Magyar language. Hungarian is considered one of the most difficult languages ​​in the world Hungary language family

The Hungarian language is recognized by Europeans as the second most difficult language to learn. In this ranking, it is second only to Finnish. However, with the right (most importantly - professional) approach, the learning process becomes quite accessible and effective and allows you to freely master this beautiful and sonorous language.

Features of the formation of the Hungarian language

Mysterious origins and a rich past, replete with important historical events - this is how Hungary is characterized, the language of which has been formed over many centuries. The founders of the Hungarian state are the Magyars - an alien people from Western Siberia. This theory is confirmed by the proximity of the Magyar language with the language of the Khanty and Mansi, who inhabit the north of Russia. Thus, Hungarian is one of the few languages ​​that are not included in the Indo-European group of languages, but have common roots with the Ugric group of the Finno-Ugric language family.

The Magyars who invaded the territory of present-day Hungary involuntarily assimilated with the Slavs who inhabited this region. As a result, many Slavic lexical elements appeared in the Magyar language. The adoption of Christianity by the Magyars led to the introduction of Latin and Greek terms into the language of the Hungarians.

The result of the Tatar-Mongol yoke and subordination by the Ottoman Empire was the emergence of a strong Turkic substrate in the Hungarian language. After the formation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Hungarians were strongly influenced by the German language culture, but to this day they have managed to preserve the originality and originality of their language.

Currently, Hungary attracts thousands of tourists with its numerous cultural, historical, architectural, literary. From year to year, the popularity of Hungarian as one of the most colorful and unusual languages ​​in the world is increasing.

Learning Difficulties

  • The main reason for the difficulties and complexities with which the language in Hungary is inextricably linked is the principle of agglutinative inflection. That is, when forming a phrase, several different formants are added to the main form of the keyword - prefixes and suffixes that carry the function of the plural, pronouns and other forms or parts of speech. As a result, the original word becomes almost unrecognizable - difficult to pronounce, difficult to perceive and translate.

  • The next feature that makes it difficult to learn the Hungarian language is morphological diversity, which is expressed in more than 20 cases for nouns, a certain word order in a sentence. The absence of grammatical gender in nouns and the complex rules of conjugation of verbs make it difficult for Russian speakers to learn the Hungarian language.
  • Unusual for foreigners is the phonetics of the Magyar language, in which there are 14 vowels and many diphthongoids, there are no reduced sounds. Strong articulation in Hungarian speech requires a clear pronunciation of vowels and syllables that have short and long sounds, varying elevations and intonations.

Numerous features determine the exclusivity of the Magyar language - the Hungarians are rightfully proud of their melodic, sonorous and expressive language.

Impossible is possible

The specificity of learning the Hungarian language lies in the need to master a huge variety of lexical and grammatical nuances and subtleties. Intelligible correct Hungarian speech can be mastered quickly and effectively, provided that you study with a native speaker.

You need to contact experienced teachers who are able to teach the Hungarian language, depending on the purpose of the trip to Hungary. There are effective training programs for tourists, students, businessmen, vacationers. Groups with different levels of training provide an opportunity to start learning with any amount of starting knowledge, allowing you to start from scratch or improve the level of existing linguistic knowledge.


The language in Hungary has been formed over many centuries and is currently a complex set of phonetic and morphological features. The historical past of the country makes it possible to rank the Hungarian language in the Finno-Ugric group, which also includes Finnish, Estonian languages ​​and the language of the Khanty and Mansi in Western Siberia. Due to various circumstances, the Hungarian language has a Slavic, Turkic, German, Latin substratum.

Translation from Hungarian into Russian requires knowledge of many Russianisms, Gallisms, Anglicisms and other language elements. Its accuracy largely depends on deep knowledge in various spheres of the life of the Hungarian people. Difficult to learn, the Hungarian language has a number of exclusive grammatical, lexical and phonetic features. But with a strong desire, you can easily overcome obstacles in mastering the Hungarian language, master this melodic and sonorous language of the Magyars to perfection.

Planning to learn Hungarian? Or have you already started learning this language? Share your experience in the comments to the article. And to stay up to date with the release of our new materials, subscribe to the mailing list.

