Reviews (8)

Teach Yourself Hungarian Complete Course Audiopack
Good beginner materail I beleive. The audio helps learn pronunciation very effectively. The audio moves quickly which is a bit of a pain to have to keep going over again but it goes the speed of how hungarians speak so I guess its okay.

Great book
The book does just what it promises....you really understand the basics of the language in few days....

Teach Yourself Hungarian Complete Course Audiopack
I have really enjoyed the lessons and learning Hungarian. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Audio Adult: Language    2. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    3. Foreign Language Study    4. Hungarian    5. Hungarian Language    6. Foreign Language Study / Hungarian   

Reviews (2)

just awesome
The approach to language learning used in this book is so perfectly geared to self-study (and for many people, language acquisition in general) that it's really difficult to understand why there aren't more books like this out there. Instead of offering yet another textbook piled up with randomly thrown-together dialogues followed by a vocabulary list and some grammar practice here and there, Hungarian with Ease presents a surprisingly effective system where the basics of the language essentially fall into place for the student through the use of extremely well-designed conversations and examples.
The best alternative to going to Budapest!
Let's face it....Hungarian isn't easy! We can't really relate it to other languages (unless you speak Finnish...yeah right!!) But if you are ready to learn, Assimil does a great job of unravelling this puzzle which isHungarian. The tapes do an impeccable job of helping you grasp thephonetics and intonations (VERY important). The translations are done incorrect english so you understand and many times as word for wordtranslations as well so you develop a sense of word order (also VERYimportant). Every unclear detail is explained in notes at the bottom of thepage so you're never lost. Grammar is introduced gradually so as to notoverwhelm the student. Text is practical, realistic and USEFUL! Beingobjective, the lessons can be a bit much towards the middle. There's a lotto learn! English and Hungarian have almost NOTHING in common. You can'tget around that! Take it slowly! It will come. it's the next best thing tohaving a private tutor! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Audio Adult: Language    2. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    3. Hungarian   

Reviews (13)

good
This book is good if you have studied hunagarian fo months. There are not to many examles and if you know and love grammer and thinks it is easy than you will understand it. But if you do not understand grammer you will be sitting with a dictionary the whole time and looking up what an indefinate verb and things like tha are. Over all it is good you just have to spend alot of time wih it to understand it

Best for Advanced Students
This is clearly advanced material and not for the faint of heart. It's also pretty dry - reminds me of old English grammar books that were quite rote and abstract. Not particularly helpful for beginning Hungarian students.

Absolutely essential for the serious Hungarian student
Torkenczy's the Man.I don't see how anybody could master Hungarian without this book.Torkenczy has simplified Hungarian grammar to its core essentials, and provided lots of lists of verb conjugation and the like that are invaluable for the serious student.
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Subjects:  1. Dictionaries - General    2. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    3. Foreign Language Study    4. Grammar    5. Hungarian    6. Hungarian language    7. Language    8. Self-instruction    9. Foreign Language Study / Hungarian    10. Grammar & vocabulary    11. Grammar, syntax, linguistic structure    12. Hungarian (Magyar)    13. Ural-Altaic & Hyperborean Languages   

Reviews (2)

A good way to brush up on Hungarian
I took one term of Hungarian in college, and I've been to Hungary a few times (but only for a few days each time).So I tried getting this book to relearn some of the language before going back to Hungary this year.It helped me do just that, and I was able to converse with plenty of non-English speaking Hungarians.This is a well-written book.
Excellent New Hungarian Phrasebook!
Well, I am a native speaker of Hungarian myself, so I was quite curious to see this book.
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Subjects:  1. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    2. Former Soviet Republics    3. General    4. Hungarian    5. Multi-Language Phrasebooks    6. Reference    7. Serbian & Croatian    8. Travel    9. Former Soviet Union, USSR (Europe)    10. Hungarian (Magyar)    11. Language self-study & phrasebooks   

Reviews (5)

An essential buy
You need all the help you can get when trying to learn Hungarian and it is hard to imagine a better grammar than this one. It is very complete yet all explanations are perfectly clear - no jargon - and accompanied by straightforward examples. The general layout is first-rate: answers to the many problems of learning are easy to find thanks to good chapter layout and a comprehensive index.

