As a native IE speaker, did you learn some non-IE language or do you know something in such tounge?

[Rethel]

I know one song in hungarian and the first sentence from the Bible in hebrew.

[Porn Master]

non-IE languages are very difficult for IE native speakers

[brennus dux gallorum]

Is the word malakas ie? Cause I think it resembles you r1aethele

Just joking, anyway

[Rethel]

non-IE languages are very difficult for IE native speakers

Not at all.
When I was reading about hebrew or hungarian grammar it is quite easy.
Hungarian pronouciacion was not a problem for me at all.

[Porn Master]

Not at all.
When I was reading about hebrew or hungarian grammar it is quite easy.
Hungarian pronouciacion was not a problem for me at all.

how difficult is it to learn Hungarian


Hungarian Noun Genders & Plurals

Why are they hard? – They aren’t, see below!
Why are they easy? – So you can breathe a sigh of relief, there are no noun genders in Hungarian, so that’s one less thing to learn. Incidentally you’ll probably notice Hungarian’s refer to their sister or girlfriend as a ‘he’. Don’t worry though, you get used to it after a while.
Hungarian plurals aren’t too difficult either. In English we have “s”, Hungarian has “k”. Just remember, if the word ends in a vowel then the vowel gets an accent. Is it possessive? Well change it to “i” before the ending possessive letter.



Hungarian Verbs & Conjugations

Why are they hard? – There are quite a few rules to get your head around. Definite and indefinite conjugations might confuse you a little as well as a few instances of irregular verbs. Overall though, it’s not nearly as bad as some other popular languages.

Oh and watch out for the definite and indefinite conjugations which is something that is unique to the Hungarian language – there are a few rules you need to follow.
Why are they easy? – If it’s any consolation , with the exception of ‘lenni’ (to be) there are only actually 2 tenses in Hungarian – past and present (which really should be called ‘not past’ because it can also be used to express the future) – so you can forget about getting your perfect and continuous confused. This in turn means that conjugation tables for Hungarian are a little less scary than other languages.






Hungarian Cases

Why are they easy? – Cases in Hungarian are formed by adding different suffixes to the end of words. It’s tough because, depending on who you ask, there are up to 35 of them, although you only really use 18 of them.
Learning them is a chore and probably one of the hardest parts of getting to grips with Hungarian. The best way is to get a chart of them and learn one by one. Start with the ones you think you’ll use most often and build from there.
Why are they easy? – Some of the cases are simple. Take the accusative for example, you just add “t” to the end of the word. And thanks to the lack of gender and easy plural rules, there are far less case variations than in some of the nearby slavic languages.




Hungarian Phonetics

Why are they hard? – Hungarian has a lot of vowels, 14 to be precise, and they all have subtle differences in pronunciation which can be tough to master. Luckily they break down into 7 pairs of long and short vowels. Still you might find yourself getting some odd looks from locals when you first start learning.
Why are they easy? – Once you’ve learned the vowel sounds, pretty much everything in Hungarian is say it as your see it. You just have to remember a few simple rules:
>”sz” is pronounced as “s”.
“s” is pronounced as “sh”.
“c” is pronounced as “ts” (think “hats”).
“cs” is pronounced as “ch” (think “cheese”).
“j” is pronounced as “y”.
“zs” is pronounced like the French “j” (think “leisure”).
And finally, most famously, “gy” is pronounced “dy” (think “during”) leading to the lovely sound of the word ‘Magyar” (which means “Hungarian”)





Hungarian Vocabulary

Why is it hard? – As we discussed earlier, Hungarian isn’t in the same language family as the rest of Europe. As a result its words don’t have the benefit of a rich Latin and Greek background that make some words in English, French, Italian and Spanish quite recognisable compared to each other.
Hungarian has a lot of words that mean roughly the same thing (doesn’t mean they use them all though!) and word are constructed by sticking other words together and sticking further bits on the end. This can be intimidating for some people but really it’s just all those prepositions and possessives getting stuck on the end. Locals may try and scare you by giving you the example of the longest word in Hungarian: megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért, however the meaning of said word is so ridiculously obscure, most Hungarians can’t even explain it properly.

Why is it easy? – Luckily its position in the centre of Europe means that Hungary has had a lot of visitors over the centuries and it’s taken on plenty of loan words in the process. Look around on menus and shop signs and you’ll start to notice a few. Here’s a list of 500 to get you started.

[Ülev]

yep, suomen kieli, I lived in Helsinki

[Porn Master]

megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért

[Ülev]

megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért

Valami nagyon furcsa történik Oroszországban

[Antimage]

megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért

Theoritically that word is possible but no one ever says that IRL, that is a ridiculous word and its usage isn't justified in any context. It's grammatically ok but semantically? Not really.

[Antimage]

Here is me saying that faggot word: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1AaYT5T1w27