: "Köszönöm, jól vagyok" [Köszönöm yol vagyok] "Thank you, I'm fine."
Repeat it several times to yourself, trying to remember. After a while, try to play the phrase. This task will almost certainly not be easy, because Hungarian words do not at all evoke associations with the words of other European languages. By the way, it was this feature of the Hungarian language that at one time gave some linguists a reason to think that it had no relatives in European countries. In 1770, the astronomer and linguist Janos Sainowicz put forward the idea of ​​a Finno-Hungarian linguistic relationship. This theory did not please the public, therefore, before serious linguistic research irrefutably confirmed that the Hungarian language belonged to the Finno-Ugric language group, a whole century passed. Most people will find it surprising that the languages ​​of the Khanty and Mansi peoples, belonging to the Ob-Ugric group, are most closely related to Hungarian. However, much becomes clear if we delve into the history of the Hungarian people.
The ancestors of modern Hungarians were the Onogur tribes living in the Urals. Around the 1st millennium BC. e. they left their homeland and, having passed through vast expanses, at the end of the 9th century settled in the territory of present-day Hungary. The vocabulary of the Hungarian language is variegated and diverse. So, for example, one of the results of many centuries of Onogur nomadism was a large number of Iranian and Turkic borrowings, as well as Slavic words. There are many Latin borrowings in the Hungarian language (as in most other European countries, in Hungary, Latin has long been the second language for the educated strata of society). Several thousand words from the German language the legacy of the great Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Hungarian language is considered to be one of the most difficult in Europe. First of all, this is due to the fact that it has an agglutinative structure, in which the main principle of inflection is “gluing” various formants (suffixes and prefixes) to the word. Each of these formants carries only one meaning. For example, the expression "in my gardens" in Hungarian would look like this "kertkeimiben". Several formants adjoin the root garden (“kert”) here: -jeim- “my”, -i- plural formant and -ben- prepositional formant.
The morphology of the Hungarian language is also complex (for example, there are more than 20 cases of nouns in it), as well as a certain word order in a sentence, which can be remembered only in the process of language practice. As for the phonetics of Hungarian, despite the presence of certain nuances, you can master it quite quickly. The main thing is to remember some simple rules for pronunciation of sounds. First of all, it should be borne in mind that the stress in Hungarian always falls on the first syllable. At the same time, all syllables are pronounced clearly, and the endings are not swallowed. Consonants are always pronounced firmly, softening before the letters "j" and "y". The letters b, d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, t, v are read as b, d, f, g, x, k, l, m, n, p, p, t, respectively. If the letter "g" is followed by "y", then it is pronounced as [d]. Some consonants in Hungarian are denoted by two letters dz sounds like [dz], dzs like [j], sz [s], zs [g]. The letters "n" and "t", if followed by "y", are pronounced as [n] and [t], respectively. "L" combined with "y" gives the sound [y]. There are also short and long consonants. Short consonants are indicated by one character (b, m) or two characters, that is, combinations of letters (cs, zs). Long consonants are denoted by doubling the sign (bb, mm), and if the letter consists of two characters by doubling only the first character (ccs, zzs). Long consonants are pronounced longer and with more stress.
There are 14 vowels in the Hungarian language, while there are no diphthongs, as, for example, in Finnish. There are short and long vowels. Long ones are indicated by one or two accents, for example, a-á, o-ó. Vowel length must be observed, since the meaning of the word often depends on it (for example, vad wild and vád complaint). In addition to long and short vowels, the Hungarian language also has closed short sounds [ö] and [ü], corresponding to the letters “ö” and “ü” in writing.
Pronunciation rules can come in handy in a variety of situations (for example, if you need to know how to get to a point of interest). You may also need some expressions from the phrasebook. Despite the fact that Hungarian is not very popular in the world, the inhabitants of the country themselves love their language very much, considering it melodic and harmonious. And the famous philologist György Kalmar even dedicated the following very poetic lines to him: “... flowery, like Turkish, deep, like English, fluid, like French, sweet, like Italian, serious, like German, magnificent, slender and convincing, like Greek, brilliant , like Latin, it contains, in a word, all the virtues that the learned world can wish for from a language. That's it!

