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Hungarian - January challenge thread

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maxval
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Bulgaria
maxval.co.nr
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 Message 585 of 1549
14 May 2011 at 7:29pm | IP Logged 
hribecek wrote:

“beszállanak”


OK. This is a problem for people learning Hungarian.

In present tense, indicative mood, the ending:
- for 2nd person, singular, indefinite conjugation can be -sz or -asz for back (low) vowel harmony and -sz or -esz for front (high) vowel harmony,
- for 3rd person, plural, indefinite conjugation can be -nak or -anak for back (low) vowel harmony and -nek or -enek for front (high) vowel harmony,
- for 1st person showing into 2nd person, singular, definite conjugation can be -lak or -alak for back (low) vowel harmony and -lek or -elek for front (high) vowel harmony,
- for 2rd person, plural, indefinite conjugation can be -tok or -otok for back (low) vowel harmony and -tek or -etek for front (high) unrounded vowel harmony and -tök or -ötök for front (high) rounded vowel harmony.

When is there the 2nd form with the added vowel (it is called "linking vowel" by older linguistics books and "predecessor vowel" by newer books).

There is no general rule, BUT there is a rule that works in 99 % of the cases. This is much easier than in the case of nouns, when there is only a 75-80 % of probability when is there a predecessor vowel.

So see these rules:
there is a predecessor vowel almost always, when:
- the stem ends in two DIFFERENT consonants,
- the stem ends in a long vowel and a "t".

There are cases when both versions are possible, with and without the predecessor vowel, however in these cases using a predecessor vowel will not be an error.

Note that this is valid only for 99 % of the cases, not for 100 %. For example the verb LÁT doesnt have a predecessor vowel, it is LÁTSZ, LÁTNAK, LÁTLAK, LÁTTOK, and not *látasz*, *látanak*, *látalak*, *látotok*, as would be expected.

Edited by maxval on 14 May 2011 at 7:47pm

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hribecek
Triglot
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Czech Republic
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Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian

 
 Message 586 of 1549
15 May 2011 at 9:59am | IP Logged 
maxval wrote:
hribecek wrote:

“beszállanak”


OK. This is a problem for people learning Hungarian.

In present tense, indicative mood, the ending:
- for 2nd person, singular, indefinite conjugation can be -sz or -asz for back (low) vowel harmony and -sz or -esz for front (high) vowel harmony,
- for 3rd person, plural, indefinite conjugation can be -nak or -anak for back (low) vowel harmony and -nek or -enek for front (high) vowel harmony,
- for 1st person showing into 2nd person, singular, definite conjugation can be -lak or -alak for back (low) vowel harmony and -lek or -elek for front (high) vowel harmony,
- for 2rd person, plural, indefinite conjugation can be -tok or -otok for back (low) vowel harmony and -tek or -etek for front (high) unrounded vowel harmony and -tök or -ötök for front (high) rounded vowel harmony.

When is there the 2nd form with the added vowel (it is called "linking vowel" by older linguistics books and "predecessor vowel" by newer books).

There is no general rule, BUT there is a rule that works in 99 % of the cases. This is much easier than in the case of nouns, when there is only a 75-80 % of probability when is there a predecessor vowel.

So see these rules:
there is a predecessor vowel almost always, when:
- the stem ends in two DIFFERENT consonants,
- the stem ends in a long vowel and a "t".

There are cases when both versions are possible, with and without the predecessor vowel, however in these cases using a predecessor vowel will not be an error.

Note that this is valid only for 99 % of the cases, not for 100 %. For example the verb LÁT doesnt have a predecessor vowel, it is LÁTSZ, LÁTNAK, LÁTLAK, LÁTTOK, and not *látasz*, *látanak*, *látalak*, *látotok*, as would be expected.

Thanks, I knew something about this rule, but, as you can see, I thought it was whenever there were 2 consonants together, I didn't know they have to be different.

My only knowledge of this before was based on observing your corrections of my stories.
1 person has voted this message useful



hribecek
Triglot
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Czech Republic
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Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian

 
 Message 587 of 1549
15 May 2011 at 10:08am | IP Logged 
maxval wrote:


Notes:

“az egyik vaddisznó egy férfit rátámad” – there is a logical relationship between the verb and its object, if the verb has a prefix rá-, then you can be almost 99 % sure that the object will be –ra/-re ending
Thanks, very good to know.
maxval wrote:


“hozzájük” – it cannot be “jük”, “hozzá” contains only back (low) vowels, so the ending cannot be front (high)!
This is like my use of plurals sometimes after numbers, I know the rule very well but sometimes some words slip through my weak Hungarian grammar awareness radar!
maxval wrote:


“A majmok összeülnek két ketreceken” you cant use plural after numbers, even when the noun has ending!
Aaah! I cringe every time I make this mistake again. It hurts!
maxval wrote:


