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- Topic: Hungarian >
- "Én kérem a nagy telefont."
17 Comments
375
In the recording for this, it is very hard to pick out the "nagy". It sounds like there is an edit in the recording at this point.
- 408
In English when you say "I want (something)" it can come across quite impolite/demanding/rude - is there a word in Hungarian that expresses the impolite/demanding/rude "want" (as oppsed to the polite "would like (something)")? Thanks!
- 725
That would be akar.
Én akarom a nagy telefont.
Side note: akar sounds rude if you're asking for things, but it's good if you use it to express that you want to do things: "Akarok táncolni" - "I want to dance."
Argh! I get in a rush and I forget that the Hungarian word "a" does not translate to "a/an" in English!
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but is the verb "kérem" (not sure what the infinitive is - "kérni"? The one from the early phrases lesson we used for ordering food for example?) related to the word for "looking for (s.th./s.o.)"?
- 725
It's not a stupid question. Kér(ni) means "to ask for" and keres(ni) is "to look for". They are not immediately related with each other, but they likely come from the same root. Etymologic work for Hungarian is a bit difficult since the language family is rather small and spread out, but the entry for keres in the Etimológiai Szótár says the following: "[...] In another aspect, the root in question is identical with that of the verb "kér"; the interdependency of their meanings is shown in some examples in related languages."
Köszönöm szépen! :) I just love to learn as much about the background and etymology of a language as I possibly can. Helps me remembering complicated details - which is kinda necessary for Hungarian... ;)
My question too, so NO I don't think it is stupid and thanks for asking!
- 725
Nicola, kerem is the definite conjugation. You need that if the direct object of that verb is a specific item. Here we're talking about one specific phone, so we use the definite form.
