Learn about the past tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Simone:Hi everyone and welcome back to HungarianPod101.com. This is Upper Beginner, season 1, lesson 24 - A Hungarian Success Story. I’m Simone. |
| Gergő:And I am Gergő. Sziasztok! |
| Simone:In this lesson you’ll learn more about the past tense. |
| Gergő:This conversation takes place at the steakhouse. |
| Simone:It’s between Jenny and Kristóf. |
| Gergő:The speakers are friends, so they’re using informal language. |
| Simone:Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Simone:Jenny has become a mature business owner. A real success story. |
| Gergő:One that is badly needed these days. The last positive thing Hungarians were kind of noted for was the gömböc. |
| Simone:What is a gömböc? |
| Gergő:A very strange invention, but quite an impressive scientific achievement. Try to imagine a wobbly toy man that is not weighed down at the bottom. |
| Simone:The material it’s made of and its weight distribution are all the same. It stands up without any weights and even though there was a theory that such a shape could exist, it hadn’t been realized by human beings until 2006. |
| Gergő:We say human beings, because apparently tortoises are shaped like this naturally. |
| Simone:The gömböc is quite an uncanny object that needs very careful design and manufacturing to work. I'm guessing that is visible on the price-tag. |
| Gergő:Absolutely. |
| Simone:Okay, now let’s take a look at the vocab. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Simone:Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Gergő:First up, Sikerül means “succeed.” Unlike English, you can't use it to refer to a person. |
| Simone:You have to use this verb with events, parties and other inanimate things. |
| Gergő:In this sense, a more accurate translation of the verb would be “go down successfully.” |
| Simone:Can you please give us an example? |
| Gergő:A megnyitó sikerült. |
| Simone:“The opening ceremony was a success.” |
| Gergő:A megnyitó sikerült. If you want to talk about a person who “succeeded in something,” you have to use sikerrel jár. This expression means something like “walked with success.” |
| Simone:That’s a great way to express this concept. “I walk with success.” |
| Gergő:And the example sentence is this: Tamás sikerrel járt, megvédte a dolgozatát. |
| Simone:“Thomas was successful and defended his paper.” |
| Gergő:Tamás sikerrel járt, megvédte a dolgozatát. |
| Simone:Anything else? |
| Gergő:Megy. |
| Simone:You're kidding. Megy as a new word? |
| Gergő:Well, “go” is of course not new material. But the meanings “be good at something” and “be in business” are so. |
| Simone:Ah, I see what you did there. How would you say: “How good are you at math?” |
| Gergő:Hogy megy a matek? Hogy megy a matek? |
| Simone:Literally: “how goes math?” |
| Gergő:It also means “to be in business” or “business is good.” Jól megy az üzlet. |
| Simone:“Business is good.” |
| Gergő:Jól megy az üzlet. |
| Simone:What’s next? |
| Gergő:Tart means “hold” and “organize,” as well as “last.” |
| Simone:“I'll organize a huge party.” |
| Gergő:Tartok egy nagy bulit! 2X |
| Simone:Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Simone:In this lesson, you’ll extend your knowledge of past tense. |
| Gergő:Yes and I hope you're sitting down. |
| Simone:Because unfortunately for us, some verbs conjugate differently from what we learned last time. In this lesson, we're going to provide you with a new table. |
| Gergő:The last in this series. Knowing that table, you can pretty much cover most of the verbs you'll encounter. |
| Simone:Though it has to said that Hungarian past tense is a topic that is full of irregularities. But let’s forge ahead. What is the first sentence? |
| Gergő:Nem rontottunk el semmit. |
| Simone:“We didn't make any mistakes.” |
| Gergő:Nem rontottunk el semmit. The base verb in this sentence is ront. This ends in two consonants, and is followed by semmit, or “nothing”, which is indefinite. |
| Simone:Therefore in first person plural, we use -ottunk as the past tense ending. Now, extend your knowledge listener and remember that most verbs that end in two consonants conjugate differently in past. |
| Gergő:The differences in every person and number are highlighted in the lesson notes. |
| Simone:Ok, what’s another example from the dialogue? |
| Gergő:Sokáig tartott. |
| Simone:“It took a long time.” |
| Gergő:Sokáig tartott. The base word is tart. The verb tart has two consonants at the end, one of which is a -t, which in itself is enough to put it into this new lesson. |
| Simone:So what words conjugate differently from last time? |
| Gergő:There are two categories of words: One is where there is more than one consonant at the end of the word, and the other is for words ending in a -t. |
| Simone:If one of these criteria is met, you have to choose the past tense ending from this new lesson. We recommend you go back to the lesson notes and check to see if you can identify the verb. Are they from last lesson's category? Are they from this lesson? Or are they completely different? |
| Gergő:And we'll teach you when to use past tense next time. |
Outro |
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| Simone:Until then, thanks for listening, everyone. See you next time! |
| Gergő:Sziasztok! |
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