Geography

[This is taken from the Duolingo Hungarian Tips and Notes, Geography skill]

Németországban, Magyarországon

In Germany is Németországban, but in Hungary is Magyarországon. But why do they have different endings?

Most towns in Hungary take surface suffixes (-n,-on -en -ön ), while the majority of places outside of Hungary use inside suffixes (-ban, -ben ):

• Szegedre - Szegeden - Szegedről: to, in, from Szeged

• Bécsbe - Bécsben - Bécsből: to, in, from Vienna

• Magyarországra - Magyarországon - Magyarországról: to, in, from Hungary

• Svédországba - Svédországban - Svédországból: to, in, from Sweden

Exception to these rules are Hungarian towns that end with : -i, -j, -m, -n, -ny, and -r (unless it is in -vár ... ) ! These take the inside suffixes: Tamásiból, Tokajban, Veszprémben, Debrecenből, Tihanyba, Egerben.

Takes the -ban-ben case	Takes the -on -en -ön case
Countries:	Countries:
Most foreign countries	Magyarország
(a few islands)	most islands
Japánban, Kubában	Izlandon, Máltán, Korzikán, Krétán, Madagaszkáron
-	ending with -föld
-	Thaiföldön
Cities/Towns:	Cities/Towns:
Cities outside Hungary	Most Hungarian towns
Londonban, Berlinben	Budapesten, Szegeden
Hungarian cities ending -i, -j, -m, -n, and -ny	In neighboring countries, towns with Hungarian names
Debrecenben, Veszprémben	Kassán, Aradon (but: Bécsben)

See also this link: Myhunlang blog: Suffixes / Adverbs of Place

Irregular towns

In the case of Pécs and a few other towns there's a third, archaic, suffix in use: Pécsett, Győrött. But Duo also accepts the regular forms: Pécsen, Győrben.

  Nowadays, more and more people use the Pécsen, Győrben forms and the  -ett -ött ending is falling out of use, but they are technically correct...

Articles

Names of rivers, lakes, islands, hills, mountains, roads, streets, squares, buildings, and institutes tend to have a definite article, even if it's not used in the English translation.

A Margitsziget
A Parlament
A Budai Vár
A Kékestető
A Duna
A Tisza
A Balaton

A Margitszigetre megyek. - I am going to Margaret Island.

A Duna mellett sétálunk. - We are walking next to the Danube.

City and town names are used without an article.

Budapesten lakom. - I live in Budapest

 [#DuolingoForumGems originally posted on 2017-02-10 on the Duolingo Hungarian for English speakers forum by iRBiS ]

How shall we count with Hungarian numbers?

—LIT. "HOGYAN SZÁMOLJUNK MAGYAR SZÁMOKKAL?"

I had the idea that I would give you a little overview of cardinal numbers in the Hungarian language (and save ordinal numbers for another time) here on Duolingo discussions. I'm writing in accordance with the Official Spelling Rulebook (in Hungarian) where possible; otherwise, based off of my own experience. Please feel free to comment on anything.

How do Hungarians read their numbers out loud?

KEY POINTS:

• 11 and 12 are not any more special than 13 or 14 or 15.
• Group by thousands first. There is no 15 hundred etc.
• Years are also read out loud the same way.
• Use the long scale for large numbers.

Numeric identifiers

If you have to tell someone your telephone or bank card number, do it in any way you like. The most common thing to do is either to say every individual digit or to form numbers in the 10–99 range. For numbers in the 200–999 range, száz (hundred) is often dropped. Be careful that kétszáz then becomes kettő.

• (46) 365-111
• "negyvenhat, három(száz)hatvanöt, száztizenegy"
• (20) 640-3201
• "húsz(as), hat(száz)negyven, harminckettő nulla egy"
• +36 1 768 9000
• "plusz harminchat, egy, hét(száz)hatvannyolc, kilencezer"

Because kétszáz, hétszáz and négyszáz sound similar as does hét and négy, and the quality of the phone line may be bad, if you are asked which one a number was, say it like this:

• 200 = "kettőszáz" or "kettes|száz"
• 400 = "négyes|száz"
• 700 = "hetes|száz"

The idea here is that the names of numbers used to reference them (e.g. "This is the number two.") have the -as/os/es/ös suffix, and the stem before the suffix changes differently.