The best for Hungarian grammar
I found this book to be amazingly useful after I had mastered the basics. It clears up a lot of rules and exceptions that other books tend to glaze over. I've heard people complain that it uses too much linguistic jargon, but guess what: you don't need to know what a linguist calls something to know how to use it. It would be difficult to use starting out, in that it does assume you know quite a bit off the bat.
magellan may be a little misguided but the book is excellent
this book is a fairly decent descriptive grammar of the hungarian language. as a person who has studied the finnish language at length and now dabbles in some of the other uralic languages like sami and hungarian, this book is easy to use if you already have a rather clear picture of the linguistics of this language family. turkish, although in possession of vowel harmony, is not a member of the uralic language family, as magellan suggests - it is an altaic language family member. research has been done to show that these two language families are in fact one, but so far the evidence has been inconclusive. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    2. Foreign Language Study    3. General    4. Grammar    5. Hungarian    6. Hungarian language    7. Language    8. Linguistics    9. Grammar & vocabulary    10. Hungarian (Magyar)    11. Language Arts & Disciplines / Reference   

Reviews (4)

In-Flight Hungarian:Learn Before You Land
It's great!I learned quite a few Hungarian words in just a few days.

Basic & Elementry words to help you get by
20 page booklet, accompanied with a CD. This booklet contains the basic essential words/phrases you'll need to communicate, but I wish they had some more.
Helpful
I'm planning to visit Hungary, and bought this to learn a few words and phrases for communication with the locals. Hungarian isn't an easy language, but I listen to the cd in the car on the way to work and am slowly picking it up. I like the fact that they include a small booklet that lists all the material covered in the cd (includes phonetics).
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Subjects:  1. Audio - Language    2. Audio Adult: Language    3. Europe - General    4. Foreign Language Study    5. Hungarian    6. Hungarian language    7. Polyglot Phrasebooks    8. Self-instruction    9. Sound recordings for English speakers    10. Spoken Hungarian    11. Foreign Language Study / Hungarian   

Subjects:  1. Dictionaries    2. Dictionaries, Polyglot    3. Music    4. Music/Songbooks    5. Polyglot    6. Reference   

Reviews (3)

was way too complicated for our purposes
it was supposed to be "colloquial" but was very complicated for our eight college students to use. They attempted pre-study and also did some work during our orientation, but even the Hungarian-speaking leader found it extremely difficult to grasp. we are looking for something better now.

Brings an impossible language within reach.
I studied from Erika Solyom's book while studying in Budapest, Hungary.For me, learning the Hungarian language seemed to be a very intimidating task, but Colloquial Hungarian made the process much easier, even fun.The characters, dialogues, cultural items and poetry included in the book expose the reader to Hungarian culture which helped me have a deeper understanding of the Hungarian lanuage.I strongly recommend this book.

Better than Teach Yourself Hungarian
This book is easy to follow, doesn't overcrowd the pages with information, is written with humour and encourages the student along the way. I do not have the audio cassettes for this book, however I would definitely recommend you purchase them too, as listening to foreign speakers and trying to imitate their accent is essential when learning a foreign language, especially one like Hungarian where intonation and stress are so important.Read more

Subjects:  1. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    2. Foreign Language Study    3. Hungarian    4. Language    5. Foreign Language Study / Hungarian    6. Hungarian (Magyar)    7. Language learning: audio-visual & multimedia   

Subjects:  1. English as a Second Language    2. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    3. Foreign Language Study    4. General    5. Language    6. Multi-Language Phrasebooks    7. Slavic Languages (Other)    8. Foreign Language Study / General    9. Indo-European Languages    10. Language self-study & phrasebooks   

Subjects:  1. Dictionaries - General    2. Reference   

Reviews (2)

