To say the time in Hungarian is not so difficult but there are more options and sometimes your dog also can help you...;)

1. Easy way

___óra____perc

óra/hour

perc/minute

4.25= 4 óra 25 perc / négy óra huszonöt perc

12.10= 12 óra 10 perc / tizenkét óra tíz perc

2. More complicated

4.15 = negyed öt

negyed -quarter

3.30 = fél négy

fél = half

5.45 = háromnegyed hat

háromnegyed = three quarter

When we use this forms we never say "óra" after the time!

3. Advanced way 

        9.55= 5 perc múlva 10 óra

_____ perc múlva ____

11.10= 5 perc múlva negyed tizenkettő

20.24= 6 perc múlva fél kilenc 

10.05= 5 perccel múlt 10 óra

_____ perccel múlt _____

Friday 13 it’s an unlucky day. But why?

 According to Catholic belief the crucifixion of Jesus Christ took place on 13th of Friday, the day after the Last Supper – involving thirteen participants – on Thursday.

 Leonardo da Vinci’s paint: The last supper, it shows 13 people around the table.

 Chaucer made reference to the apparent unluckiness of the day, recording in his Canterbury Tales that it was bad luck to start a journey or a project on a Friday.

 One of the most popularised myths attempting to explain the origin of the Friday 13 superstition stems from events on Friday 13 October 1307, when hundreds of Knights Templar were arrested and burnt across France.

In Hungary there are different bad luck superstitions:

1. Fekete macska átmegy előtted – black cat is crossing your path
2. Törött tükör - Broken mirror
3. Törött szemüveg - Broken glasses
4. Kiömlött a só – Spilled salt
5. Átmegy a létra alatt – Walk under the ladder

 Synonims for unlucky:

Balszerencsés, szerencsétlen, peches, nyomorult, végzetes, balsorsú, balfácán

Hiszel a babonákban? Do you believe in the superstitions?

MÁJUS ELSEJE (1st of May)

- Mikor nem dolgozunk?

- Május elsején nem dolgozunk.

MUNKA - After this noun you can add different suffixes: munkák (works), munkám (my work) munkáim (my works), munkát (accusative), munkával (with work), munkában (in the work), munkából (from the work)...

Conjugation of dolgozik (he works):

Idioms:

A munka dicséri mesterét.
The works praises its master.

Ég a keze alatt a munka.
Work is burning under his hand. (‚He works like fury.‘)

 Elmenne a munka temetésére.
He would attend the funeral of labour. (‚He is utterly reluctant to work.')

Hamar munka ritkán jó.
A hasty work is seldom good.

Jó munkához idő kell.
For good work time is needed.

Munka után édes a pihenés.
After work rest is sweet.

Büdös a munka. Smelly work. (‚If someone doesn’t like to work‘)

Aki dolgozik, az nem ér rá pénzt keresni.
He who works has no time to earn money. (‚If a job is hard and little paid, then one can not earn additionally in a second job.')

Aki nem dolgozik, ne is egyék.
He that does not work, shall not eat either.

In Hungarian 'mother' means ANYA. In Hungary we celebrate the mother's day on the first Sunday of May. But other countries have different date for this. 

Synonyms of 'anya':

édesanya, anyu, mama, anyuka

Birtokos / Possesive:

József Attila - Mama

Már egy hete csak a mamára
gondolok mindíg, meg-megállva.
Nyikorgó kosárral ölében,
ment a padlásra, ment serényen.

Én még őszinte ember voltam,
ordítottam, toporzékoltam.
Hagyja a dagadt ruhát másra.
Engem vigyen föl a padlásra.

Csak ment és teregetett némán,
nem szidott, nem is nézett énrám
s a ruhák fényesen, suhogva,
keringtek, szálltak a magosba.

Nem nyafognék, de most már késő,
most látom, milyen óriás ő -
szürke haja lebben az égen,
kékítőt old az ég vizében.

Attilla József - Mother.

For a week now, again and again,
Thoughts of my mother have racked my brain.
Gripping a basket of washing fast,
On, and up to the attic she passed.

And I was frank and released my feeling
In stamps and yells to bring down the ceiling.
Let someone else have the bulging jackets,
Let her take me with her up to the attic.

She just, giving me no look or thrashing,
Went on, and in silence spread out the washing,
And the kneaded clothes, rustling brightly,
Were twisting and billowing up lightly.

I should not have cried but it's too late for this.
Now I can see what a giant she is.
Across the sky her grey hair flickers through;
In the sky's waters she is dissolving blue.

