Learn how to use Hungarian homophones
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to HungarianPod101.com. This is Upper Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 16 - Mixing Up Your Hungarian Words. Eric here. |
| Lena: Hello. It’s me, Lena. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn about Hungarian homophones and paronyms. The conversation takes place at an office. |
| Lena: It's between Tom and Peter. |
| Eric: The speakers are an employer and employee, so they will use formal Hungarian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
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| Péter: Tom, beszélhetnénk egy percet? Egy emaillel kapcsolatban, amit az egyik ügyfélnek küldött tegnap. |
| Tom: Persze, hallgatom. |
| Péter: Nos, röviden nem illik azt mondani, hogy "örülök, hogy sikerült gondatlanul megoldani". |
| Tom: Nem értem, valamit elírtam? |
| Péter: A gondatlanul azt jelenti, hogy hanyagul. Maga gondolom azt akarta írni, hogy gondtalanul. |
| Tom: Őszintén restellem, máris telefonálok és elnézést kérek. |
| Péter: Nem szükséges, egy email is megteszi, csak előbb küldje el nekem. |
| Tom: Természetesen. Nagyon sajnálom, legközelebb jobban odafigyelek. |
| Péter: Ezentúl ne legyen gondatlan! (laughing) |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Peter: Tom, can we talk for a minute? It concerns one of the emails you sent to a client yesterday. |
| Tom: Of course, please go ahead. |
| Peter: Well, in brief, it is not correct to say 'I'm happy you managed to solve the problem carelessly'. |
| Tom: I don't understand. Did I spell something wrong? |
| Peter: The word 'carelessly' means negligently. I think you meant 'carefree'.. |
| Tom: I'm really sorry, I will call them and apologize immediately. |
| Peter: That isn’t necessary. An email will do, but send it to me first. |
| Tom: Of course. I'm really sorry. Next time I'll pay more attention. |
| Peter: From now on, don't be careless! (laughing) |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Lena, it is a well-known fact that when writing a business email, the same rules are applied as for a traditional letter. Is it the same in Hungary? |
| Lena: Yes. For example, the same as in English, if you know the person, you start your letter with “Dear” or Kedves in Hungarian. |
| Eric: But there are some cases when we don't know the person’s name... For example, when we contact him or her for the first time. |
| Lena: In that case, you can use the words Tisztelt Címzett!, which are the equivalent of English phrase “to whom it may concern”. |
| Eric: And what are the rules to finish a letter correctly? |
| Lena: To finish your email, you can say Üdvözlettel, Tisztelettel or Köszönettel. Üdvözlettel means “Kind regards”, tisztelettel means “Respects” and köszönettel is “Thanks” in English. |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Lena: kapcsolatban [natural native speed] |
| Eric: concerning |
| Lena: kapcsolatban [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: kapcsolatban [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Lena: röviden [natural native speed] |
| Eric: in brief |
| Lena: röviden [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: röviden [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Lena: illik [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to be correct |
| Lena: illik [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: illik [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Lena: gondatlan [natural native speed] |
| Eric: careless |
| Lena: gondatlan [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: gondatlan [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Lena: gondtalan [natural native speed] |
| Eric: carefree |
| Lena: gondtalan [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: gondtalan [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Lena: elír [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to misspell |
| Lena: elír [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: elír [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Lena: restell [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to be sorry |
| Lena: restell [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: restell [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Lena: megtesz [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to do |
| Lena: megtesz [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: megtesz [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Lena: odafigyel [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to pay attention |
| Lena: odafigyel [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: odafigyel [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Lena: ezentúl [natural native speed] |
| Eric: from now on |
| Lena: ezentúl [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Lena: ezentúl [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Lena: Egy emaillel kapcsolatban |
| Eric: Which means “concerning an email” |
| Lena: The word kapcsolatban means “concerning”, and comes from the noun kapcsolat, or “relationship”. Usually, it’s combined with another noun with the ending in -al, -el, |
| Eric: Those endings are the equivalent of the English preposition “with”. |
