I want to learn Hungarian!

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Zafír
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I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Zafír » 2016-01-25, 4:38

Sziasztok! :silly:

I'm learning Hungarian from the internet. Movies, songs, blogs and such… My biggest help has been Conversation Exchange.

When I need help I'd like to post my questions here.

Thank you for any and all replies :D

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Zafír » 2016-01-25, 4:40

This a story game, I'm working on. A Hungarian translated it for me. Could someone please check it?

Inventory: 3 radish seeds - leltár: 3 retekmag
I have 3 radish seeds. - Van három retekmagom.
I plant the radish seeds in the soil. Elültetem a retekmagokat a földbe.
I water the radish seeds. - Meglocsolom a retekmagokat.
A day passes. -Eltelik egy nap.
The radish seeds sprout. - A retekmagok kicsíráznak.
Days pass. -Napok telnek el.
The radishes grow bigger. A retkek nagyobbra nőnek.
30 days pass (altogether). Eltelik harminc nap.
The radishes are ready to harvest. - A retkek készen állnak a betakarításra.
I harvest the radishes. - Betakarítom a retkeket.
I have 3 radishes. - Van három retkem.
I go to the Farmer's Market. -Elmegyek a piacra.
I sell my radishes for 25 cents each. - Eladom a retkeket 25 centért darabját.
I earn 75 cents. - Hetvenöt centet keresek.

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Zafír » 2016-01-25, 10:38

What does this mean? It's from a blog. There was a picture of some clothes with it.

Ezek közül néhányat még a két ünnep között vettem, a töbit pedig január elején. Ez még az a szakasz volt amikor megfontoltan és méltóságteljesen vásároltam, alaposan kiválogatva hogy mire van igazán szükségem, mi az amit biztosan sokszor felvennék. Szóval az első fázis. Amikor még nem 70%-os akciók vannak és nem veszünk meg mindent azzal a szlogennel, hogy " ó, ez akkor is megéri ha csak kétszer veszem fel" :)))

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Levike » 2016-01-25, 11:35

Ezek közül néhányat még a két ünnep között vettem,
= From these a bought a few between the two holidays,

a töbit pedig január elején.
= the rest at the beginning of January

Ez még az a szakasz volt amikor megfontoltan és méltóságteljesen vásároltam,
= This was that phase where I actually thought it through and bought it with grace,

alaposan kiválogatva hogy mire van igazán szükségem,
= fundamentally choosing what I really need,

mi az amit biztosan sokszor felvennék.
= what are those that I will wear certainly multiple times.

Szóval az első fázis.
= So the first phase.

Amikor még nem 70%-os akciók vannak
= When there were no 70% discounts.

és nem veszünk meg mindent azzal a szlogennel, hogy " ó, ez akkor is megéri ha csak kétszer veszem fel"
= and we don't buy everything with the slogan that says "oh, this is worth it even I'm wearing it only twice"

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby france-eesti » 2016-01-29, 18:16

Zafír wrote:Sziasztok! :silly:

I'm learning Hungarian from the internet. Movies, songs, blogs and such… My biggest help has been Conversation Exchange.

When I need help I'd like to post my questions here.

Thank you for any and all replies :D


Me too ! (sorry -I am not Hungarian)
But I can't find the courage to start it... I am actually on Estonian.
why would you like to learn Hungarian yourself ? :D
(fr) Native - (en) Fluentish - (pt) Fluentish when I was younger - (hu) Can sustain a conversation with a patient and kind magyar or order some beer and lecsó in Budapest - (it) On Duolingo ma posso ordinare uno Spritz ed antipasti in un ristorante :blush:

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Levike » 2016-01-29, 19:30

france-eesti wrote:But I can't find the courage to start it... I am actually on Estonian.

I don't think Estonian is any easier than Hungarian. :whistle:

If you ever start learning it, I think your main problem's going to be the alien vocab. Which can also be said for Estonian.

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby france-eesti » 2016-01-30, 11:26

Levike wrote:If you ever start learning it, I think your main problem's going to be the alien vocab. Which can also be said for Estonian.


My thought exactly :D but I don't think Estonian is complicated, I just cannot take the time to spend some hours a day on it with my crazy timetable.
Indeed when I looked at Hungarian vocabulary, it was savagely complicated for me and lots of accents and everything... But that's inspiring as well :wink: probably my next obsession then :yep:
The 20 cases of Hungarian kind of freak me out though ! :shock: 14 in Estonian was complicated enough, why 20 ?
(fr) Native - (en) Fluentish - (pt) Fluentish when I was younger - (hu) Can sustain a conversation with a patient and kind magyar or order some beer and lecsó in Budapest - (it) On Duolingo ma posso ordinare uno Spritz ed antipasti in un ristorante :blush:

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Levike » 2016-01-30, 11:43

france-eesti wrote:The 20 cases of Hungarian kind of freak me out though !

