In this video we’re going to look at false friends between Hungarian and English.
If we’re meeting for the first time, my name’s Alister. On this
channel we’ve all types of advice, lessons and tips about English,
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A false friend is a word that is regularly confused with a word in another language
because the two words look or sound similar. In Hungarian they are called hamis barátai.
For example, this word in English (chat) means to talk casually with
someone whereas in French it is spelt the same, pronounced (chat) and means cat.
So why Hungarian?
The Hungarian language, or magyar nyelv, is a Finno Ugric language,
along with Finnish and Estonian and is the official language of the country of Hungary,
known as Magyarország. It is one of the 24 official languages of the EU, the European Union.
It has 13 million native speakers worldwide, many living in the regions of the neighbouring
countries of Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Austria and The Ukraine.
In my experience knowing these false friends helps
Hungarian speakers learning English and English speakers learning Hungarian.
Let’s kick things off with an extremely important one:
Láger and Lager
A Láger is a Concentration Camp - terrible places where people were deliberately imprisoned because
of their nationality, their political or their religious beliefs. They usually had
to live in an exceptionally small area and had to endure horrific conditions,
often without food or water or somewhere to sleep. They often had to do intense manual labour and
unfortunately it often ended in mass execution. Perhaps Auschwitz is one of the most infamous.
On the other hand a Lager is a type of beer.
This next one could lead to some very funny conversations and is
thankfully more light-hearted than the first false friend.
Farmer and Farmer
Farmer translates as Jeans, whereas a Farmer is someone who works in a field - perhaps wearing
a pair of jeans which would confuse things even more. In Hungarian, this is Földműves.
Next, we have a rather common error as the
meanings are similar and it’s a very easy mistake to make:
Dekád and Decade
A Dekád is a Period of 10 days whereas a Decade is a period of 10 years. In Hungarian, Évtized.
You can see how this could lead to confusion - imagine this conversation
between Hungarian parents at their local school in the UK.
“We’re new in the area, we’ve only been here for a
decade and we're looking for a new school for our child.”
“Sorry, you’ve been here a decade?”
“Yes, we’ve only just arrived and everything seems new.”
You understand the confusion. The bottom line is that false friends
and the confusion that comes from them are really important.
Our fourth false friends are: Deviza and Device
Deviza is Foreign Currency, money that does not come from your own country.
A Device is an object or machine that has been invented for a particular purpose or use.
This next one might be my favourite in the whole video.
Impregnál and Impregnate
If you Impregnál something you Waterproof it,
you don’t allow water through it. This is essential for any camping trip in the UK.
However, if you Impregnate something it’s quite the opposite - you allow it to absorb water, to
take water in, it's quite the opposite - precisely what you don’t want to do on a wet camping trip!
Impregnate can of course also mean to make a woman or a female animal pregnant.
By the way, this video is part of my false friends series. I'll put a
link to the playlist up here and I'll also include it below in the YouTube
description so make sure to check it out after you’ve watched this video.
Next we have:
Keksz and Cakes
Keksz are Biscuits, like these, whereas Cakes look something like
these. Both tasty, of course. What's your favourite, biscuits or cakes?
Our 7th false friend is another one that's really easy to confuse.
Mappa and Map
A Mappa is a Folder and a map is a map - Térkép, in Hungarian.
Be careful - if you’re lost and looking for directions,
a Mappa will not help you. What you need is a map, or your phone and good internet connection.
Now, this one matters if you’re interested in food,
especially following a recipe in a foreign language.
Paszta and Pasta
Paszta does not mean Pasta, it translates as Paste, which you may
well use in your Pasta so you can see the confusion, be very careful with this one.
If you know any more false friends between Hungarian and English, comment them below.
Lektor and Lecture
A Lektor is either a Lecturer or a Proofreader, a person who checks
texts before they're printed or put online, a Proofreader. A lecture is a formal talk,
usually when only one person speaks, often to groups of students in university.
I really like this last one.
Masszív and Massive
Masszív translates as Sturdy (something that is physically strong and unlikely to be broken,
often because it is solid). On the other hand, if something is Massive it is just extremely large.
For more false friends between English and other languages,
check out some of these videos - we've got Russian, Spanish, French and German.
Thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you in one of these videos.