this is driving me insane. I've been learning hungarian for about 6 months and my understanding is actually not terrible at this point. I can read through posts on this sub and follow most of it. I watch hungarian youtube and pick up a decent amount. when I'm listening to someone speak I can put together what they're saying in my head. I even think in hungarian sometimes which feels like progress right?

but then someone actually talks to me and expects a response and my brain just shuts down. like I can literally feel the sentence forming in my head. the words are there. the grammar is there. but something between my brain and my mouth just breaks and what comes out is either silence or some mangled version of what I was trying to say that makes no sense.

it happened last week when I was on a video call with my girlfriend's parents who live in budapest. her dad asked me something simple about my job and I just stared at the screen for like 5 seconds and then said something so broken that everyone just politely switched to english. I wanted to disappear. the worst part is I knew exactly what I wanted to say. I even thought of two different ways to say it. but my mouth just wouldn't cooperate.

I think the problem is that I've spent 6 months training my brain to receive hungarian but I've spent almost zero time training my mouth to produce it. those are apparently completely different skills and hungarian is already one of the hardest languages on earth so the gap between understanding and speaking feels even bigger than it would with like spanish or french.

I've been trying to fix this the last couple weeks. I started just talking to myself in hungarian around the house which helps a little but there's no one correcting me so I don't know if I'm saying things right or just rehearsing my own mistakes over and over.

is using an AI voice tutor or something a good idea for this? like would it help to just have something I can talk to and practice getting words out without the pressure of a real person staring at me? a couple of my friends have been using Issen for other languages and they keep telling me it's actually good. I looked it up and the reviews seem really positive too and apparently they have hungarian which surprised me because most language apps act like hungarian doesn't exist. I haven't tried it yet but I'm thinking about it because honestly at this point anything that gets me to actually open my mouth and practice speaking out loud has to be better than what I'm doing now which is absolutely nothing.

but I want to know from people who've been through this. does the freeze ever fully go away? is it just a reps thing where you eventually stop overthinking and just talk? or is there something else I should be doing? hungarian already makes my brain work overtime with the cases and the vowel harmony and everything so adding the pressure of real time conversation on top of that feels overwhelming sometimes.

Any advice would be really appreciated because I have another video call with her parents next month and I would love to not just sit there like a statue again.

Sziasztok!

A minap szembejött velem egy-két etimológiai poszt és írás az ördög szavunkkal kapcsolatban. Így arra gondoltam felteszem a kérdést itt:

Miért alakult át (/esett áldozatul a nyelvújításnak) az 'ördöng' szavunk 'ördöggé', ha az 'ördöngösségben' meghagytuk?

Illetve, van rá bizonyíték, hogy a 'lődöng/ődöng' (jelentése: lődörög, cél nélkül mozog) az igei verziója az ördöngnek, és a vándorló ótörök nomádoktól való távolságtartás miatt volt használatban?

Sajna nem sok információt találtam ezekre szótárakban, de valamilyen finn-ugor fórumposztban szembejött.

Sziasztok! We just released a new street interview video for intermediate Hungarian learners looking to pick up real, natural vocabulary and practice their listening comprehension. You can find the full transcript at our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/cw/EverydayHungarian)

In this episode, we walked the streets of Budapest to ask locals how they cope with the intense summer heat.

Nálatok is nagy a hőség?

In this sentence does közölük seem unnecessary? If I left it out does the sentence have the same meaning? Why would you add it for example?

Hi! I just started a podcast for Hungarian learners. I think it will be helpful for a better understanding, and for improve your listening skills, while you listen to some natural, spontanious content from a native speaker. I tell stories about everything, the podcast does not have a specific topic; my goal is to create, and make accessible a Hungarian "atmosphere" for those, who want to learn this language.

It's on Spotify, and the name is RackaPod. I hope you find it useful, let me know, if you do. Thank you, and good listening!:)

https://open.spotify.com/show/033PpWcxxzhhK9zwXf0UYW?si=c03d2c2ae129463e

Hi there! Could someone please explain what I did wrong here?

I am a beginner learning Hungarian so I didn't know what to put for flair. I also happened to find the Hungarian 2003 version of The Phantom of the Opera. And I was wondering if anyone knew a good translator other than Google translate to (obviously) translate the English lyrics into Hungarian.

So I've been trying to learn hungarian for a while now as I have family members who speak it, but I have no idea where to start. I know basic introductions, but I can't find any way to learn it on my own. Unfortunately I am unable to get a tutor (or online paid courses), but I do plan to spend 30 minutes a day learning it, any ideas on where I can start?