Don't expect German or Latin-like complicated cases.
When people hear of grammatical cases, they think of what Latin has, which is indeed annoying to learn.

But the so-called Hungarian cases are exactly like the French/English prepositions, the only difference being that they appear glued to the end of the word. They are going to be easy to learn. :wink:

For example in English you'd say "in the house" and in Hungarian "a házban".
The ban/ben ending is just our way of saying "in" and it is considered a case.

Imagine if French did the same:
Then instead of "dans la maison" you'd say "la maisondans" and that would be one case.

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby france-eesti » 2016-01-30, 13:07

Merci ! :D you make it so simple to me !
My first "touch" with declension was actually Ukrainian and it was already pretty hard for me. But your explanation about Hungarian seems very clear to me :D

Would you say it's the same thing with all the finno-ongrian languages ? I have to go back to see if Estonian works the same way :D :whistle:

Anyway, thanks for taking my fear of learning Hungarian away 8-)
(fr) Native - (en) Fluentish - (pt) Fluentish when I was younger - (hu) Can sustain a conversation with a patient and kind magyar or order some beer and lecsó in Budapest - (it) On Duolingo ma posso ordinare uno Spritz ed antipasti in un ristorante :blush:

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Levike » 2016-01-30, 13:17

france-eesti wrote:Would you say it's the same thing with all the finno-ongrian languages ?

If you look at the Wikipedia article about Estonian grammar then at the "Cases" section you can see that it also compares each Estonian case to a preposition in English.

Ex:
Inessive case: ilusas raamatus = in a beautiful book
Elative case: ilusast raamatust = from a beautiful book

Same in Hungarian:

Inessive case: egy szép könyvben = in a beautiful book
Elative case: egy szép könyvből = from a beautiful book

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_grammar

And I'm not 100% sure, but I think the majority of Finno-Ugric languages follow this kind of system.

Anyway, thanks for taking my fear of learning Hungarian away 8-)

Hát szívesen!

Don't get me wrong, neither Estonian nor Hungaran are going to be easy, but the majority of your problems are going to come from the fact that they are different from the languages you already speak.

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby france-eesti » 2016-01-30, 17:47

Levike wrote:Don't get me wrong, neither Estonian nor Hungaran are going to be easy, but the majority of your problems are going to come from the fact that they are different from the languages you already speak.


No problem :D I know we're mostly taught other Romance languages here (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese) + English and German. Having another language (Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew...) is an ordeal !

I've read plenty of websites (maybe a bit publicity, whatever) saying Hungarian wasn't as hard as it seems ! It's heartening :yep:
(fr) Native - (en) Fluentish - (pt) Fluentish when I was younger - (hu) Can sustain a conversation with a patient and kind magyar or order some beer and lecsó in Budapest - (it) On Duolingo ma posso ordinare uno Spritz ed antipasti in un ristorante :blush:

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Zafír » 2016-02-05, 0:34

france-eesti wrote:
Zafír wrote:Sziasztok! :silly:

I'm learning Hungarian from the internet. Movies, songs, blogs and such… My biggest help has been Conversation Exchange.

When I need help I'd like to post my questions here.

Thank you for any and all replies :D


Me too ! (sorry -I am not Hungarian)
But I can't find the courage to start it... I am actually on Estonian.
why would you like to learn Hungarian yourself ? :D


I like how it sounds… And I like a lot of words. The main reason, I suppose, is I like foreign languages. I had this "moment" recently as well, when I was actually questioning myself, like why am I learning this language? It's really hard to learn by myself and no one seems to want to talk to me on Conversation Exchange. I've talked to like 40 Hungarians… ANd they all sort of quietly disappeared in under 10 messages or less. But anyway, the "moment". I was watching a Hungarian movie trailer and this guy walks across the screen and says something in Hungarian, and I understand him! 6 months of learning suddenly means something… My heart does this …. I don't know. It just, it was like I love Hungarian. It was how I feel when I speak English, which I also love because of a Russian I spoke to on the internet made me realize how beautiful it was. He loved English.

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Zafír » 2016-02-05, 0:44

Levike wrote:
france-eesti wrote:Would you say it's the same thing with all the finno-ongrian languages ?