Rules for the pronunciation of some letters and their combinations
c, cz [c]
cs [h]
ck [k]
g [g]
gy [d]
h [x]
j [th]
ly [th]
o [o]
ö, ő at the beginning of a word and after vowels [e], after consonants neototirovannoy [ё]
s [w]
sz [s]
t, th [t]
ts, tc [tsh, tc]
ty [t]
tz [ts]
ü, ű at the beginning of a word [and]
ü, ű in other positions [yu]
x [ks]
y [and] (except combinations gy, ly, ny)
z [h] (except for combinations sz, cz, tz, zs)
zs [w]

A small Russian-Hungarian phrasebook:

Hello! Szervusz! Szia! [Servus! Sia!]
Good morning! Jó reggelt kivánok! [Yoo raggalt kiivaanok]
Good afternoon Jó napot kívánok! [Yoo Napot Kiivaanok]
Good evening! Jó estét kívánok! [Yoo eshteet kiivaanok]
How are you doing? Hogy van? [Walk van]
Thank you, okay Köszönöm, jól [Köszönöm, yol]
You are very kind Ön nagyon kedves. Köszönöm [Oyeon nadön kadwesh, kyösönyöm]
Thank you, everything is fine Köszönöm, minden rendben van
Goodbye! Viszontlátásra! [Visontlaataashra]
All the best! Minden jót! [Mingden yooyot]
Be kind (kindly) Legyen olyan kedves [Ledyen oyan kedvesh]
Please tell me Mondja kérem
What is your name? Hogy hívják önt? [Hod hiivyayak oyent]
Glad to meet you Örülök, hogy megismerkedtünk
Do you speak Russian? Beszel oroszul? [Beseeil orosul]
Do you speak English? Bezel angolul? [Beseeil angolul]
Do you understand me? Érti, amit mondok? [Eeirti, amit mondok]
I (do not) understand you (Nem) Értem önt [(Nem) eeirtem önt]
Please speak more slowly Kérem, beszéljen lassabban
Repeat, please Tessék megismételni [Teshsheeik, megishmeeetelni]
Please write Tessék leírni [Teshsheeik, leirni]
How do you say it in Hungarian? Ezt hogyan mondjak magyarul? [Est khodyan monddyak madyarul]
Can you help me? Nem tudna nekem segiteni? [Nem tudna nekem shagiiteni]
Escort me, please Kísérjen el, kérem
Good Jo. Rendben van. [Yooh. Randban van]
What a pity! Milyenkar! [Miyan car]
Where is…? Hol van…? [hol wang]
How to get…? Hogyan jutok el…? [Hodian yutok el]
Show me on the map Tessék megmutatni a térképen
What is the price? Mennyibe kerül? [Mannibe caryuul]
How much do I have to pay? Mennyit fizetek? [Mannit physiatek]
I'm in a hurry Nagyon sietek [Nadyon shyetek]
How to dial to...? Hogyan telefonalhatok…? [Khodian telefonaalkhatok]
May I call from you? Lehet önöktől telefonalni? [Lekhet oyonoyoktoyoyol telefonaalni]
I want to visit… Szeretném megnézni… [Seretneem megneezny]

Ukraine:

European Union

Regulatory organization:

Institute of Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Total number of speakers: Rating : Classification Category : Finno-Ugric languages ​​Ugric languages Writing : Language codes GOST 7.75–97: ISO 639-1 : ISO 639-2: ISO 639-3: See also: Project:Linguistics

Distribution of the Hungarian language in Europe

Hungarian belongs to the Finno-Ugric family of languages, in which, together with the Mansi and Khanty languages, it forms the Ugric group. In Europe, distantly related languages ​​​​are Finnish and Estonian, however, the speakers of these languages ​​\u200b\u200bare not able to understand the Hungarians (until the end of the 19th century, the very fact that the Hungarian language belonged to Finno-Ugric was questioned). The divergence between the Baltic-Finnish languages, which include Finnish and Estonian, and the ancestor of the Hungarian language, according to glottochronology, occurred at least 3,000 years ago.

On the other hand, a greater number of common roots are found in the languages ​​\u200b\u200bof the Finno-Ugric peoples living in Russia - Komi, Mari, Mordovian, Udmurt.

The Hungarian language has a unique vowel phonetics. In addition to Hungary, it is distributed in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine, as well as in places of compact residence of the Hungarian national minority in Serbia (Vojvodina), Romania (Transylvania), Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia.

