krisztina: vörös |
| Michael: is used for natural things, like apples. But, as I pointed out, I am not trying to establish rules here. All I'm saying is that there are patterns and that they are generally true. Recent research suggests that the word |
| Krisztina: piros |
| Michael: should be considered the official, main word for "red" and that the word |
| Krisztina: vörös |
| Michael: describes a secondary color. This also doesn't really help us decide which one to use when, though. In the case of an apple, one could maybe say that apples have pleasant associations, and this would be consistent with the widespread opinion that |
| Krisztina: piros |
| Michael: describes more pleasant or superficial impressions. This word can be used for things like a "red card" in sports, or |
| Krisztina: piros lap |
| Michael: and a "traffic light" or |
| Krisztina: piros lámpa. |
| Michael: It is interesting to note here that |
| Krisztina: piros lámpa |
| Michael: does not have the same connotations as |
| Krisztina: vörös lámpa. |
| Michael: When people hear the second expression, they are more inclined to think of the famous red-light district in Amsterdam. This is consistent with the opinion that |
| Krisztina: piros |
| Michael: is usually used for things that are more neutral in the sense that they have less serious or weighty connotations. This is not simply a public opinion. It is backed up by the research that has been done into the subject, so it's safe to say that there is a lot of truth to it. Again, I must point out that these are still just general guidelines, and that it is best to learn any expression individually in which these words are used. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned about the difference between |
| Krisztina: piros |
| Michael: and |
| Krisztina: vörös |
| Michael: which are the two words that Hungarians use for "red." You learned that recent research suggests that |
| Krisztina: piros |
| Michael: should be considered the official term for the color red. You also learned that this word is, according to most Hungarian speakers, the word one uses to describe things that are not natural and that have more pleasant or superficial associations. The word |
| Krisztina: vörös, |
| Michael: on the other hand, should be considered a secondary color, according to recent research. Most Hungarian speakers will tell you that this word is used to describe things that occur in nature or are natural, such as hair color or plants. It also is used to describe more serious things, and might even be associated with things that are seen as negative, such as the red in the communist flag and the red that is associated with bloody revolts. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: Earlier, I touched briefly on the etymology, or origins, of the word |
| Krisztina: vörös |
| Michael: and pointed out that it probably evolved out of the Hungarian word for blood. The etymology of |
| Krisztina: piros |
| Michael: is a little different because, for one thing, it evolved later than |
| Krisztina: vörös |
| Michael: and because it evolved out of two onomatopoeic word stems. An onomatopoeic word, in case you are unfamiliar with the term, is one that sounds like the thing it describes. "Bang!" is a good example of an onomatopoeic word. The word stems that |
| Krisztina: piros |
| Michael: evolved from are |
| Krisztina: pir |
| Michael: and |
| Krisztina: per, |
| Michael: which can be found in the Hungarian words for "scorch" and "roast" and which, apparently, are reminiscent of the crackling sound that a fire makes when roasting something. This word was first used to describe the reddish-brown color that food would often develop as a result of roasting. Only later did it start being used to describe more purely red hues. |
| Some people point out that fire generally has more pleasant associations than blood in most people's minds, and this is consistent with what we have already discussed about the connotations that spring to mind when using these two words. |
| Practice |
| 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 "I would like some red wine?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Krisztina as Gulyás Gabriella: Vörösbort szeretnék. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Krisztina as Gulyás Gabriella: Vörösbort szeretnék. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Krisztina as Gulyás Gabriella: Vörösbort szeretnék. |
| Michael: And do you remember how Gaspar Gulyas says, "And I would like a red apple?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Krisztina as Gulyás Gáspár: Én pedig egy piros almát szeretnék. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Krisztina as Gulyás Gáspár: Én pedig egy piros almát szeretnék. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Krisztina as Gulyás Gáspár: Én pedig egy piros almát szeretnék. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: If you are interested in this topic, you might also be interested in how Hungarians differentiate between the colors "navy blue" and "dark blue," as well as "burgundy" and "dark red." Let's look at the blues first. The Hungarian word for "blue" is |
| Krisztina: kék, |
| Michael: and the Hungarian word for "dark" is |
| Krisztina: sötét |
| Michael: so, as you will have guessed, the Hungarian word for "dark blue" is |
| Krisztina: sötétkék. |
| Michael: You'll see later that the word for "dark red" is just as self-explanatory. The word for "navy blue" in Hungarian is also quite simple to understand, once you know the meanings of the words that form the compound word. The compound word is |
| Krisztina: matrózkék. |
| Michael: We already know that the word for blue is |
| Krisztina: kék, |
| Michael: so all we need to learn now is that the word |
| Krisztina: matróz |
| Michael: means "sailor." Directly translated, the color would then be "sailor blue." I kind of like that, actually. Of course, the proper translation is "navy blue." Another word for "sailor" in Hungarian is |
| Krisztina: tengerész, |
| Michael: and you can also combine this word with the Hungarian word for "blue" to create the compound |
| Krisztina: tengerészkék |
| Michael: which means...that's right—"navy blue" of course. There are other words that describe variations of navy blue, but I feel that telling you about those might be a bit much for one lesson. |
| Instead, let's have a look at the difference between the Hungarian words for "dark red" and "burgundy." I should point out that, technically, in Hungarian, "navy blue" is seen as a shade of "dark blue" and not as a different color. The same principle applies to "burgundy," which is seen as a dark shade of red. It's interesting to see that the word for "dark red" is |
| Krisztina: sötétvörös |
| Michael: because it contains our now familiar adjective friend |
| Krisztina: vörös. |
| Michael: The word for "burgundy," however, does not contain either of the adjectives we have been studying in this lesson. It is: |
| Krisztina: bordó. |
| Michael: There are, however, some synonyms for this color that do use the two adjectives we have been studying. One of them is |
| Krisztina: vörösbordó, |
| Michael: which refers to a particularly red shade of burgundy, and another is |
| Krisztina: bordópiros, |
| Michael: which is really just another word for "burgundy." |
| You now know quite a bit about the subtle differences between these various names for colors in Hungarian. I'm sure you will be able to impress some Hungarian speakers with this specialized knowledge. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Krisztina: Viszontlátásra! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
Comments
Hide