If you look at the Wikipedia article about Estonian grammar then at the "Cases" section you can see that it also compares each Estonian case to a preposition in English.

Ex:
Inessive case: ilusas raamatus = in a beautiful book
Elative case: ilusast raamatust = from a beautiful book

Same in Hungarian:

Inessive case: egy szép könyvben = in a beautiful book
Elative case: egy szép könyvből = from a beautiful book

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_grammar

And I'm not 100% sure, but I think the majority of Finno-Ugric languages follow this kind of system.

Anyway, thanks for taking my fear of learning Hungarian away 8-)

Hát szívesen!

Don't get me wrong, neither Estonian nor Hungaran are going to be easy, but the majority of your problems are going to come from the fact that they are different from the languages you already speak.


That's really cool. I'm also learning Finnish and that reminds me of that… I really like it when words decline for case or gender or whatver. I'm a big fan of paradigms and declensions. The most frustrating thing about learning Hungarian is the complicated sentences. There're resources to learn from everywhere: movies, blogs, whatever. But I just can't figure out what they're saying. Unless it's simple.
Last edited by Zafír on 2016-02-05, 0:52, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Zafír » 2016-02-05, 0:47

Levike wrote:Ezek közül néhányat még a két ünnep között vettem,
= From these a bought a few between the two holidays,

a töbit pedig január elején.
= the rest at the beginning of January

Ez még az a szakasz volt amikor megfontoltan és méltóságteljesen vásároltam,
= This was that phase where I actually thought it through and bought it with grace,

alaposan kiválogatva hogy mire van igazán szükségem,
= fundamentally choosing what I really need,

mi az amit biztosan sokszor felvennék.
= what are those that I will wear certainly multiple times.

Szóval az első fázis.
= So the first phase.

Amikor még nem 70%-os akciók vannak
= When there were no 70% discounts.

és nem veszünk meg mindent azzal a szlogennel, hogy " ó, ez akkor is megéri ha csak kétszer veszem fel"
= and we don't buy everything with the slogan that says "oh, this is worth it even I'm wearing it only twice"


Thanks, that's much easier to read than what is was before.

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Zafír » 2016-02-05, 1:02

Zafír wrote:
france-eesti wrote:
Zafír wrote: I've talked to like 40 Hungarians… ANd they all sort of quietly disappeared in under 10 messages or less.


As for that… I think they thought their language was too difficult to teach. Some came prepared with books, others offered to teach me lessons, but I think it was a little too daunting to teach their native language. (Unless I'm just extremely boring.)

Which I can understand, but I think English, American English, is quite simple. I think it's cool and fun to use and sounds beautiful. But learning another language (by yourself) is absurdly difficult. And without access to people who will talk to u, almost impossible, as far as I can tell… I can't even write simple sentences. Talking to people, like all those Verbling commercials say, is the best way to learn a language; since talking is the primary function of a language. Which makes all those hours I spent learning Hungarian by myself seem like a waste.
Last edited by Zafír on 2016-04-17, 21:47, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Zafír » 2016-02-05, 1:06

Zafír wrote:
Zafír wrote:
france-eesti wrote:
Zafír wrote: I've talked to like 40 Hungarians… ANd they all sort of quietly disappeared in under 10 messages or less.


As for that… I think they thought their language was too difficult to teach. Some came prepared with books, others offered to teach me lessons, but I think it was a little too daunting to teach their native language. (Unless I'm just extremely boring.)

Which I can understand, but I think English, American English, is quite simple. I think it's cool and fun to use and sounds beautiful. But learning another language (by yourself) is absurdly difficult. And without access to people who will talk to u, almost impossible, as far as I can tell… I can't even write simple sentences. Talking to people may be, like all those Verbling commercials say, the best way to learn a language; since talking is the primary function of a language. Which makes all those hours I spent learning Hungarian by myself seem like a waste.

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Levike » 2016-02-05, 8:28

Zafír wrote:Which I can understand, but I think English, American English, is quite simple.

Not as simple as people advertise it to be.

I'd say pronunciation and spelling wise it is much more difficult than Hungarian.
Take me for example, I've been learning it for a while, but I always have to look up spellings and when it comes to verbs I never know which tense to use. And then there are the sounds in English that I cannot differentiate at all.

