r/hungarian

I feel like I got to a point where im past all the elementary grammar and vocabulary but Idk what to do to reach conversational fluency, I've been learning purely nothing but vocab for the past few weeks but I feel like it translated to nothing as I find it near impossible to find any material that actually incorporates the vocab I learn in a conversational manner so even if I hear the word in public I would never pick up on it. Really feel like I hit a dead end.

I'm genuinely curious if anyone here has actually reached conversational fluency (not necessarily to a native level but enough to genuinely be able to conversate) what exactly did u do to reach that point, what books or videos or audiobooks did u use and maybe if u had a way to get some level of coherency between them.

Would really appreciate any advice thanks.

I'm a Hungarian language teacher and I've been helping students prepare for the citizenship interview for a while now. One of my students recently passed his interview and I'm planning to sit down with him for a video conversation about the whole experience.

Before I do, I wanted to ask this community, what would YOU want to know?

A few directions I'm thinking about, but open to anything:

What was the language portion of the interview actually like?

What did you wish you had known or practiced beforehand?

What was the most surprising or challenging part of the process?

How did you prepare, and what actually helped?

Drop your questions in the comments and I'll do my best to include the most relevant ones in the interview. The more specific the better!

Hi, I found a word leesik, and its ee sounds the same as é for me.
I know it’s a compound of a prefix le- and a verb esik. I want to ask if you pronounce ee and é in different ways or in the same way.

If so how does it translate to English?

Hello,

I'm going to visit my partner's parents in Hungary in early September. I was wondering what Hungarian words or sentences I can learn between now and then that'll impress them and I won't look totally clueless when following conversations?

For various reasons, I can't dedicate time to learning a new language, and I'm aware Hungarian isn't that easy, so I'm hoping to be able to learn enough to get by.

Thank you.

Szia!

I've met a lovely lady from Hungary and am trying my hardest to learn the language. I have had some facetime calls with her and we practice words/pronunciation etc. I am struggling with the "gy" sound (hogy vagy, egy vagy... etc)

When she says a word with the "gy" sound, I really struggle to replicate the sound. She finds it quite funny and although I imagine it is quite amusing, I really want to nail the pronunciation now haha.

I am from the Midlands in England and after some research, I've noticed the gy sound is supposed to sound like a soft english "dy"... not sure if that is true or not

I have attached a link to a video of my current pronunciation. Would love some tips.

Köszönöm!

I hope it’s okay to post this question here. I’m looking for help translating a passage from a review by Attila József, of a work called “Panorama de la Littérature Hongroise.” The full review is here. I’ll give the whole paragraph for context but the passage I’m struggling with is mostly just 2 clauses (in bold):

Ha átmérő kifogásaim ilyen sulyosak, nem igen firtathatom a részleteket. Az eddigiek tökéletesen megmagyarázzák, hogy Tormay Cécile miért nő óriásra, miért terebélyesedik Móricz Zsigmond fölé; hogy miért nézik Lukács Györgyöt levegőnek, amikor a páratlanul zavaros, elveket még elnagyolt vonalakban sem sejttető Németh Lászlóra nem röstellenek sorokat pazarolni. (Lukács György népbiztos volt, tehát jeltelen semmiség az ő világszinten magasértékü esztétikai-bölcseleti munkássága.) Thomas Mann irja Lukács Györgyről Die Forderung des Tages cimü könyvében: „Szigoru, tiszta és büszke szellemet tisztelek és csodálok erkölcseiben; kritikai müvei (A lélek és a formák; A regény elmélete; stb.) kétségtelenül a legjelentősebbek közül valók amelyek csak ezen a téren német nyelven az utóbbi évtizedekben megszülettek.” – Mi tudjuk, hogy ezek a müvek magyarul iródtak és először magyarul láttak napvilágot.

I don’t speak Hungarian; I’m working from an Italian translation and Google Translate. The Italian version of the highlighted clause is obscure. Here’s Google’s:

while they do not bother to waste lines on the incomparably confused László Németh, who does not even hint at principles in the roughest lines.