(duolingo has not helped whatsoever)

I think it's the language where I've seen the use of these two the most.

I'm still a beginner in the language, but nothing reminds me of Portuguese or English.

So while I'm studying, nothing reminds me of Romance or Germanic languages ​​(because of Portuguese or English).

It's easier to learn German or Italian, idk, the words are closer. The same happens with Hungarian and Czech, idk? Serbian? Iknow about Uralic question, but Czech, Serbian have more similiar words?

Hi everyone! I'm Evi, a native Hungarian speaker from Hungary.

I offer personalised online Hungarian lessons for all levels. Whether you're looking for conversation practice, Hungarian citizenship interview preparation, or want to improve your grammar, pronunciation, reading, writing, listening, or speaking skills, I'm happy to tailor each lesson to your goals and learning style.

I'm new to teaching Hungarian professionally, but I already have a few happy students under my belt! 😊 I'm TEFL-certified and hold master's-level qualifications in health-related fields.

If you have any questions about me or how the lessons work, feel free to ask me.

So there are two worlds. The world of the Hungarian language classroom, where everyone understands each other well enough, and the world of real life, where learners of Hungarian are idiots. Like, they can’t understand nothing and no one can understand them.

So, having graduated from the classroom world years ago and unable to step into the real world, I experiment. Experimenting worked fine in the classroom world. Am I the best in the class? Ok, the experiment worked.

My experiments in the real world are dismal though. Sure, my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and niece can understand me but that is about it. And what more is there to discuss other than food, food poisoning and weather. (See the heat rotted the food and now I am going to the bathroom every hour and that is why I am not going to the aqua park with you.)

My italki tutor gave me an assignment this week with songs from the avant-garde metal band Thy Catafalque. Yeah, I don’t listen to heavy metal, but I chose one of the songs that had a good video on YouTube (Köd Utánam) and figured, ok I can pick out a word or two, I will try to transcribe this song and figure it out.

So yah, well that real life thing. Too hard. So I went to my Claude AI account and I said help me with this. My account is free and I have instructed it to use the Socratic method when I ask it questions about what I am learning in Hungarian, so it’s not just a translation or research program, instead it nudges me to figure stuff out on my own.

But yah, my free account annoyed me, because it gave too many hints, and I didn’t want any hints, I wanted to train my ear.

So I logged onto my husband’s Claude account, which is a $20/mo account, and tried out Fable, which is included for at least the next week so people can get hooked. I want you to know I got so hooked I worked on that song five hours straight with it. I ended up getting through maybe 39 seconds of the lyrics more or less, but I was in the flow, it was so pleasurable working with that damn machine. Finally it told me to stop and rest a moment, and it was 1 am on a work night so I relented. Maybe it was tired too. I have no idea how much of its concept window I used in that chat, I am not used to using the paid account nor Fable, I certainly never sensed any degradation.

Anyways, one of the things I realized is that what it did was open my ears to the dearth of possibilities of what I am hearing. It was asking me questions like “could there be an n-k- or a b in that syllable?” Or “knock the table between those two words and count how many syllables lies between them that you haven’t been able to identify.” Sometimes it would get into grammar, “well that word has suspicious grammar in it. You see anything wrong with what you guessed?” Or it would notice when I noticed some trait of Hungarian connected speech or some other outside-my-little-box discovery. It would say “take note of this aspect that you just discovered.” We talked in Hungarian the whole time (we started out at the beginning of the chat talking in English because I thought that would lessen the mental load but I soon realized that if I totally thought in Hungarian that the mental load was actually less. I just told it to keep its comments short, so it would be more understandable.) So we talked with each other in Hungarian. Sometimes it would get into the semantics or style of the phrases I was putting forth as guesses, “ya, that word you gave is fitting for a poet like Kátai.” Even if it wasn’t the right word, it would tie in all the ways that a person understands what probably amounts to telepathy in everyday life.

One of the valuable things about it was how f-ing patient it was. 5 hours of guiding me through 39 seconds. Any human would have long ago sprinkled obvious hints to just get things moving along. But its hints were maddening. It knew that if I relied on its hints that I wouldn’t be training my own ear. It loved offering absolutely wrong suggestions. Because then I would be forced to listen hard and finally say, “nice try, but no, it definitely wasn’t those possibilities, now it’s my turn to take a guess.” As if we were taking turns guessing, but I knew it knew, it was just playing with me.