And Hungarian is at the other end of the spectrum, people like to exaggerate how hard it is. And Hungarians also like to brag about its supposed difficulty. (I think we're more self-absorbed by our language than the stereotypical French)

Még egy dolog, probálhatnál magyarul is írni a forumon (az angol mellett vagy helyett).
Szívesen kijavítanám, szeretek nyelvtannácit játszani. :twisted:

By the way, you could try to write in Hungarian on this forum (next to English or just in Hungarian).
I'd be glad to correct them, I like being a grammar nazi. :twisted:

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby france-eesti » 2016-02-05, 17:48

Zafír wrote:I like how it sounds… And I like a lot of words. The main reason, I suppose, is I like foreign languages. I had this "moment" recently as well, when I was actually questioning myself, like why am I learning this language? It's really hard to learn by myself and no one seems to want to talk to me on Conversation Exchange. I've talked to like 40 Hungarians… ANd they all sort of quietly disappeared in under 10 messages or less. But anyway, the "moment". I was watching a Hungarian movie trailer and this guy walks across the screen and says something in Hungarian, and I understand him! 6 months of learning suddenly means something… My heart does this …. I don't know. It just, it was like I love Hungarian. It was how I feel when I speak English, which I also love because of a Russian I spoke to on the internet made me realize how beautiful it was. He loved English.


This is nice to read that some people feel like me... about languages.
In my case, it's always related to some people I meet. I met a very, very kind Hungarian man and although we didn't date ( :cry: ) I thought he was a very decent guy. That was enough to create my interest for Hungary. I also love Klezmer very very much and dream of being a Klezmer clarinetist. But unlike you, I cannot understand anything in Hungarian other than Szeretlek :D
What is Conversation Exchange ? Is it a part of Unilang forum ? (sorry for being ignorant) :D
I've finally made my choice about my travelling destination and Magyar won :D So I'll be back here to learn the basics :wink:
(fr) Native - (en) Fluentish - (pt) Fluentish when I was younger - (hu) Can sustain a conversation with a patient and kind magyar or order some beer and lecsó in Budapest - (it) On Duolingo ma posso ordinare uno Spritz ed antipasti in un ristorante :blush:

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Zafír » 2016-02-06, 5:32

Levike wrote:
Zafír wrote:Which I can understand, but I think English, American English, is quite simple.

Not as simple as people advertise it to be.

I'd say pronunciation and spelling wise it is much more difficult than Hungarian.
Take me for example, I've been learning it for a while, but I always have to look up spellings and when it comes to verbs I never know which tense to use. And then there are the sounds in English that I cannot differentiate at all.

And Hungarian is at the other end of the spectrum, people like to exaggerate how hard it is. And Hungarians also like to brag about its supposed difficulty. (I think we're more self-absorbed by our language than the stereotypical French)

Még egy dolog, probálhatnál magyarul is írni a forumon (az angol mellett vagy helyett).
Szívesen kijavítanám, szeretek nyelvtannácit játszani. :twisted:

By the way, you could try to write in Hungarian on this forum (next to English or just in Hungarian).
I'd be glad to correct them, I like being a grammar nazi. :twisted:


I guess… Maybe it's just because I know English that I think it's simple, although I think other languages are simple too… If u just have the right tools it's easy to learn. Like… U grew up there. Lol… I'm partly kidding. I haven't quite found a language learning method that's quite as effective as growing up with a language. Something that's very important is the emotional data, for example: that sense of adventure when u first watch a cartoon about pirates. Or the day your dad takes u to a baseball game (in America anyway) and then u get icecream afterwards.

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Re: I want to learn Hungarian!

Postby Zafír » 2016-02-06, 5:38

france-eesti wrote:
Zafír wrote:This is nice to read that some people feel like me... about languages.
In my case, it's always related to some people I meet. I met a very, very kind Hungarian man and although we didn't date ( :cry: ) I thought he was a very decent guy. That was enough to create my interest for Hungary. I also love Klezmer very very much and dream of being a Klezmer clarinetist. But unlike you, I cannot understand anything in Hungarian other than Szeretlek :D
What is Conversation Exchange ? Is it a part of Unilang forum ? (sorry for being ignorant) :D
I've finally made my choice about my travelling destination and Magyar won :D So I'll be back here to learn the basics :wink:



Conversation Exchange is a website. U can meet people and be penpals or talk thru Skype or with whatever chat software u have.

That's interesting. With me, it's usually music. A song in Italian was what initially inspired my polyglot inclinations. My favorite "moment" was a Russian song. Если в сердсе It's a really cool song… Romanized, it's Esli v serdse. By Julia Savicheva. With French, it was the music of the language as well as how they spell things. I think it's really cool.


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