English–Hungarian wordplay: Same sound, different form and meaning, Part 2
You seemed to like our previous article about some interesting English and Hungarian word pairs that are pronounced the same or in a similar manner. Despite the coincidental similarity, these expressions do not have a common etymological origin, the same word form, or meaning. Based on your suggestions, we have complemented our list with 32 additional pairs.
bale [beɪl] (ENG) – bél [beːl] (HUN)
meaning1: bowels, intestines
meaning2: kernel (of nuts)
beer [bɪə/bɪr] (ENG) – bír [biːr] (HUN)
meaning: to be able to carry something
bent (past tense of ‘bend’)[sɛnt] (ENG) – bent [bɛnt] (HUN)
meaning: inside, within
cane [keɪn] (ENG) – kén [keːn] (HUN)
meaning: sulphur
case [keɪs] (ENG) − kész [keːs] (HUN)
meaning: complete, ready, finished
cheek [ʧiːk] (ENG) – csík [ʧiːk] (HUN)
meaning: band, stripe
coot [kuːt] (ENG) − kút [kuːt] (HUN)
meaning: well
fail [feɪl] (ENG) – fél [feːl] (HUN)
meaning1: half (of something)
meaning2: to be afraid, to fear something or somebody
fame [feɪm] (ENG) – fém [feːm] (HUN)
meaning: metal
fog [fɒg] (ENG) – fog [fɒg] (HUN)
meaning1: to catch (e.g. fish), grasp, hold
meaning2: shall (auxiliary)
meaning3: tooth
hay [heɪ] (ENG) – héj [heːj] (HUN)
meaning: peel(ings), skin
hate [heɪt] (ENG) – hét [heːt] (HUN)
meaning1: seven
meaning2: week
hit [hɪt] (ENG) – hit [hit] (HUN)
meaning: belief, faith, trust
Kate [Keɪt] (ENG) – két [keːt] (HUN) (modified form of ‘kettő’ [kɛtːøː])
meaning: two
law [lɔː] (ENG) – ló [lɔː] (HUN)
meaning: horse
lent (past tense of ‘lend’)[lɛnt] (ENG) – lent [lɛnt] (HUN)
meaning: below, down
less [lɛs] (ENG) – lesz [lɛs] (HUN)
meaning: will be
mane [meɪn] (ENG) – mén [meːn] (HUN)
meaning: stallion
may [meɪ] (ENG) – mély [meːj] (HUN)
meaning: deep
mint [mɪnt] (ENG) – mint [mint] (HUN)
meaning: as, like
old [əʊld] (ENG) – old [ɒld] (HUN)
meaning1: to dissolve, melt
meaning2: to undo, untie (e.g. a knot)
raise [reɪz] (ENG) – réz [reːz] (HUN)
meaning: brass, copper
rave [reɪv] (ENG) – rév [reːv] (HUN)
meaning: ferry(boat), harbour
Sam [sæm] (ENG) – szem [sɛm] (HUN)
meaning1: eye
meaning2: grain (e.g. of sand)
sent (past tense of ‘send’)[sɛnt] (ENG) – szent [sɛnt] (HUN)
meaning: holy, sacred, saint
sieve [sɪv] (ENG) – szív [siːv] (HUN)
meaning1: heart
meaning2: to breathe in, inhale, suck
sole [səʊl] (ENG) – szól [sɔːl] (HUN)
meaning: to speak, say something
sore [sɔː(r)] (ENG) – szór [sɔːr] (HUN)
meaning: to sprinkle, scatter, spread
tale [teɪl] (ENG) – tél [teːl] (HUN)
meaning: winter
toll [təʊl] (ENG) – tol [tɒl] (HUN)
meaning: to push
tool [tuːl] (ENG) – túl [tuːl] (HUN)
meaning1: beyond, over
meaning2: excessively, too
Why? [waɪ] (ENG) – váj [vɑːj] (HUN)
meaning: to hollow (out), scoop, deepen
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Source: Daily News Hungary
how about where the meanings are kind of the same – creates some questions
house – ház
noise – nesz
ware – áru
spotty – pöttyös
brown ü barna
foot – fut (run)
sing – zeng (even the -ing ending meaning continuous motion)
poor – pór
cough – köhög
add – ad as in hozzáad
all – álló (nap)
petty – piti
cock – kakas
these come to mind, but there are many more
Hmm. Some do not sound the same such as cane/kén, because the ‘e’ is pronounced as an ő at the end of cane. But the one that is totally wrong is why/váj. The ‘wh’ is NEVER pronounced as a ‘v’. It is a Digraph, 2 letters that make one sound, just like cs and zs for instance, are digraphs. in Hungarian. There is no equivalent sound to ‘wh’ that I can think of in Hungarian and most hungarians struggle with the english ‘w’ ‘wh’ and ‘th’ pronounciation. They rarely get it right.
What about: kar? (arm)
Thanks for this article.
As an Englishman, it’s an invaluable aid to my ongoing mission to learn some Hungarian.
#Paul: Hungarian is really not as difficult as is made out. Particularly if you studied Latin at school (as I did, back in the mists of time). The tricky bit, methinks, is having to conjugate verbs in a different way for the definite and the indefinite, a concept which is alien to english.