Here is what to listen for:

• 2 = "kettes" (short vowel 'e' + double-length stop consonant 'tt')
• 4 = "négyes" (long vowel 'é')
• 7 = "hetes" (short vowel 'e' + single-length stop consonant 't')

How do Hungarians write their numbers?

KEY POINTS:

• Use the decimal comma instead of the decimal point.
• Group by thousands with a space (optional).
• Put a space before units of measurement.
• Signs such as # and % are joined (a common stylistic rule).

There is a rule that says that, when writing numbers over 2000 as text, put a dash between every group of thousands. It is also worth mentioning here that egy should not be dropped from the initial egyezer and egyszáz when filling out cheques.

• 1 750 535
• common: "egymillió-hétszázötvenezer-ötszázharmincöt"
• 121 000
• common: "százhuszonegyezer"
• bank-teller-approved: "egyszázhuszonegyezer"
• 1500 Ft
• common: "ezerötszáz forint"
• bank-teller-approved: "egyezerötszáz forint"
• 30 960 000 000 Ft
• commoner/VIP-approved: "harmincmilliárd-kilencszázhatvanmillió forint"

Decimal numbers

KEY POINTS:

• The decimal comma is read out loud as egész (whole); before that, it is the integer part.
• The part after the comma, the fractional part, is either read out like a number (colloquial) or as a fraction where the denominator is a power of 10.

• 0,5
• colloquial: "nulla egész öt"
• math-teacher-approved: "nulla egész öt tized"
• 0,05
• colloquial: "nulla egész nulla öt"
• math-teacher-approved: "nulla egész öt század"
• 0,505
• colloquial #1: "nulla egész öt nulla öt"
• colloquial #2: "nulla egész ötszázöt"
• math-teacher-approved: "nulla egész ötszázöt ezred"

Units of measurement (adjectival form)

KEY POINTS:

• When either the number word or the word after it is a compound word, put a space between them; otherwise, join the two words.

• 10 vs 11 y/o
• "tízéves" (long vowel 'í')
• "tizenegy éves" (short vowel 'i')
• 1 m-es
• "egyméteres"
• 2 dl-es
• "két deciliteres" (colloquially: "kétdecis")
• 500 cm³ (colloquially: 500 cc)
• "ötszáz köbcentiméteres" (colloquially: "ötszáz köbcentis")

This joining of words (tízéves and egyméteres) can only happen when the adjectival -as/os/es/ös suffix is used.

• "ezerforintos bankjegy" = 1000 Ft bank note
• "tízezer forintos bankjegy" = 10 000 Ft bank note

[#DuolingoForumGems originally posted on 2018-08-08 on the Duolingo Hungarian for English speakers forum by pizspozseng ] 

Family members in Hungarian - more than what Duo teaches

Duolingo teaches just a few of the information below in the family section. Rokon is relative or family member, rokonság refers to all your relatives. Vérrokon is a relative who you have common genes with, this means your spouse's relatives aren't vérrokons.

The neutral words are apa and anya for parents. Most people also call their parents like this when talking to them. Some people address them as Apu and Anyu, others (especially the elderly) may use the bit formal Édesanyám, Édesapám. Anyuci and Apuci are sometimes considered overly sweetish. In Northern Hungary, I have heard about someone calling her father Api.

When talking to other people about each other's parents, we usually provide words anyuka, apuka with the correct personal suffix: anyukám, anyukád. However, anyuka/apuka in itself is a not-so-polite way of addressing a parent of a child who you know. The word for parents is szülők, also used in singular szülő.

Stepparents are refered to as mostohaszülők (mostohaanya, mostohaapa, also mostohatestvér), but these words (due to use in literature) have some negative meaning, they may even suggest that person being evil. A more proper way of saying this is nevelőszülők (literally raising parents), but adopted children most often do not talk about their parents in a different way as any other person.

Siblings. The word testvér (literally body blood) is generally used for them, used much more frequently than sibling in English. Tesó is an informal, somewhat lazy slang-like nickname for testvér. Fivér means brother generally (hardly ever used, almost always báty and öcs are used instead), although there's no word that fits both older and younger sisters.

