Hungarian is one of the Uralic (superfamily of languages consisting of the Finno-Ugric family and Samoyed) languages believed to have emerged many thousands of years ago from the northern Urals in Russia. It is part of the Finno-Ugric branch (of the Uralic languages) which include around fifteen languages scattered across Eurasia. In the fifth century AD it was spoken by the Onogouroi who spread through the Russian steppe in a sequence of migrations before finally populating modern day Hungary. The Hungarian name for themselves is Magyars, and their country Magyarország.
Test yourself on the Colours.
Test yourself on the Fruits
Test yourself on the Numbers 1 to 10
Test yourself on the Numbers 1 to 20
Test yourself on the Months
Test yourself on the Vegetables
An extract from a Hungarian version of the Little Prince translated by David De Angelis.
Hatéves koromban egy könyvben, mely az őserdőről szólt, és Igaz Történetek volt a címe, láttam egy nagyszerű képet. Óriáskígyót ábrázolt, amint egy vadállatot nyel el. Tessék, itt a rajz másolata.
A long time ago, when I was six years old, in a book about primeval forests, called 'True Stories from Nature', I saw a magnificant drawing. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.
Hungarian is one of the Uralic (superfamily of languages consisting of the Finno-Ugric family and Samoyed) languages believed to have emerged many thousands of years ago from the northern Urals in Russia. It is part of the Finno-Ugric branch (of the Uralic languages) which include around fifteen languages scattered across Eurasia. In the fifth century AD it was spoken by the Onogouroi who spread through the Russian steppe in a sequence of migrations before finally populating modern day Hungary. The Hungarian name for themselves is Magyars, and their country Magyarország.
Hungarian is an agglutinative language - words are build up from components (or morphemes which are speech elements which have a specific meaning or function and can not be split further).
The word for 'the' is a apart from words beginning with a consonant when it is az.
So 'the table' is az asztal but 'the flat' is a lakás.
The word for 'a' is egy so 'a table' is egy asztal.
This can be seen in 'I'd like to book a table for two' which is Szeretnék egy asztalt foglalni két személyre.
Hungarian definite and indefinite articles do not change when in the plural as do some European languages. E.g. In Spanish el perro 'the dog' becomes los perros 'the dogs' when referring to more than one.
Nouns in Hungarian have a complicated system of Inflected endings. Learning Phrases is a simple way to start to communicate in Hungarian as you can avoid learning these rules.
Inflection is the modification of a word to alter its grammatical function, and in Hungarian nouns the modification is made to the noun ending by adding layer of suffixes.
The distinction between singular and plural Hungarian nouns is used to illustrate inflection in Hungarian:
könyv 'book' becomes könyek 'books' kalap 'hat' becomes kalapok'hats'
The prefix used to show number (singular or plural) and is here either ek or ok. The prefix depends on the noun and Hungarian rules of vowel harmony.
Hungarian nouns are inflected to show case and possession in addition to singular or plural. The prefex's showing case and possession are added in order to the noun stem:
Noun Stem + Number (singular or plural) + Possessive + Case.
An example showing number, possession and case is:
az emailj + ei + m + et my e-mails.
ei is a plural suffix, m is a suffix indicating possession and et indicates (Accusative).
Nouns do not distinguish between masculine and feminine.
Adjectives are either Attributive or Predicative. Used predicatively an adjective comes before the noun which it describes (and does not decline).
| a piros autó | the red car |
| zöld kártya | green card |
| nagy ház | big house |
piros 'red', zöld 'green', nagy 'big'.
Adjectives used attributively do not agree with the noun being described (by changing case or number). In contrast, when used predicatively adjectives in Hungarian agree in number with the noun being described.
Endings are added onto the noun (after the suffix indicating number but before that indicating case). So, 'flat' is lakás and 'my flat' is lakásom, with the vowel plus -m providing the 'me' component.
A few first words. 1, A few first words. 2, A few first words. 3, Bathroom items, Bedroom items, Buying thing. General phrases, Buyings things. Useful words, Countries, Communication problems, Conversation. Introductions, Conversation. Small talk. 1, Conversation. Small talk. 2, Conversation. Filler words, Conversation. Small talk. Sport, Conversation. Small talk. The weather, Describing things. Colours, Describing things. Adjectives, Days. General, Directions. 1, Directions. 2, Eating phrases. 1, Eating phrases. 2, Eating items, Emergencies, Family, Food and drink. General phrases, Food and drink. At the bar or café. 1, Food and drink. At the bar or café. 2, Food and drink. At the bar or café. 3, General phrases, Getting around. General phrases, Getting around. Train and bus, Getting around by taxi, Getting around by car, Health, Household items, Money, Months of the year, Numbers. 1 to 10, Numbers. 11 to 20, Numbers. 30 to 1000, Parts of the body, Places and buildings. 1, Places and buildings. 2, Question and size words, Somewhere to stay. 1, Somewhere to stay. 2, The house, Time, Useful words to recognize, Words to do with food. General, Words to do with food. Fruit, Words to do with food. Vegetables, Words to do with food. Meat.
Hungarian Phrases ordered by topic.