"Ez telefon vagy lámpa?"

Translation: Is this a telephone or a lamp?

[DillonReyn]

I see how this could be confusing.

[amadalena]

2 questions related to this sentence.

1. Does vagy have multiple meanings?
2. is this wrong? "Ez egy telefon vagy ez egy lámpa" If so, why?

Köszönöm!

[hatcher]

1. Yes, "vagy" has 2 meanings. 'you are' and 'or'.
2. It's perfectly correct, just a little too verbose for people to say it that way.

[fmk64]

Hungarians wouldn't say it that way. Check the original English question: 'this' is not repeated there either. 'Ez egy telefon vagy egy lámpa?' is better, more parsimonious. But everybody would understand it.

[JulesSchul1]

Why is this "a telephone or a lamp" and not "the telephone or the lamp". There is no "egy" in front of either word to determine "a lamp"??

[SylviaShines]

That's a great question. I didn't even think of that and just put "A telephone" and "A lamp". It was correct but there is no distinction for that. Hmm.

[flootzavut]

Is there a distinction between this or that in Hungarian?

[david.altmayer]

ez = this

az = that

[flootzavut]

Ahhh okay. So az means 'that' as well as being 'the' in front of a vowel?

[david.altmayer]

Yes

[AnCatDubh]

How is gy pronounced? It sounds like English y here.

[James947056]

It's kind of a dy sound mostly, with a little j in the middle.

[david.altmayer]

You've stumbles upon one of the biggest difficulties of beginning Hungarian (other than vowel harmony, but we won't talk about that yet :p )

[RowanM.1]

This sentence reminds me of one of the things my parents and I brought back from two years of living in the United States, quite a few years ago now: a Mickey Mouse telephone that doubled as a lamp! And it got regular use in both capacities. I don't know whether Hungary has ever had such phones, though.

[kdstimps]

Does the pronunciation of gy always change if it is before an L - like vagy lámpa? What exactly is the pronounciation there?

[GrubbaFong]

Another practical phrase, sure to be used often. Like, "Is this a language study aid or a hippo?"

[pordini]

• Is this coffee or borscht?

[Plantersnigel]

Isn't the "Ez" pronounced wrongly by the recorded voice? It sounds like "esz" would sound in Hungarian.

[Diana20200000]

En ezen kiégtem

[Boo498233]

Vagy sounds far too much like van here imo
I knew the sentence only made sense with vafy but I put van due to it sounding like that on multiple relistens

[lucrycrys]

I find this very difficult...just started and so far: az is' that' and 'the', vagy is 'or' and 'are', IS is dropped in a sentence(not dropped but not there), egy is dropped in this example, and this is just the first lesson...