Translated by Vernon Watkins (http://www.mathstat.dal.ca/)

Every day the people are talking about the weather. If the weather is not so nice, we can make a complain always. 

In Hungarian we have different words for the rain depends on how strong is that.

Rain - eső

It's raining - Esik az eső.

For example if it's raining not so much we can say 'csepereg' or 'csöpög'.

When there is heavy raining we can say 'zuhog' or 'ömlik' in Hungarian.

There are also so many idioms with rain:

Eső után köpönyeg.
After rain (comes) raincoat.
(After meat, mustard.)

Májusi eső aranyat ér.
A rain in May is golden.

Veri az ördög a feleségét.
The devil is beating his wife.
'If it rains when the sun is shining then it is told that…'

What are the most beautiful ten words in Hungarian? Can we really make a list? According to Dezső Kosztolányi, who was a Hungarian writer, he had his own list:
Láng [flame], gyöngy [pearl], anya [mother], ősz [Autumn], szűz [virgin], kard [sword], csók [kiss], vér [blood], szív [heart], sír [grave, cry].

In fact, he even demonstrates that the translation of Paul Valéry's list (pur, jour, or, lac, pic, seul, onde, feuille, mouille, flûte) sounds pretty good in Hungarian as well: Tiszta [pure, clean], nap [day, sun], arany [gold], tó [lake], hegyfok [promonitory, headland],  egyedül [alone], hullám [wave], levél [leaf, letter], csermely [rivulet], fuvola [flute].

But all the lists are very subjective. If we decide what are very beautiful words in Hungarian we can see the meaning of the word and the sound. As for me I really like pillangó -means butterfly, not only because of its sound but the meaning too.

When foreigners were asked by a survey what is their favourite word, what they like, they have said: "cipőfűző" - shoelace.

And what is yours? Do you have it?

1. Very often the students don't pay attention of the vowel harmony rule. To memorize the back and the front vowels there is a trick: memorize that word AUTÓ. This word contains the back vowels. The short and the long vowels are in the same group. Memorize the word TENISZÜTŐ. This word contains the front vowels. 

2. Don't forget to pay attention of the long and short vowels! Very important to memorize the Hungarian words well because if you forget the accent or you put an accent when there is no accent it can change the meaning of the word. For example: agy means brain, ágy means bed. When you want to memorize words use wordcards and also write down the words. The 3rd step try to make short sentences with it.

3. Don't want to know so many words in the same time! Try to learn 10 words but no more! The human brain can memorize easily max. 12-14 words. 

4. Confuse szeret / tetszik. 'szeret' is more an emotional feeling, 'tetszik' is more a visual perception. For instance Peti szeret lovagolni, Peti love to ride a horse, but Petinek tetszik az új film. Peti likes the new movie.

5. Put 'van' or not in the sentence? Very common mistake in the 3rd person form put always the 'to be'. If in the sentence you use the 3rd person form (Ő / Ön) and you put noun or adjective in this case the 'to be' has to be hidden.

Ő szép. - She is beautiful. Here we don't write and we don't say 'is'.

BUT    when you use adverbs in the 3rd person form you have to use it: Ő Rómában van. (Rómában -in Rome, it's an adverb)

6. Nem van or Nincs? In the 3rd person form when you use negative form you must use 'nincs' (isn't) and not van!

Correct: Ő nincs Rómában. He is not in Rome.

Incorrect: Ő nincs van Rómában. 

7. Using plural when there is a number. In the Hungarian language when you use numbers we use the noun in singular form. For instance correct:  4 szék. (four chairs)

incorrect 4 székek.

Use singular form if there is a number. Don't forget number can be also: sok (lot), kevés (few).

8. Forget the accusative suffix. If you use transitive verbs in a sentence it can connect directly to an object. You must ad accusative suffix (-t)  to the noun. 

Correct: Kérek egy pohár vizet.

Incorrect: Kérek egy pohár víz.

9. Szia - Sziasztok! To say Hi! in Hungarian is Szia! It's a singular form.You have to say this to an other person. But if there are more people, you must say Sziasztok! 

10. Hungarian learners sometimes use personal pronouns too much. In English, German and some other languages personal pronouns have to be used every time. In Hungarian personal pronouns are usually left from the sentences, because the conjugation of the verbs exactly shows the number and the person. So personal pronouns are used only in special cases, e.g. when we would like to empasize the subject of the sentence.