Hungarian

I haven’t posted anything yet about the native language of the country I’m currently living in, so here goes:

There are around 16 million Hungarian speakers in the world. As well as being the official language in Hungary, it is also spoken in some of its neighbouring countries: Slovakia, Romania and Serbia.

I have been told many times that Hungarian is one of the hardest languages to learn. This is because of the grammar, the ending of words change constantly and the fact that Hungarian has no similarities to any other language in the world. It has been known that Russian has more similarities with English than Hungarian.

However that’s not to say that you cannot learn it. I am able to have a (very) basic conversation in shops, train stations and other places. I also know and understand some words and their meanings.  If I don’t understand I just say nem értem (don't understand) or nem tudom (don't know). These phrases are useful!  If I stayed in the country for a number of years, then I believe I would become proficient in the language. The fact that more and more people are speaking English and want to learn English hinders my progress in learning the language (although that doesn't stop me from trying!)

Below are some survival phrases in Hungarian (I will put the English first then the Hungarian followed by pronunciation.

N.B. Like some languages, Hungarians have different words to say hello or goodbye depending on who they are talking to. I will write this down on the table too:

Hello/Goodbye	Szia	See-ya
Hello (polite)	Szervusz	Ser-vus
Hello/Goodbye (plural)	Sziasztok Szervusztok	See-ya-stawk Ser-vus-stawk
Goodbye	Viszontlátásra	Vee-sont-la-tash-ra
Bye	Viszlát	Vees-lat
Thank you	Köszönöm	Kur-sur-nurm
You’re welcome	Szívesen	See-vesh-en
Yes	Igen	Ee-gen
No	Nem	Nem
Please	Kérek	Care-ek
I am (....)	(....) vagyok	Vodge-ok
Do you speak English?	Beszél angolul?	Bes-ells an-go-lul
Good morning	Jó reggelt	Yo reh-gelt
Good day/afternoon	Jó napot	Yo na-pot
Good evening	Jó estét	Yo esh-tet
Good night	Jó éjszakát	Yo ay-sa-kat

If you’re planning a trip to Hungary then I would highly recommend using these audio lessons from: http://www.letslearnhungarian.net

They are free to download and you can listen to them or download them onto your iPod, MP3 player, iPad etc...

Hope you enjoy learning Hungarian! 

Viszontlátásra! xx