Older brother: báty (bátyám, bátyád, bátyja). Younger brother: öcs (öcsém, öcséd, öccse). Older sister: nővér (nővérem, nővéred, nővére). Younger sister: húg (húgom, húgod, húga). Originally, nén/néne was older sister (and nővér was sister generally), it remained in compound nouns like nagynéni (aunt). Sometimes these words were used to address anybody in a personal way (except húg). This means that bátyám (or bátya) was said to older men than the speaker, öcsém to younger men or child boys. Children may call any adult first name+néni (derived from néne) if female and first name+bácsi (derived from báty) if male. Adults only use these formulas to older people in polite situations. Younger men and women especially don't like it when they're called like this. Öcsi, derived from öcs is a common nickname regardless of the person's first name. Nővér also means nurse or nun, while fivér can mean monk.

Twins=ikrek, twin=ikertestvér. Identical twins are called 'egypetéjű ikrek' (literally one-celled twins), non-identicals are 'kétpetéjű ikrek'. Three or four children of the same pregnancy are hármasikrek, négyesikrek etc. Conjoined twins are 'kettős torzok' in medical language, although they are 'sziámi ikrek' in colloquial language.

Grandparents - as Duo teaches it - are nagyszülők. On the one hand, the word nagyanya is very rare, nagymama (nagymamám, nagymamád, nagymamája) is used instead. On the other hand, for grandfathers, nagyapa and nagypapa are both commonly used. People may address their grandparents like Nagymama/Nagypapa, Mama/Papa, Nagyi (grandmother). Great-grandparents are dédszülők: dédanya, dédapa. Great-grandmothers may be addressed Dédi by their great-grandchildren. The generations in order are as follows: nagy, déd, ük, szép, ős. This means ükapám=my great-great-grandfather.

These prefixes can also put before unoka (grandchild): dédunoka, ükunoka, szépunoka, ősunoka. Someone might say lányunoka/fiúunoka, but there's usually no gender distinction when talking about your grandchild.

Your parents' siblings (aunt, uncle) are nagynéne/nagynéni and nagybácsi/nagybátya. Their children (your cousins) are unokatestvér. This latter word is generally free of gender distinction, because unokahúg/unokaöcs means niece/nephew. Unokabácsi/másodnagybácsi/másodnagynéni/unokanéni is one of your parent's cousin, their child is your másodunokatestvér (second cousin). Nagy-nagynéni and nagy-nagybácsi are seldom ways of referring to your great aunt/uncle.

Spouses are házastárs, feleség, férj. In some villages nej is a synonym for wife, I personally don't like that word. Your spouse's parents are após and anyós (ipa and napa in rural areas), although the word anyós suggests some negative meaning due to its appearance in popular culture and jokes. Some people are using formal you to in-laws, some don't. They're often addressed with the first name+néni, bácsi formula. Brother- and sister-in-law are sógor and sógornő, you may hear ángy in some rural areas for sógornő. Son- and daughter-in-law are vej (sometimes vő) and meny. The words for bride and groom (menyasszony, vőlegény) are derived from them. Godfather and godmother are keresztapa/keresztanya, your children's godfather is your 'koma', while your children's godmother is your 'komámasszony'. Don't even think of using this latter one, because even many Hungarian don't know the meaning of it!

Some words are only used in some areas, or just in the countryside. One of these words is the prefix jobb for either the 2nd (grandparents) or the 7th generation. Nász and nászasszony are your child's spouse's parents, e.g. someone's two grandfathers are the nász of each other.

Mozaikcsalád is a word describing a family where most people are at their second-third marriage, and many of the children are not even related. Your féltestvér (always without gender, e.g. we don't say félhúg) is somebody who you have one common parent with.

 [Part of this post is taken from the Duolingo Hungarian Tips & Notes ]

The Hungarian alphabet

This is the Hungarian alphabet:

A, Á, B, C, Cs, D, Dz, Dzs, E, É, F, G, Gy, H, I, Í, J, K, L, Ly, M, N, Ny, O, Ó, Ö, Ő,
 P, Q, R, S, Sz, T, Ty, U, Ú, Ü, Ű, V, W, X, Y, Z, Zs

Orthography (spelling) and pronunciation

Hungarian uses the Latin alphabet (abcd) with some additional letters and diacritics (accent marks).

