You made it to the last lesson! In the previous 25 lessons you learned the sounds, vowel harmony, all eighteen cases, the two conjugations, the prefixes, every tense and mood, the participles, word order and register. That is the whole of Hungarian grammar. What turns all of this into real fluency is reading: lots of it, in many different styles.
In this lesson you will read three short texts written for this course: a news report, a personal essay and the opening of a short story. Each one is shown sentence by sentence, with Hungarian on the left and English on the right. Each text uses a different register, and each one gathers together grammar from across the course.
How to read a parallel text
A parallel text is a powerful tool, but only if you use it well. It is very easy to let your eyes slide over to the English and never really read the Hungarian. Here is a method that works:
- Read the Hungarian first, on its own. Cover the English column with your hand or a piece of paper. Read a whole sentence and try to understand it.
- Find the verb. In a long Hungarian sentence, find the verb first, then look at what is in front of it (the focus, Lesson 22). Then find the nouns and their endings.
- Guess. Even if you only understand half, make a guess at the meaning. Guessing from context is one of the most important skills at C2.
- Check. Now look at the English. Were you right? If not, find the word or ending that tripped you up.
- Read the Hungarian aloud. Stress the first syllable of every word, and hold the long vowels and double consonants.
- Read it again tomorrow, without the English at all. You will be surprised how much has stayed with you.
The translations are not word for word
The English versions are natural English, not word-for-word glosses. This is deliberate. A sentence like Háromórás ebéd lett belőle literally says "a three-hour lunch became out of it", but no English speaker would say that. Comparing the two will teach you how the languages think differently.
What to look out for
Each text has notes underneath it. As you read, try to spot these constructions before you get to the notes:
| Construction | Lesson | Example |
|---|---|---|
| The -é form | 19 | az olvasóké, minden lakójáé |
| Possessives with cases | 19 | a nagymamájánál, utolsó éveiben |
| The remaining cases | 20 | nyolcig, éjszakánként |
| The conditional | 21 | megkérdezné, ment volna |
| Focus and the prefix | 22 | akkor értettem meg |
| Participles | 23 | bezárva, állva, olvasójegy |
| Formal register | 24, 25 | tájékoztatása szerint, kereste fel |
When you are ready, go to the Parallel Texts.