A lot of times it would get all excited if I was sure about something, and would let me move on, and then I would realize when listening to the next few seconds many times that something I had figured out an hour prior was wrong, and that I suddenly could hear what it was for real, and I would tell it and it would get more excited, of course. Part of its genius was saying the exact right thing to make me press the play button on the timeline on the music track one more time, again, again, like an excited rat getting its heroin fix.

Anyways, I just wanted to share my experience, in case it is useful.

Any help would be sick thanks

Szia!! I am going to a music festival called Ozora in Hungary Budapest in 2 weeks and I have a “free hugs” shirt and even though I’m sure most people there can read English I still would love to write it in Hungarian on the shirt too! If anyone could help tell me what the right words are? Köszönöm 🫶

Hello Hungarian learners,

to me as a native speaker these two words seem to be the toughest when it comes to building Hungarian words with agglutination. I wonder if you are able to find the correct form:

1. Example: - Anna and I are planning a bike-trip for the weekend. - And what are you going to do with your bicycles at night?

2. Example: Hungary belongs to the Hungarians. Jamaica belongs to the Jamaicans.

I asked many Hungarians and around 50% couldn´t say the correct answer.

Good luck!

Sziasztok! We have an exciting topic today: swearing. Do Hungarians like to swear? In what situations do they avoid it?

For those who don't know us, we interview Hungarians on the streets of Budapest to provide Hungarian language learners real-life content to study from. We provide subtitles in transcripts at our free Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/c/EverydayHungarian).

As Hungarian learners, do you try to pick up swearing, or do you prefer to ignore it?

Hi!

I would like to improve my English skills, and finally produce some output by talking to an English-speaking partner. My primary goal is B2 level. You don't have to be a native speaker, but you should have at least C1 language skills. I would like to schedule a conversation session 1-2x a week.

About me: I am patient, of course I adjust to the speaking speed of my partner. Any topic is possible.

I am primaily looking for female partners, but feel free to DM me if you are not a female as well:)

Or even making a friendship while speaking:)✨🌼

I am learning Hungarian and got a great deal on the 2013 versions of MagyarOK A1 and A2 plus the workbooks. The books are pretty expensive to get in the USA, I got the 2013 editions for 1/5 of the current editions price on the hungarystore. Is this okay, will I still be able to get a good bit out of the books even if i have to hunt for the corresponding online content a bit?

I'm writing a short story and I'm looking for Hungarian pet names that friends might call each other when they're especially fond of each each other but there's no romantic subtext. Maybe also stuff like "Babe" that you could call a romantic partner but also works for a friend.

The context is a Hungarian woman in her forties with a thirty year old Australian guy for a tenant/roommate, they don't have all that much in common but she's pleased with him because he's got the internet working and networked all the devices in the house to voice control. She also regards him as a bit of a kid or immature because he spends a lot of money on impulse buying stupid stuff online like a snake he doesn't know how to care for (and accidently hotboxes) and "authentic" high end timepieces. She's not maternal or clucky but she does feel proprietorial about him and likes to brag about him to others.

As a placeholder I'm using Puli because he has dreadlocks and because Puli ends in a cute "i" sound (to my ear) but I'm not Hungarian so I'm not sure if that works.

Also the Aussie guy's name is Declan, and I'm interested in if there's a natural way to shorten it or make it a cute nickname in Hungarian.

Thank you!

Edit: it's set in a slightly dystopian future, but only a few years away, 2029. It's also set in Australia where she's now lived for over a decade, and works in a pretty casual environment, and has picked up a few aussie habits like calling people dude and bro regardless of age and gender.

Hello everyone, ill be starting uni in hungary so i want to start learning Hungarian. Are there any useful resources (books, youtube channels, apps) or tips that would make it easier to learn? Thank you in advance

hi, im looking to learn Hungarian because i want to connect back to my roots. i think one of the best ways to learn is to converse and read it daily or every so often.

just looking for someone to be friendly with and yap too, ill list some of my interests. preferably between a year younger or a year older than me because that is what im most comfortable with.

online only tho because i dont have the resources to do snail mail.

so heres a few things abt me!
i go by Kris :)
i love cartoons and tv shows such as Arcane, Eddsworld, TADC, Steven Universe, LEGO shows, Metal Family, etc.
i love some pop music like Lady Gaga, as well as oldies rock like Lita Ford, The Blackhearts, MCR, etc.
i am an artist, mainly do sketches and painting. i really want to be involved in fashion and art as a long term career. i also really enjoy animal biology. if i have the money, i want to keep going to college because i want to excell in different subjects, such as psychology, zoology, animal science, art direction, and animation.
I play games like roblox, minecraft, and star stable. ive also played stardew valley, monster hunter world, and call of duty.