Best Option, Best Value
Akademiai Kiado is the top publisher in Hungary, and they've staked their investment wisely. Your other options are few, but you'll discover yourself well-pleased after digging deep into this dictionary.
Don't buy any other Hungarian dictionary.
The Orsz�gh L�szl� dictionaries are hands down the best.You could practically acquire a reading and writing knowledge of the language just from these dictionaries, because the example sentences and idiomatic constructions are so rich.There is also an appendix with a thorough investigation of all the suffixes (or case endings) used in Hungarian, which is enormously helpful for the beginning learner.Get the concise version (K�zisz�t�r) which comes in 1 volume H-E, one volume E-H and then graduate to Orsz�gh's Comprehensive (Nagysz�t�r) which is 2 volumes each way--not as handy for quick reference, but VERY, VERY thorough. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Dictionaries    2. English language    3. Hungarian    4. Hungarian Language    5. Language    6. Bilingual dictionaries    7. Hungarian (Magyar)   

Editorial Review

That high school French or Spanish isn't going to do you an iota of good in most of Eastern Europe. Bulgarian, Czech, Polish, and Slovak are all members of the Slavonic language family, while Hungarian is a unique European language with Finno-Ugric roots (which don't grow out). English is a good bet in many cities, and knowing some German helps in the Czech Republic, but nothing wins goodwill like an attempt in the native tongue, no matter how mangled your grammar and pronunciation. In Read more

Reviews (4)

Helpful and not too weighty
We purchased the phrasebook for a trip to Translyvania, an area where both Romanian and Hungarian are spoken. While not perfect, it was a great help in deciphering menus. Just be ready to take your time to find what you need. You will find a few English speakers in small towns, but don't count on finding them in every situation.

Don't bother
If you're going to a major city in Eastern Europe, say Prague or Budapest, don't bother with this book. Almost everyone there speaks English anyway so to the extent that you need to learn phrases like "thank you", "please", etc. just to be polite, you can use the language index from a regular old guidebook like Fodors. Even if you do go out into the country, you won't be able to use much more that what's in the guidebooks anyway. After all, a few key phrases and lots of pointing and smiling will get you farther than being able to say "You should visit us in Scotland sometime when you're in the area". And you'll never ever ever understand anything that's said back to you based on a book like this. The motto "Don't just sit there, say something" is meaningless. Sure I can phonetically babble all the mumbo jumbo I want, but that doesn't mean that I can actually communicate something with someone in Eastern Europe in their language. And we couldn't find how to ask for the check in a restaurant anywhere in this book, which is one of those useful phrases when you head to places like this.

In Hungary and Romania this Book was Completely Useless
This is NOT the phrase book that you want to buy for your trip. The best thing that can be said about it is that it is compact and fits into apocket or small bag easily. The layout of the book is its biggest problem.The people at Lonely Planet need to go back and try to use it themselves.The sections on food are incredibly limited and gives only a few of thedishes that appears on most menus. Take my advice -- save your money andcarry a book that has a little more substance even if it doesn't fit inyour front pocket. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    2. Foreign Language Study    3. Hungarian    4. Language    5. Polish    6. Polyglot Phrasebooks    7. Slavic Languages    8. Albanian    9. Bulgarian    10. Eastern Europe    11. Hungarian (Magyar)    12. Language self-study & phrasebooks    13. Romanian    14. Slavic (Slavonic) languages   

Reviews (1)

Good little book
This book is small and compact and had plenty of travel type words and phrases in it.Though some of the words and phrases are ones I would never use, I know that would be true of any phrase book.The good is it is small and easy to use.The bad is I didn't feel some of the phrases and words for traveling were that useful.For example "what's the next station?" if you can't figure that one out then you shouldn't be traveling.A better phrase would be "what's the next stop" then it would apply to all forms of travel, bus, train and metro and would be more helpful. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    2. General    3. Language    4. Polyglot Phrasebooks    5. Reference - General    6. Translating & Interpreting    7. Travel    8. Central Europe    9. Czech    10. German    11. Hungarian (Magyar)    12. Language self-study & phrasebooks    13. Polish    14. Slovak    15. Slovenian   

Reviews (1)

