Guide to pronounce the most unique Hungarian sounds

Without a doubt, Hungarian is one of the most difficult languages in the world. Besides its complex grammar and vocabulary, foreigners often face obstacles when it comes to the pronunciation of its unique sounds which do not really have equivalents in the other European languages. As Theculturetrip.com reports, Hungarian is a phonetic language, which means that the pronunciation of words corresponds with the written form, and with a little bit of practice, the perfect Hungarian accent is no longer a dream. In the following, you can see the most troublesome sounds and some tricks that help you to improve your knowledge.

Many foreigners complain about the difficulties of Hungarian pronunciation when they start learning the language. In most cases, consonants are responsible for making foreigners’ life difficult, while there are words in which particular vowels cause much trouble. Let’s see the most problematic sounds in the Hungarian alphabet.

The “gy” sound in “magyar”

This is one of the first words that foreigners have to work with while learning the Hungarian language. In fact, Hungarians do not often use this word, only in expressions like “büszke magyarok”, translating to “proud Hungarians” in English.

Anyway, “gy” is undoubtedly a tricky sound. From one side, it is problematic because it is an individual letter of the Hungarian alphabet and its pronunciation is closely similar to that of a soft “j” sound. It is like “juh” in Jerry.

Besides being able to pronounce the name of our nation, you might also want to ask the frequent question, “How are you?”, which translates in Hungarian to “Hogy vagy?”. As you can see, this word contains two “gy” sounds, so do not give up if you do not succeed for the first time 🙂

The “s” sound in “Budapest”

Another interesting sound causing problems is the “s” sound. Many foreigners say the name of the capital as Boo-da-pest which is not completely wrong, and native speakers would understand what you mean, although it is not the proper pronunciation. Firs, the Hungarian “u” is softer. Second, the “s” sound is more like an “sh” sound.

Therefore, the correct pronunciation would be Buhd-oh-pesht. Difficult isn’t it?

The “sz” sound in “szia”

A closely similar sound is the “sz” sound also frequent in everyday conversations. Although some people say “hello” in Hungarian, “szia” or “sziasztok” in plural form is a much better way of greeting someone. If you have visited the capital, you might have also sit into one of the most famous ruin bars of Budapest, the Szimpla, and now you know how to correctly say its name 🙂

The “sz” sound is another single letter of the Hungarian alphabet. The word “snip” in English is actually “sznip” according to the Hungarian phonetics. If you have mastered this sound, there is only one more consonant that might cause some trouble.