Learn how to use the phrase "Do you speak English?"
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| Sziasztok, Lívia vagyok! Hi everybody! I’m Livia. |
| Welcome to HungarianPod101.com’s “Magyar nyelvleckék három percben”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Hungarian. |
| In the last lesson, we learned the most common forms of greetings in Hungarian. Do you remember them? |
| In this lesson we’re going to learn a very useful phrase: “Do you speak English?” |
| If you find yourself in a situation where you need assistance in English, this phrase can be a lifesaver. And because you’re asking it in Hungarian, you can be sure that everyone will understand what you’re saying, even if their answer is no. |
| Here's the informal way to say it. |
| Beszélsz angolul? |
| [slowly] Beszélsz angolul? |
| Beszél means “to speak”. In Hungarian, verbs change depending on the active voice. You don’t have to say the pronoun here, it is already built into the verb. |
| Beszélsz means: Do you speak... |
| Angolul literally means “in English”, with angol meaning “the English language.” |
| Beszélsz angolul? |
| We’re now going to make this sentence formal. First, we need to use the formal version of “you,” which is Ön. In this case you have to include the word in the sentence. Also, we will have to conjugate the verb, beszél, differently. |
| Beszél Ön angolul? |
| [slowly] Beszél Ön angolul? |
| Adding elnézést, "excuse-me", the sentence becomes even more polite: |
| Elnézést, beszél Ön angolul? |
| [slowly] Elnézést, beszél Ön angolul? |
| The responses you will receive could be one of these three: |
| Igen. "Yes." |
| [slowly] Igen. |
| Egy kicsit. "A little." |
| [slowly] Egy kicsit. |
| Nem, nem beszélek angolul. "No, I don’t speak English." |
| [slowly] Nem, nem beszélek angolul. |
| Since this last one is a negative statement, we need to say nem before the verb, beszél. Notice also that the verb, beszélek is slightly different than beszél. Remember, the verb changes depending on the active voice. Beszélek indicates the first person pronoun, meaning “I speak”. Adding nem in front of it changes the meaning to “I don’t speak”. |
| Now it’s time for Livia’s Tips. |
| For those of you who are not only English speakers, you can obviously use this question with any language you need. Hungarian people study other European languages at school, so maybe you will get lucky! Just substitute angolul with… |
| olaszul for Italian. |
| oroszul for Russian. |
| spanyolul for Spanish. |
| németül for German. |
| In this lesson we mentioned the expression Elnézést. But did you know that this could also be used as an apology? In the next lesson we will learn this and other ways to apologize in Hungarian. It’s never too late to show your good manners with Hungarian people! |
| I'll see you in our next Magyar nyelvleckék három percben! Sziasztok! |
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