| Lena: Right. For example, Valamivel kapcsolatban |
| Eric: It literally means “In relationship with something” |
| Lena: You can also combine kapcsolatban with verbs. For example, kapcsolatban áll valamivel, or kapcsolatban van valamivel |
| Eric: They both mean “to concern something” or “to be related to something”. |
| Lena: You can also say kapcsolatba lép valakivel |
| Eric: “to get in touch with someone”. Lena, can you give us an example using this word? |
| Lena: Sure. For example, you can say...Ezzel kapcsolatban nem hallottam semmit. |
| Eric: ..which means “I didn't hear anything concerning this.” Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Lena: Nem illik azt mondani |
| Eric: Which means “It is not correct to say” |
| Lena: The expression nem illik means “it is not correct/proper” |
| Eric: This expression is often used by parents or grand-parents when they explain to children what should or should not be done. |
| Lena: Nem illik is followed by a verb with a -ni ending. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Lena: Sure. Nem illik étteremben kézzel enni. |
| Eric:which means “It's not proper to eat with your hands in a restaurant.” Okay, what's the last phrase? |
| Lena: Egy email is megteszi |
| Eric: This means “an e-mail will do” |
| Lena: A noun combined with is megteszi means that you didn't get the result or answer you were hoping, but you accept it saying that this “would also do”. |
| Eric: Is there another way to express the same thing in Hungarian? |
| Lena: Yes. Another slightly more polite way of expressing the same idea is to say a célnak megfelel, which means “this will serve the purpose”. However, both expressions show that you are not really satisfied with the result. |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn about Hungarian homophones, and formal and informal expressions for apologizing. In Hungarian, there are words that look exactly the same but have completely different meanings. |
| Lena: They are called homonyms. |
| Eric: On the other hand, there are also words that look alike at first sight, but actually they are slightly different and are called paronyms, and consequently, they are easily mixed up! |
| Lena: The focus of this lesson is to get familiar with paronyms and homonyms in Hungarian and to master apologies - just in case you make a mistake! |
| Eric: Let’s start with the most frequently used homonyms in Hungarian! And the first one is... |
| Lena: fog |
| Eric: This word has two meanings: “to hold” and “tooth”. Please, don't mix them up! |
| Lena: Right. For example..Megfognád ezt egy pillanatra? |
| Eric: This means “Could you hold this for a second?” |
| Lena: Another example is...Fáj a fogam. |
| Eric: “I have toothache.” What's the next one? |
| Lena: ég. It means “sky” and “to burn”. |
| Eric: Lena, can you give us an example with the meaning “sky”? |
| Lena: Ma szép kék az ég. |
| Eric: “The sky is blue today.” And with the meaning “to burn”? |
| Lena: Ég a tűz a kandallóban. |
| Eric: “The fire is burning in the fireplace.” |
| Lena: ég - “sky” or “to burn”. The next one is...vár |
| Eric: Its meanings are “to wait” and “castle”. |
| Lena: Right. Totally different. For example..Már 10 perce várom a buszt. |
| Eric: “I’ve been waiting for the bus for 10 minutes.” |
| Lena: Ma elmegyünk a Budai várba. |
| Eric: “Today we are going to Buda castle.” Listeners, please check lesson notes for more examples of homonyms in Hungarian. Now, let's move to Hungarian paronyms, the words that look alike at first glance, but actually they are slightly different. And, our first pair is.. |
| Lena: Helység and Helyiség. Helység means “place, community” and helyiség means “room”. The letter “i” in Helyiség, meaning “room”, is the only difference between them. |
| Eric: Can you give us sample sentences? |
| Lena: Sure. A helység neve Pécs. |
| Eric: Which means “The name of the community is Pécs.” |
| Lena: Melyik helyiségben alszotok? |
| Eric: “In which room do you sleep?” Ok! What's the next pair? |
| Lena: Tanúság and Tanulság. Tanúság means “witness, evidence” and tanulság means “lesson” or “moral”. The difference between them is the letter “l” in tanulság, - “lesson, moral”. |
| Eric: Sample sentences, please! |
| Lena: A lány tanúsága szerint ő nem volt a helyszínen. |
| Eric: “According to the evidence of the girl, he was not on the scene.” |
| Lena: Mi ebből a tanulság? |
| Eric: “What’s the moral of this?” |
| Lena: So, please, be careful..Tanúság and Tanulság |
| Eric: Ok! What's the next paronym pair? |
| Lena: Fáradság and Fáradtság. Fáradság means “effort” and fáradtság means “tiredness”. The difference between them is the letter “t” in fáradtság, “tiredness”. For example, A fáradság eredménye, hogy sikerült megoldani. |
| Eric: “Thanks to the effort, we found a solution.” |
| Lena: A fáradtság vitaminhiánytól is lehet. |
| Eric: “A lack of vitamins can cause fatigue.” Listeners, you can find more paronyms in the lesson notes! Also, please check the lesson notes for more information on expressions of apologizing and regret! |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Lena: Viszontlátásra! |
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