Story

Hungarian is one of the few non-Indo-European languages ​​in modern Europe with a significant number of speakers. About 900-1000 years. n. e. Hungarian tribes who migrated from Siberia and the Urals populate the Middle Danubian plain, as well as the Carpathian region (Transylvania), where the Székelys and Changoshis, close to the Hungarians, settle. Unlike the Slavic tribes that migrated across the plain three or four centuries earlier, the Hungarian invasion was relatively late and was of a rather warlike nature, carried out in conditions of intense competition for resources with the Slavs (from the north and south), with the Germans (in the west) and Romanians (Vlachs) in the east. In the course of contacts with these peoples, the Hungarians, like the Romanians, adopted many Slavic lexical elements, which make up about a fifth of the entire vocabulary. In the XII-XIII centuries, the Kingdom of Hungary finally subjugates a number of Slovak, Croatian, Romanian and Ruthenian lands. The gradual Magyarization of a part of the landlords of these nationalities begins. Between 1541 and 1699, a significant part of the Hungarians lived under Turkish rule. The Türkic influence in the Hungarian language, where already before that there was a powerful Türkic substratum, becomes even more noticeable.

There are short (a, e, i, o, ö, u, ü) and long (á, é, í, ó, ő, ú, ű) vowels: vad‘wild’ - vad'complaint'; tor‘aches’ - tor'dagger'. The pairs of vowels a/á and e/é differ not only in length, but also in rise (in other words, "closed" vowels).

Moving through the Urals, further along the Russian Plain through the Carpathians to the territory of modern Hungary, the Proto-Hungarian tribes came into contact with numerous Turkic, Iranian, Slavic peoples and tribal groups. This was reflected in the vocabulary of the Hungarian language: many Iranian and Turkic borrowings have been preserved in it. But, as in Romanian, Slavicisms are the most numerous - several thousand. The result of these processes was the modern lexicon of the Hungarian language, 21% consisting of the original Finno-Ugric vocabulary, 20% - from words of Slavic origin, 11% - from German, 9% - from Turkic, 9% - Latin-Greek . The Slavs borrowed words: medve (bear), málna (raspberry), mák (poppy). Slavic borrowings include, first of all, the numerous vocabulary of state and public life, the terms of agriculture and animal husbandry, fishing and hunting, the names of crafts, various household and household utensils, clothing, days of the week, etc. There are tracing papers from traditional Slavic names of parts Sveta. Slavic borrowings, as a rule, have an unbroken (strong) A (á ); in Turkic origin words A ruined (a). Turkic borrowings include the words gyümölcsök (fruit, cf. Turkic yemish/yemiş, Chuv. çimĕç), also alma (apple). The remaining 30% of the dictionary are words of obscure origin, which are also numerous in the neighboring language - Romanian. At the same time, however, it must be taken into account that the frequency of the original vocabulary is higher, and therefore colloquial and written speech consists of Finno-Finnish roots by 80-90% (just like in English - Romance vocabulary prevails in the dictionary, and Germanic in speech). ).

The longest word in the Hungarian language

The longest word in the Hungarian language, according to the 1996 Guinness Book of Records - megszentsegteleníthetetlensegeskedeseitekért, containing 44 letters. meg-szent- seg-telen-it-hetetlen- seg-es-kedés-e-i-tek-ért Let's take it apart:

  • meg - gives the verb the character of completeness
  • szent - "holy"
  • ség - suffix making the previous adjective a noun "holiness, sacrament"
  • telen - negation suffix for the subject "unholiness, filth, impiety"
  • ít - forms glalol from the noun "desecrate, dishonor"
  • hetetlen - negative suffix for the action "impossibility of desecration, disgrace, impiety"
  • ség - suffix that makes a noun from an adjective
  • es - suffix that makes an adjective from the noun "undefiled"
  • kedés - suffix of a constant repetitive habitual action
  • e - suffix belonging to a person unit. numbers
  • i - expresses the plurality of the subject; only immediately after vowels, except in the nominative case, not in the possessive form (szentségei - "[your/his] sacraments"; tollaid - "your hands")
  • tek - second person plural possessive suffix
  • ért - suffix denoting "because", "because", "because", "due to"

One of the possible translations into Russian: "because of your (persistent) innocence."

see also

  • Hungarian in Romania
  • Hungarian in Slovakia

Literature

  • // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
  • D. I. Ermolovich, Proper names at the intersection of languages ​​and cultures. Borrowing and transfer of proper names from the point of view of linguistics and translation theory. With the application of the rules of practical transcription of names from 23 foreign languages, including syllabic correspondences for Chinese and Japanese. - M.: R. Valent, 2001. - ISBN 5-93439-046-5. - Page 141-143.
  • R. S. Gilyarevsky, B. A. Starostin, Foreign names and titles in Russian text. - M.: Higher School, 1985 (3rd ed.). - Page 117-126.

