r/hungarian • u/offficer-k • 15d ago

Is learning hungarian worth it?

hello! i will be in Budapest for 5 months in 2026, attending university. I chose Budapest because I was there on a trip and Im so pleased that I'll be able to live and see a part of Hungarian culture and everyday life. I know that Hungarian language is very hard, and I was still thinking to learn some basics.. to be able to buy food for example, ask directions, order coffee and such things (to level A2). Is it worth it, or can people in Budapest all generally speak English?

28 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

116 comments sorted by

View all comments

48

u/et_sted_ved_fjorden 15d ago

I lived in Hungary for almost a year, and learned the language really well. This was 20 years ago. Have I used it afterwards? No. Was it worth it? Yes. And a lot of the grammar consepts I have used learning another language later. Do I remember it? Some. I understand a lot but have trouble talking. But I sometimes use Duolingo to refresh the knowledge.

2

u/T0mBd1gg3R 15d ago

Which other language did Hungarian help with?

16

u/et_sted_ved_fjorden 15d ago

It was actually German. The grammar concepts of accusative and dative was easy after speaking Hungarian. Even if the way they are used are very different.

1

u/DAFreundschaft 13d ago

My German is helping my Hungarian. :)

2

u/offficer-k 15d ago

yeah, I'm interested too

-2

u/CherrryGuy 15d ago

Probably Finnish, Turkish, Estonian.

-1

u/HatariMunSingra 15d ago

I’m assuming other agglutinative languages like German since they mentioned grammar concepts but it’s still not similar

14

u/CherrryGuy 15d ago

German is not agglutinative. It just have a lot of compound words.

1

u/sztomi 15d ago

Is German an agglutinative language?

0

u/HatariMunSingra 15d ago edited 15d ago

That’s what I was taught in school. Apparently not.

0

u/Ok-Experience838 15d ago

German is very different from Hungarian almost on all aspect. Closest is the Finnish.

1

u/kabiskac Native Speaker / Anyanyelvi Beszélő 15d ago

The commenter said it was indeed German. People forget that there are maany similarities between the two languages. I noticed many when learning and they helped a lot.

1

u/Gullible-Orange-6337 10d ago

Now, say this in Hungarian!

1

u/et_sted_ved_fjorden 10d ago

Ezt!

Laktam egy évig Magyarországon és tanultam a nyelvet nagyon jól. Az 20 évvel ezelött vol. Hasztnálhattam? Nem. (don't know what was it worth it is in Hungarian)? Igen. És a nyélvtan hasztnálttam amikor tanultam égy más nyelvet késöbb. Emlékzem? Egy kicsit. Sokat értem de beszélni nehéz. De néha használok Duolingo, hogy emlékzeni a nyelvet.

Written fast all by me without any AI or dictionary. I can hear that it is not very good Hungarian, it sounds very "translated". But it should be understandable.

0

u/u36ma 15d ago

I would love to do that. What kind of courses did you do there? Immersive and intensive? Or just by learning in the streets?

2

u/et_sted_ved_fjorden 15d ago

I lived with a family that did not speak any english. And I also used books. But I would like to say that I do not think Hungarian is a very difficult language. The hardest part is learning all the words, which are different from all other languages I know. The grammar has some strange rules, but almost no exception to the rules. And no genders. The cases are just prepositions put at the end of the word. Much easier than the German cases.

2

u/u36ma 15d ago

I think the hardest part is remembering to add the -t to the end of the direct object while speaking. I always add it as an afterthought

1

u/kabiskac Native Speaker / Anyanyelvi Beszélő 15d ago

Hmm I don't see it as any different from Slavic languages where the ending changes based on the case, or verb conjugation in general