Useful Hungarian letters, words and terms

As “the natives” pronounce them

Hungarian Alphabet

Hungarian is the 3rd most difficult language in the world, but we will make it easy for you here. It is unique and beautiful by its variety of words. It has relationship with none of the big European language families like Germanic, Latin (Romance) or Slavic ones as it belongs to the Finnish-Ugrian language family. (However, Finnish and Hungarian do not even sound alike!)

But there is good news here – the pronunciation is a lot easier than it is in English, the characters always have the same sound value and most of them sound very much like the English ones.
Let’s see the Hungarian alphabet now (bad news: it consists of 44 letters).

But there is another piece of good news – stress always falls on the first syllable of the word.

In this table the Hungarian letters are in the column on the left, and in the other two columns you can find the British and the American words with underlined sounds that approximate the Hungarian sound. These are not equivalents, just approximations!

Hungarian Letter	Close to (in British English)	Close to (in American English)
A	apod	law, car
Á	father, arm	hot
B	by, absence	=
C	pots	=
Cs	check, etching	=
D	deck, wide	=
Dz	like in kids	=
Dzs	jam, George, bridge,	=
E	bed, cheque, edge	=
É	café	=
F	find, photo	=
G	get, leg	=
Gy	during	=
H	hi, behind, loch	=
I	thick, thin	=
Í	leek, eat	=
J	yes	=
K	key, weak	=
L	leave	=
Ly	yes	=
M	mind, assume	=
N	need, bone	=
Ny	new	El niño (Spanish)
O	force, sorcerer	short ‘oh’
Ó	snow, saw	long ‘oh’
Ö	bird, heard	=
Ő	fur, sir	Boeing
P	peas, apricot,	=
R	red, rose	=
S	share, wish	=
Sz	say, estimate	=
T	tell, least	=
Ty	Tube	=
U	Rude	=
Ú	do, fool	=
Ü	Muesli	=
Ű	muesli (long)	=
V	very, every	=
X	Taxi	=
Y	Happy	=
Z	desert, zebra	=
Zs	pleasure, leisure	=

“Survival” words and terms

1 = ‘edge’

2 = ‘kayt / kettoe’

3 = ‘haarom’

4 = ‘naydj’

5 = ‘ert’

6 = ‘haat’

7 = ‘hayt’

8 = ‘njolts’

9 = ‘kilents’

10 = ‘tease’

20 = ‘hoos’

30 = ‘haarmints’

40 = ‘nedgeven’

50 = ‘ertven’

60 = ‘haatvaan’

70 = ‘hetven’

80 = ‘njoltsvaan’

90 = ‘kilentsven’

100 = ‘saaz’

Hello / Bye = ‘Sia /see’ya’ (same for both!)

Good bye = ‘Vis-lart’

Yes = ‘E-gen’ (G as in golf)

No = ‘Nem’

Thank you / thanx = ‘Ker-sir-nerm’ / Kercy

Please = ‘Kay-rek’

No problem = ‘Nem boy’

What is your name? = ‘Me a nevehd’

Where is the… ? = ‘Hool von a…

Where is a/an … ? = ‘Hool von edge …

Where can I get a beer? = ‘Hol lehet kopny shirt?’

I’m Dave = ‘Dave vod-yock’

How are you? = ‘Hodge vodge?’

I’m fine, thanx = ‘Yoll vod-yok, kercy’

I’m hungry = ‘Ay-hesh vod-yock’

I’m thirsty = ‘Som-yosh vos-yock’

I understand = ‘Air-tem’

I don’t understand = ‘Nem air-tem’

Cheers = ‘Eggay-shay-gedrare’ (one word!)

That’s plenty/No more = ‘Nem kayrek terbet’ ‘

The bill pls.= ‘Sam-laat kayrek’

A beer please = ‘Edge shirt kayrek’

Do you have a light? = ‘Von toozad?’

You are beautiful = ‘Sayp vodge’ (Sexy=Sexy)

That’s kind of you = ‘Kedvesh terled’

I love you / I like you = ‘Saret-lek’ / ‘Tatsel nekem’

All of our super friendly local team members speak excellent English and other European languages, too. We take the weight off your shoulders and will make you feel comfortable language wise too in our city, Budapest.

Szia! = See Ya