Links

The Hungarian language can be safely called a puzzle, and it is not for nothing that the Rubik's Cube was invented in Hungary. And yet, many Russians decide to storm this complex system: some want to go to university, others want to get citizenship, and still others simply believe that knowing an additional language will be useful to them. Also, Russian citizens often come to Hungary on vacation, in which case Hungarian skills will also come in handy - not everyone in the country even speaks English, but only young people, while older people communicate, as a rule, only in their native language.

About the origin

I must warn you right away: learning the Hungarian language is not an easy task. Formally, it belongs to the Finno-Ugric group, but in fact it has little in common with Estonian and Finnish. Until the nineteenth century, the membership of the Hungarian language in this group was questioned. It is closest to the dialect of the Mansi and Khanty: the Hungarians brought their speech from Siberia to Eastern Europe, having managed, despite the influence of the Slavic and Turkic languages, to largely preserve its main features.

Peculiarities

The Hungarian language for beginning polyglots may seem overwhelmingly difficult - it presents many surprises. Unique phonetics, forty letters in the alphabet, as many as fourteen vowel sounds, each of which is indicated by a separate letter: a [ɒ], á, e [ɛ], é, i [i], í, o [o], ó, ö [ ø], ő [ø:], u [u], ú , ü [y] and ű . The first letter of the alphabet - a - must be pronounced as a cross between the Russian "o" and "a": the lower part of the jaw drops, the lips round, the tip of the tongue is pulled back. what can I say, even if word formations add as many as twenty-three cases, when in Russian there are only six of them.

Phonetics

Of course, the shortness and longitude of the rounded vowels "ü", "ű", "ö", "ő" present a difficulty here. It should be remembered that these are completely different letters, and a mistake with longitude, as in any language, can distort the meaning of the word. It can be quite difficult for foreigners to understand Hungarians at first, and this is noted by the Hungarians themselves, since often the whole remark sounds like an incomprehensible single word, although in fact it is a whole sentence. But the Hungarian language does not have diphthongs.

Grammar

No matter how complex the grammatical system is, it lacks some elements that are characteristic of other languages, for example, there is no category of grammatical gender, there are only two tenses: present and past, and for the future, a perfective present tense verb or a construction involving fog is used. All this greatly facilitates the lessons of the Hungarian language for foreign students.

Articles and conjugations

The definite, and indeed the category of uncertainty and certainty in general, play an important role in the language. It is inextricably linked with the conjugations of verbs, which are entirely dependent on the noun - the object. If this object is mentioned for the first time, then the objectless conjugation of the verb and the indefinite article are used. For example: "Daddy bought a ball (some)". In the sentence “Dad bought a great ball (the same one)”, the object conjugation of the verb and the definite article will already be used.

If the object is absent, both conjugations can be used, but it matters here whether the verb has one. So, the words “sit”, “walk”, “stand”, “go” do not have it, so there can only be an objectless conjugation.

Case endings

Everything that in Russian belongs to the category of prepositions, in Hungarian acts as case endings added to the word. With all this, the authors of textbooks cannot agree on how many of them there are: in some manuals it is indicated that twenty-three, in others there is a different figure - nineteen. And the fact is that the endings used to indicate the circumstance of time and place are considered case in the Hungarian language. There are also rare cases, for example, the distribution used to express the repetition of an action in time: "every day", "yearly".

Word reading

The Hungarian language is rich in words. For example, megszentségteleníthetetlen (25 letters) translates as "that which cannot be defiled". To read them correctly, they should be divided into roots or syllables. At the same time, in such structural linguistic units, a secondary (collateral) stress necessarily arises, falling on odd syllables. It is worth noting that, for example, the stress on the fifth syllable will be stronger than on the third.

How to learn Hungarian?

Learning any language is a difficult task. First of all, you should understand that this is painstaking work, and you need to treat it that way. Now there are many language courses that promise that you will master a new language in just a couple of months of classes, however, as you probably understand, this is just marketing and nothing more. Do not neglect the "grandfather" ways of mastering the language: comprehend vocabulary, systematically study grammar, memorize elementary constructions, listen to Hungarian songs, watch films with subtitles - this is the basis from which you need to build on.

Tutorials to help

Various textbooks and tutorials can help in learning the language. So, K. Vavra's textbook has good reviews - it is quite old and, of course, not ideal, but conceptually correctly built. It will be great if you also find a language course for this manual. Then you will have a complete set of tools for mastering the Hungarian language. Undoubtedly, it will not be easy to study without a teacher only on textbooks. This is especially true for grammar. You may sometimes have to guess something yourself or look for information in other books, but believe me, such a “research work” will only benefit you. Another good assistant in learning the language is Rubin Aaron's training course.

