N+1 random facts about the Hungarian language

• We like to multiply the sentence words.

I hadn’t recognise it until one of my foreign friends told me that he can always identify the Hungarian language speakers from saying „igen-igen-igen” (’yes, yes, yes’). And indeed, we do say these kinds of words not only once, but at least twice or thrice in rapid succession. Other words we multiply: igen (’yes’), nem (’no’), bizony (’yes, yes’), de (’yes, surely’), persze (’of course’), jó (’okay, good’), and sometimes szia (’hi’), hová (’where’ – „hová-hová?” means „where are you going?”).

• King = the best; pumpkin = very

If a Hungarian says that something is „király” (’king’), this means that something is fine, very good, the best. And „tök” (’pumpkin’), which is probably a shortened form of „tökéletesen” (’perfectly’) is the same as „nagyon” (’very’).

For example: Tök király volt a film. (Means ’The film was very good’, but literally ’The film was pumpkin king’.)

• A goose is silly, while a chick is stupid.

„Buta liba” (lit. ’silly goose’) and „hülye tyúk” (lit. ’stupid chick’) are phrases only used for not-so-clever women – the interesting part is that these two became idiomatic expressions. While „hülye liba” is also possible, „buta tyúk” sounds quite strange.

• Underground ≠ metro, subway.

Originally „földalatti” (lit. ’underground’) meant every kind of subway. But in time „földalatti” became a synonym to the Millennium Underground built in 1896 as the first line of the Budapest Metro. Therefore since then for every other subway we solely use the term „metró”. („A 2-es földalattival kell utaznia” and „a 2-es metróval kell utaznia” – „You should take line 2” – are both correct grammatically, but only the latter makes sense for a Hungarian.)

• Two kinds of love

The Hungarian language distinguishes between two kinds of love. One of them is szeretet – this is what you feel towards your family members, best friends, beloved singer and pet. The other one is szerelem – the feeling towards your boy/girlfriend or spouse.

• Doublets

There are many doublets (’ikerszó’) in Hungarian, such as „ugrabugrál” (’caver, jump’), „ákombákom” (’scrawl’), „hébe-hóba” (’occasionally’), „csigabiga” (’snail’). Sometimes the separated parts have no meaning on their own – such as in the case of ákombákom and dínomdánom (’revel’); sometimes only one half has meaning – like in csigabiga, where „csiga” itself also means snail and gizgaz, where „gaz” is weed.

Thank you for reading.

by Alla