My questions are as follows:

1. Is Google correct about the sense of the first clause—the authors of the work being reviewed don’t waste any space on Németh?
2. Is the objection in the second clause that Neméth doesn’t give one a clear sense of any principles in his writing? And if so, is there any hint as to what kind of “principles” József has in mind—literary/esthetic, political, other? (Given what I know of his interests I can infer that it’s probably some of both, but I’d love to know if there’s any guidance in the actual text.)
3. Does the phrase Google translates as “roughest lines” mean something like “even in broad strokes” or “even in a rough outline”?
4. This is the trickiest one and it goes beyond just the highlighted passage. It seems that József is criticizing the authors of this work on Hungarian literature for over-valuing some writers and under-valuing others, in particular Lukács. Is that correct, and if so, am I right that the stuff about Németh is a bit of an exception, in that he seems to agree with the authors that Németh is not worth considering?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

[Edited for formatting]

20M török, úgy döntöttem hogy javítani akarok a magyaromat és azért néhány magyar barát kell de hát egy sincs nekem. már egy kicsit tudok, sok praktikus kell, van dc meg insta. ne legyetek -18 pls. egy kicsit rólam: IT tanulok ,nyelvek érdekelnek, játszom is szeretek utazni szeretem a történelmet is. és 5 hónapig dunaújvárosban laktam xd. tudok németül szóval tudok vele segíteni

dc: dododododododoooo

Szia or szerbusz!
I dont know if this is right place to come and discuss with people about the language.
Needing someone native hungarian who knows the language and the grammar because I have build nische platform with 12 language for verbs and i am not sure if I've build correct hungarian pronoun. I think its very important for people to learn correct hungarian.
Please help me, köszönöm!

Hi, my Hungarian friends.

I’m looking for one of your poems. My friend is celebrating his birthday, and just for fun, he wrote us a list of unusual things he’d like for his birthday to show that what matters most is our presence, not the gifts. One item on the list was a poem in Hungarian (which, as a Czech, is completely Greek to me). But I think it’s funny, and I’d like to learn a short Hungarian poem. I tried searching online, but I wasn’t very successful—quite often, the rhymes didn’t really work.

Could anyone recommend a suitable poem that I could learn (ideally one where the author and year of composition are known) so I can recite it to him? Thanks so much

For those who are curious, here’s the full list of what he wrote:

1. Live music
2. A poem in Hungarian (with a recitation)
3. A poem in Czech (with a recitation)
4. A complete collection of movie quote compilations from Kuře
5. A surf trip with all the participants of this celebration.
6. A ski trip with everyone at this party (including a run down LaGrave).
7. Name your child after me (doesn’t have to be baptized)
8. A mountain cabin with a counter-current pool and a view of the lake mountain
9. A mountain cabin with a counter-current pool (with a view of a vacuum cleaner)

TL;DR: write me your favourite short Hungarian poem

Több nagyobb hírportál is írt a szerb elnökről az elmúlt napokban, ahol Vucsicsként hívatkoztak rá, pedig a neve Vucsity (č = cs ,, ć = ty)
Mindig eltöprengek rajta, hogy miért van így a magyar fonetikus helyesírása, szóval gondoltam rákérdezek hátha valaki tud egy ésszerű magyarázatot rá.

Is this too old-fashioned or stilted to say on public transport when offering someone your seat? I heard it is. I like old-fashioned ways but don't wear a handle-bar moustache or fedora. Usually, I say: "Tessék leülni~!" Your thoughts?

Sziasztok! Én egy 29 éves nő vagyok, német az anyanyelvem és magyarul tanulok hobbiként. Nem lakok Magyarországon, így kicsit nehéz gyakorolni... ha vki szeretne online, inkább informális magyar-német nyelvtandemot csinálni (lehet csak chattelni vagy videohívással nekem is ok) akinek hasonló érdekei vannak (hogy legyen mit beszélni róla, már volt olyan nyelvtandemom ami nagyon unalmas lett mert teljesen más érdekeink voltak) szivesen írjátok egy üzenetet :) Szívesen beszélek utazásról, kulturai különbségekről/különlegessekről, politikáról, aktuális események/hírekről, könvyek/filmekről, popkulturáról, random internet rabbit holes, filozófia/történelemről....

Edit: ezt a posztot segítség nélkül írtam csak utánanéztem pár szavakat szóval ez kb a szintem.