Language

The Hungarians speak Magyar, a member of the Finno-Ugric language group that is related very, very distantly to Finnish, Estonian and about a dozen other very minor languages in Russia and western Siberia. Hungarian is not an Indo-European language, meaning that English is closer to French, Russian and Hindi in vocabulary and structure than it is to Hungarian. As a result you’ll spot few words that you are likely to recognize – with the exception of things like disco or farmer (the Hungarian word for ‘blue jeans’).

Many older Hungarians understand German, especially in Transdanubia, but it is usually the young generation who can speak English or German. Children start to learn a foreign language in primary school, then in secondary school they usually learn two, English and German being the most widespread and popular ones (though Spanish and French are also becoming popular). If you have trouble making yourself understood, try writing down what you want to say. Travel agencies usually have at least one staff member who can speak English to some degree. Some useful words to learn are: utca or utcaja (street), korut (boulevard), út or utja (road), ter or tere (square), setany (promenade), and híd (bridge). Public toilets (WC) are marked nő for women and férfi for men. A plural is indicated by a final ‘k’. Nem indicates a negative.

Click here to go to our small dictionary with the proper pronunciation of the words.

Click here to the English-Hungarian - Hungarian English Dictionary.