Learn Hungarian – Part 2: Vocabulary for tourists in Hungary

In this article, you can find out what you will need to say when you are in Hungary, and you would like to get to the airport, get to your hotel or get to your train from the train station.

Hungarian Pod is an excellent way for you to start learning the Hungarian language or restart if you have already learned it for some time. With regular and systematical studying, you can acquire the language. Let’s see these language cards for tourists.

Direction words:

It is essential to start with direction words like left, right, north or west, but it is also important to know the right pronunciation of these words.

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10 direction words in Hungarian with pronunciation:

Front: eleje (eh-le-ye) – back: hátulja (ha-tool-ya)

Right: jobb (yobb); to the right: jobbra (yobb-ra) – left: bal (as it writes), to the left: balra

North: észak (ai-suck) – South: dél (dale) – East: kelet – West: nyugat (n’u-gaat)

Inside: belül (beh-lu’l) – outside: kívül (kee-v’ul)

Unique Hungarian vowels with accents like: á, é, ó, ú are similar to their non-accent pairs: a,e,o,u. The difference is in the length of these sounds. The ones with accents are the longer ones.
These vowels do not exist in the English alphabet, but similar sounds are pronounced: ö,ő,ü,ű.

For the right vowel pronunciation, it is worth watch this video or play Hungarian words on Google Translator.

Useful words when at the airport:

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You may come across with these words on an aeroplane or at airports, but obviously signs are mostly written in English. However, when you are visiting Hungary on a WizzAir plane, for example, and want to visit the bathroom and you only see MELLÉKHELYSÉG and VÉSZKIJÁRAT signs, then it might be hard to figure out which direction to go to.

Other common words at Budapest Airport:

WC/Bathroom: Wc or mellékhelység, toalett

Flight number: Járatszám (yah-rat-sam)

Gate number#: #Kapu (ka-poo)

Carry-on baggage: Kézipoggyász (kay-zee-pod’-d’as)

Flight attendant: légikísérő (lay-ghee-kee-shae-ro’)

Note that Hungarian ‘s’ is pronounced as ‘sh’ and Hungarian ‘sz’ is pronounced as ‘s’!

Economy class: turista osztály (too-rish-ta os-tay)

Note that Hungarian language has two kinds of ‘y’ sounds! One is ‘j’ and the other is ‘ly’. Both are pronounced the same (‘y’). It is due to the former Hungarian letter ‘ly’ that we still write it in modern Hungarian, and now because of traditional reasons that we use both of them in written language. Do not worry! It is hard for Hungarians, too, to learn what to write with j and ly.

Hotel phrases:

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These sentences and questions are typical when you are arriving or leaving your Hungarian hotel. If you try to learn and memorise them, with the help of the vowel and consonant pronunciation tips above, you will succeed at your Hungarian hotel. 😉

Other useful expressions:

Which room?: Melyik szoba?

Room with one bed: Egyágyas szoba

Room with double bed: Franciaágyas szoba