Let's start with the vowels.

Vowels can be short and long. Short vowels are a, e, i, o, u, ö and ü. Their long versions are á, é, í, ó, ú, ő and ű.

Consonants can also be short and long. Consonants become long by doubling them, as in reggel ’morning’.

If a digraph or a trigraph (a letter that consists of two or three characters) becomes long, we don't write it down twice, but shorten it:

sz + sz = ssz, cs + cs = ccs, zs + zs = zzs

dinnye [watermelon] consist of diny+nye. The long 'ny' is 'nny'. (A long 'dzs' is 'ddzs' but you won't see this often.)

Some English consonants are spelled differently in Hungarian:

Letter	Hungarian pronunciation	IPA
c	like ts in cats	[t͡s]
cs	like ch in channel	[t͡ʃ]
s	like sh in shower	[ʃ]
sz	like s in sing	[s]
zs	like s in pleasure	[ʒ]
gy	no English equivalent	[ɟ]
ny	like gn in lasagne	[ɲ]
ty	like t in Tuesday (British pronunciation)	[c]
dzs	like j in jump	[d͡ʒ]

So Hungarian szia (’hello’ or ’goodbye’) sounds like English see ya!

The letters gy, ny, ty are sounds which not all varieties of English have. They sound a bit like adding a y sound to the preceding sound.

Don't forget that these di- and trigraph letters aren't pronounced consonant by consonant, they represent ONE sound.

Keep in mind that sz and cs are completely distinct sounds - the same applies for gy and zs.

Hungarians think of these multigraphs as ONE letter.

Check the Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_alphabet


A Youtube video for pronunciation:  
The sounds of the Hungarian alphabet

Hungarian pronounciation practice

gy and ty are especially problematic for learners, here is a video about pronouncing GY, from Gellért

How to pronounce the letter "Gy"?-Hungarian pronunciation

Baby animals

We could have a baby animal names collection... English has special words for them, and Hungarian has too

baby bear (bear cub) - bocs, medvebocs

baby lion (lion cub) - oroszlánkölyök

baby cat (kitten, kitty) - cica, kiscica

baby rabbit (bunny) - nyuszi

baby horse (foal) - csikó

baby pig (piglet) - malac

baby cow (calf) - boci, borjú

baby roe deer (deer fawn) - gida

baby chicken (chick) - csibe

baby bird (nestling) - fióka

baby wolf (wolf pup) - farkaskölyök

baby dog (puppy) - kutyakölyök (kiskutya, kutyus)

source:
These Duolingo sentence discussions:
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/38377433 = https://archive.ph/1Kmuj

https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/32923281 = https://archive.ph/BOi0B


"adult" animal names, for comparison

bear - medve

lion - oroszlán

cat - macska  (but "cica" can be used too)

rabbit  - nyúl

horse - ló

pig  - disznó  (sertés)

cow  - tehén

roe deer  - őz 

deer - szarvas

chicken  - csirke (in general), tyúk (hen), kakas (rooster)

bird  - madár

wolf  - farkas

dog - kutya 

------------------------------------------------------------

Question by David236909

The hint gives "kölyök" for "cub", not "bocs". Is there a convenient list of names for animals and their young?

Answer by vvsey

Probably not. But this is not that difficult: use "bocs" for bears exclusively, and "kölyök" for all other mammals. Until you run into another exception. This should be a safe enough rule.
OK, I have to correct myself already. The above does not apply to a whole range of mammals: hooved animals, horses, cows, antelopes and such, pigs, etc etc. But we would not use "cub" for those, either.

So, let's just say this: for animals that have "cubs": use "bocs" for bears, and "kölyök" for all others.

[#DuolingoForumGems originally posted on 2017-11-19 on the Duolingo Hungarian for English speakers forum by CliffJonesJr ]

95 Core Concepts in Hungarian

What are the most basic, elementary, core concepts that virtually all languages express? Many linguists have put a great deal of effort into answering this question, and several short word lists have come out of it. The most famous are probably the Swadesh lists, based mostly on intuition and refined over time. Later lists like the Leipzig-Jakarta have used more stringent methods to determine which vocabulary items are most resistant to borrowing and change over time.