“a fiúk döntenek, hogy kell találniuk egy módat” – yes, this is a big problem! There is no rule in case of back vowel harmony words when it is –ot and when –at – sorry, no rule, the only rule is that in most cases it is –ot, but in 15-20 % of the words is –at, so if you don’t know, better use always –ot, you will have better odds :-)
A very good system for me, I will now employ the 'if in doubt, use o' system.
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hribecek
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 5139 days ago

1243 posts - 1458 votes 
Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish
Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian

 
 Message 588 of 1549
15 May 2011 at 10:14am | IP Logged 
maxval wrote:

4 stylistic notes:

"A földön a férfi mellett, sok a férfi vére." - sound bad, better: ""A földön a férfi mellett sok vér van."
I actually had your version at first, but then corrected it to mine, because I thought it might not be clear whose blood it was.
maxval wrote:


"a vaddisznók leülnek össze egy csoportban" - "össze" sounds very bad, you can omit it, or use "együtt"
What would my sentence with össze mean? Does it just sound bad stylistically or does it mean something else?
maxval wrote:


"A majmok összeülnek két ketrecen és kiabálnak." - "összeülnek" sounds funny, a parlamentben szoktak összeülni a képviselők..., itt inkább "összegyűlnek"
So összeül is like for an official meeting?
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maxval
Pentaglot
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Bulgaria
maxval.co.nr
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852 posts - 1577 votes 
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Studies: Latin, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 589 of 1549
15 May 2011 at 12:55pm | IP Logged 
hribecek wrote:

My only knowledge of this before was based on observing your corrections of my stories.


It is good to remember these rules!

In reality Hungarian has only 3 (three) irregular verbs: jön, megy, van.

ALL OTHER verbs are regular. Most of them have perfectly predictable behaviour in all conjugations.

There are 10-15 % of the verbs that have more than one stem. But these verbs are still regular. The only problem is to learn that they have more than one stem, and need to learn when these stems are used. But even these stems are perfectly predictable, with no or almost no exceptions.

It may sound strange, but the fact is that English verbs have easier conjugation forms, but at the same time in English there are hundreds of irregular verbs, where there is absolutely no rule, you have to learn the irregular forms. There is no way to predict why there is go-went-gone and why throw-threw-thrown and why begin-began-begun or why feel-felt-felt - there is absolutely no logic and no rule...

So, in case of Hungarian you need to learn only the pattern of the endings in different conjugations and the pattern of the stem changes in case of multiple stem verbs. But no need to memorize irregular forms (with the exception of megy, jön, van).

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maxval
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Bulgaria
maxval.co.nr
Joined 4863 days ago

852 posts - 1577 votes 
Speaks: Hungarian*, Bulgarian, English, Spanish, Russian
Studies: Latin, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 590 of 1549
15 May 2011 at 1:20pm | IP Logged 
hribecek wrote:
maxval wrote:

“a fiúk döntenek, hogy kell találniuk egy módat” – yes, this is a big problem! There is no rule in case of back vowel harmony words when it is –ot and when –at – sorry, no rule, the only rule is that in most cases it is –ot, but in 15-20 % of the words is –at, so if you don’t know, better use always –ot, you will have better odds :-)
A very good system for me, I will now employ the 'if in doubt, use o' system.


In case of nouns, the predecessor vowel is mostly "o", and in 15-20 % of the cases is "a".

While in case of adjectives, its the opposite, the predecessor vowel is mostly "a", and in 15-20 % of the cases is "o".


2 persons have voted this message useful



maxval
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Bulgaria
maxval.co.nr
Joined 4863 days ago

852 posts - 1577 votes 
Speaks: Hungarian*, Bulgarian, English, Spanish, Russian
Studies: Latin, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 591 of 1549
15 May 2011 at 1:25pm | IP Logged 
hribecek wrote:
maxval wrote:

4 stylistic notes:

"A földön a férfi mellett, sok a férfi vére." - sound bad, better: ""A földön a férfi mellett sok vér van."
I actually had your version at first, but then corrected it to mine, because I thought it might not be clear whose blood it was.[QUOTE=maxval]


Yes, but saying two time the subject in a short sentence is not good.

If you want to avoid any ambiguity, then say "A földön a férfi erősen vérzett, mellette sok vér volt."


2 persons have voted this message useful



maxval
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Bulgaria
maxval.co.nr
Joined 4863 days ago

852 posts - 1577 votes 
Speaks: Hungarian*, Bulgarian, English, Spanish, Russian
Studies: Latin, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 592 of 1549
15 May 2011 at 1:27pm | IP Logged 
hribecek wrote:
maxval wrote:

"a vaddisznók leülnek össze egy csoportban" - "össze" sounds very bad, you can omit it, or use "együtt"
What would my sentence with össze mean? Does it just sound bad stylistically or does it mean something else?[QUOTE=maxval]


The problem is that "össze" is mainly a verbal prefix, and it seems here that you want to use two verbal prefixes with one verb.


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