Word memorization

Many people who undertake to learn Hungarian very quickly come to the conclusion that this is a useless exercise. Not only can they not remember the words, but even just pronouncing them is beyond their power. However, the main thing in this business is desire and perseverance. Over time, you will learn to speak not only in single words, but also in sentences. Absolutely real effect gives the following method. Read a group of words into a mobile phone recorder, and then listen to the resulting recording at least ten times with headphones. You can do the same with audio recordings recorded by native speakers. Your goal is to achieve an understanding of the meaning of the spoken text without mentally translating it into Russian. Rest assured, this system really works! The main thing is to believe in yourself and keep working. Breaks in this matter are simply fatal - it is better to devote half an hour to classes every day than not to study for a week, and then try to master everything completely and immediately.

These basic postulates, of course, apply not only to the study of Hungarian, but also to any other language. And do not forget that the approach to learning should be systematic. You should gradually comprehend phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, and so on. Some are limited to cramming individual words. It is not right. Knowing only that, for example, the word “hello” in Hungarian sounds like “jó nap”, and “thank you” - “kösz”, and so on, is unlikely to give you the opportunity to fully communicate with native speakers and understand them. Good luck!

The Hungarian language is a real puzzle (it is no coincidence that the Rubik's Cube was invented in Hungary). Hungarian is a surprise language, a riddle language, a rebus language. It does not resemble any of its sister languages.

The Hungarian language is one of the most difficult languages, along with Chinese, Arabic and Japanese. But despite this, its popularity is gaining momentum. Firstly, it is a rare language, knowledge of which can be an advantage in employment (which employer will surprise you today with perfect command of English?). Secondly, it is an interesting, unusual language, and for a polyglot, learning Hungarian is a challenge. Thirdly, tourism is actively developing in Hungary today. Sanatoriums, boarding houses, resorts, tourist routes, low prices, beautiful nature, delicious cuisine - in fact, Hungary has all the possibilities for a perfect vacation. However, English in Hungary is mainly spoken by young people, the older generations most often do not speak any foreign languages. This means that vacationers will need at least basic knowledge of Hungarian. In times of crisis, it is more important than ever to think about opportunities for cheap holidays.


The Hungarian language is part of the Finno-Ugric language group, but, it seems, only formally. Hungarian is too unlike any of the Finno-Ugric languages. Even scientists decided to attribute Hungarian to the Finno-Ugric group only after hundreds of years of research and discussion - for a long time they could not understand what kind of outlandish such a language was. Hungarian, however paradoxical it may sound, is closest to the language of the Khanty and Mansi peoples (the ancestors of modern Hungarians, the Onogur tribes, come from the Urals). For hundreds of years, the Onogurs led a nomadic lifestyle until they settled on the territory of modern Hungary. Nomadic life has greatly influenced the Hungarian language. He absorbed a little of every language he came into contact with. Hungarian has a large number of borrowings from Turkic, Slavic languages. There are many Anglicisms, Gallicisms and borrowings from German in it.

The Hungarian alphabet has 40 letters (of which 14 are vowels), more than 20 cases. Words are formed mainly by the method of agglutination (“gluing”). For example, what in Russian we express with the help of a preposition, in Hungarian is glued to the end of the word in the form of a case ending. Endings, suffixes, prefixes and prefixes in Hungarian also express the circumstances of place and time, and much more.

Thus, words are often very long. To read a particular word, it is often necessary to divide it into parts of a word or into syllables. As a rule, the stress is placed on the first syllable, but in especially long words there are also secondary stresses placed on every odd syllable (first, third, fifth, seventh).

In phonetics, the most difficult thing is to distinguish between long and short vowels: “ö” and “ő”, “ü” and “ű” are different sounds, and a mistake in their use leads to a change in the meaning of the word.

However, in Hungarian, for example, there are only two tenses, past and present. The future tense is formed using the perfect form of the present tense. At the same time, there are so-called objective and non-objective declensions of the verb, which depend on whether we inflect the verb with a noun with a definite article (objective declension) or indefinite (non-objective). If there is no article, then the conjugation can be any, but there are some nuances here: for example, if the verb is intransitive, then the conjugation can only be objectless.

The combination of all these (and many other) features makes Hungarian a difficult, but extremely attractive language to learn.

Share with friends or save for yourself:

Loading...