What I've done here is taken five such word lists (Swadesh 100, Ranked Swadesh 40, Swadesh-Yakhontov, Leipzig-Jakarta, and Woodward) and kept only the items that occur in at least two of the lists. Here is the Hungarian version. Enjoy!

Nouns:
1) name = név
2) water = víz
3) blood = vér
4) fire = tűz
5) stone/rock = kő, szikla
6) dog = kutya
7) fish = hal
8) louse/flea = tetű, bolha
9) hand/arm = kéz, kar
10) eye = szem
11) ear = fül
12) nose = orr
13) tongue = nyelv
14) tooth = fog
15) bone = csont
16) horn = szarv
17) tail = farok
18) egg = tojás
19) leaf = levél
20) night/evening = éjszaka, este

Hány, mennyi

 

Q: What is the difference between mennyi and hány?

(answers copied from jsiehler and vvsey) 
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/16692481 = https://archive.ph/HN5vv

Basically, "uncountable versus countable." Usually, hány is translated as "how many" and is asking about something you can answer by counting (discrete units). Mennyi is "how much" and is asking about a quantity that is not necessarily countable.

How many apples are in the basket? Hány alma van a kosárban?

How much water is in the tub? Mennyi víz van a kádban?

But Hungarian is more forgiving here, you can use "mennyi" with countable objects, as well. Not the other way around, though. Let's say it depends on whether you expect a "countable answer".

Q: Mennyi alma? - A: Két kiló (Two kilos). Or you can say the number of apples.

Q: Hány alma? - A: Tizenöt (15). I was definitely asking the number of apples.

And "Mennyi" can also be used in exclamations like "Wow, look at all those cars!" - "Mennyi autó!" In this case, the countability does not matter at all. You use "mennyi".

You can also ask: Mennyi fa van az erdőben? (How many trees are in the forest?)

How about annyi and ahány?

The same countable- uncountable distinction is carried over:

(amennyi - uncountable)

• Annyi víz van a folyóban, amennyi a tengerben.

• There is as much water in the river as in the sea.

(ahány - countable)

• Annyi póló van a szekrényben, ahány ing.

• There are as many T-shirts in the wardrobe as there are shirts.

Like before, amennyi might be used for countable things too.

See also:  Frequently asked questions

[#DuolingoForumGems originally posted on 2016-07-20 on the Duolingo Hungarian for  English speakers forum by eino81 ] 

'Piros' and 'vörös'

I just met this sentence ('A híres amerikai énekesnő kiszáll a piros szőnyegre' - The famous American singer gets out onto the red carpet) and I was wondering, how can a native speaker put such a word into this phrase... Please correct it, I already clicked on the Report button... But I will tell a bit more about the word 'red'.

We Hungarains have TWO words for the color RED. A quite neutral, like 'piros' and a - I would say - poetic one, 'vörös'. Its meaning is also 'bloody' (blood is vér, if that is a 21st century word, that is véres, so bloody, but vörös is kind of like a dialect word, but used actively in the Hungarian vocabulary). ...

Where can we use piros and where vörös? There are certain phrases, words, where only one of them could be accepted.

piros - anything neutral, like:

• piros labda - red ball
• piros pötty - red dot
• piros alma - red apple

vörös - if the red is dark like the blood, or if the name is quite elite...

• vörösbor - red wine (like blood, see)
• vörös haj - red hair (piros haj sounds like someone with paint on his/her head...)
• Vörös-tenger - Red Sea (Piros-tenger sounds sooo childish)
• vörös szőnyeg - red carpet (quite aristocratic, isn't it?)
• Vörös Hadsereg - Red Army (huge, and again, blood...)
• Vörös Oroszlán - Red Lion (good name for a restaurant...)
• Vörös Ördögök - Red Devils...

Of course we have surnames from both, Ildikó Piros is an actress, and Sándor Weöres (yes, it is vörös, but written in an old way, same pronunciation) was a poet. Or he, his surname is also Vörös: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Voros