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• Xpat Learning: Hungarian For Expats Lesson 4

Xpat Learning: Hungarian For Expats Lesson 4

• 7 Aug 2014 12:50 PM

Do you want to be able to speak, read and write Hungarian confidently? Well, it may take several years to learn the language properly, but we can give you a bit of support and advice month by month. Learn everyday, useful Hungarian through this website and enjoy Hungarian, which is neither more, nor less difficult to learn than any other foreign language!

For a selection of Hungarian course books, bilingual books and Hungarian literature translated, visit www.librabooks.hu

4. Personal pronouns and ’to be’

Singular

én (I)

te (you) / Ön (you, formal)

ő (he/she)

Plural

mi (we)

ti (you) / Önök (you, formal)

ők (they)

As you can see in the chart, Hungarian does not distinguish between grammatical genders (’ő’ stands for both ’he’ and ’she’). In the second person, there is a formal pronoun (singular ’Ön’, plural ’Önök’) and an informal one, too (singular ’te’, plural ’ti’).

Please note that personal pronouns usually do not appear in sentences. They are only used when the person mentioned has to be emphasised. (Éhes vagyok. = I am hungry.)

The verb ’van’ is the Hungarian equivalent of the English ’to be’. Its forms in the present tense are:

én vagyok

te vagy

ő / Ön van

mi vagyunk

ti vagytok

ők / Önök vannak

In the third person, you do not always have to use the verb forms ’van’ or ’vannak’, only when you speak about location and also in some expressions.

Examples:

Magyar vagyok. (I am Hungarian.)

Én magyar vagyok és ő japán. (I am Hungarian and he/she is Japanese.)

Ön angol? (Are you English?)

Anna itt van. (Anna is here.)

A fiúk a kocsiban vannak. (The boys are in the car.)

Mari szép. (Mary is beautiful.)

Az orvos a kórházban van. (The doctor is in the hospital.)

Hol vannak a kulcsok? (Where are the keys?)

Külföldiek vagyunk. (We are foreigners.)

Hogy vagy? (How are you?)
 

Libra Bookshop - Foreign Language Books
Address: 1085 Budapest, Kölcsey utca 2.
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Libra Books Ltd., established in 1991, is a special foreign language bookshop situated in the centre of Budapest with a wide range of books for language learning as well as popular and literary fiction.

Related articles:

Xpat Learning: Hungarian For Expats Lesson 3

Xpat Learning: Hungarian For Expats Lesson 2

Xpat Learning: Hungarian For Expats Lesson 1

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