Hungarian Practical Dictionary
We purchased this book as a gift for my Mother.She had taken Hungarian lessons as a young girl growing up in Pennsylvania and had friends and relatives to speak Hungarian to until about 20 years ago.This book was purchased for her to use on an upcoming trip we are making this summer to Hungary.She is so pleased with the book's content that she read it cover to cover reacquainting herself with words she hasn't used in years.She would rate this book five stars. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Dictionaries    2. English    3. English language    4. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    5. Foreign Language Study    6. Hungarian    7. Hungarian language    8. Language    9. Miscellaneous    10. Bilingual dictionaries    11. Hungarian (Magyar)   

Reviews (2)

Great to have when visiting several countries.
I took this book with me when I travelled in Europe. I never intended to learn any of the languages included (croatian romanian, russian, slovenian, etc), yet when I needed to say something in any of those languages, I would just read it (or point it out) and the people became really helpful to see I was doing a big effort, and they even tried to reply in English! If you just need the languages to get around, this book is really good (and has the ideal size too!) If you intend to learn any of these languages, this is not the book for you.

Useful when crossing a lot of borders
Have you spent time crossing the borders of Central and Eastern Europeancountries fumbling around for the right currency?Languages can be almostas frustrating.Read more

Subjects:  1. Conversation and phrase books    2. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    3. Hungarian    4. Language    5. Languages, Modern    6. Polyglot Phrasebooks    7. Polyglot glossaries, phrase books, etc    8. Slavic Languages    9. Language self-study & phrasebooks    10. Usage guides   

Subjects:  1. Dictionaries - General    2. Reference   

Reviews (5)

Grat help!
I had a business trip to Hungary in June 2005. I was there for 2 weeks and Just Enough Hungarian was a huge help.I used it in conjunction with another guide and was able to have a great and successful trip.

Title Says It All!
I must agree with the other reviews that while this book is adequate for survival, it is no more than that.
"Just Enough" is right.
Well, it does what it sets out to do. If you're looking for a quick, rough and very practical guide to speaking Hungarian, this is it. It is, above all, practical. You won't be able to chat with anyone, butyou will be able to ask about the location of just about anywhere or when things are open or closed or just about any other travel-related issue. Each of the chapters is divided up by when you are likely to need certain phrases. So there's a hotel/accomadations section, a restaurant/market section, etc. And, very useful, the book also gives possible answers and translations. With this book, if you encounter someone who doesn't speak English, you'll be able to get your questions answered.
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Subjects:  1. Conversation and phrase books    2. Dictionaries - General    3. English    4. Foreign Language Study    5. Hungarian    6. Hungarian language    7. Language    8. Study Guides    9. Foreign Language Study / Hungarian    10. Hungarian (Magyar)    11. Language teaching & learning material & coursework   

Reviews (4)

Missing the Pronunciation of Hungarian words
Because the Hungariqan alphabet and especially the pronunciation is different from English, it it a must to have next to each Hungarian word or phrase, its pronunciation - and this book it missing it!
Not Very Detailed
I bought this book to help me translate messages and Hungarian ancestral documents for my genealogical research. This book is has very limited vocabulary. I am currently searching for a better more comprehensive Hungarian/English dictionary. Spend more money and buy a better book.

It helps when off the beaten (Anglophone) track
All I can say is that when in provincial Hungary, an English-speaker is not necessarily found. This portable phrasebook and simple dictionary serves the purpose, and using it, I was able to communicate in a limited fashion, along with gestures and smiles. The price and size are right, and it'll help you navigate in a part of Europe that still may expect German or even Russian speakers more often than intrepid and often mono-lingual Anglophones. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Conversation and phrase books    2. Dictionaries    3. English    4. English language    5. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    6. Foreign Language Study    7. Hungarian    8. Hungarian language    9. Language    10. Polyglot Dictionaries    11. Bilingual dictionaries    12. Hungarian (Magyar)    13. Language self-study & phrasebooks   

Reviews (7)

Fairly concise but very poorly bound
If poor binding seems a little unfair then imagine what a 2 language dictionary is used for.Constant research to communicate.We bought 2 of these and they pretty much had the pages falling out of both within 1 week and we did not handle them roughly.I am buying more dictionarys but of another brand.These are too poorly bound to stand up to any reasonable use.
Best Small Dictionary
This dictionary is the perfect size for traveling. It offers a wide array of words in both English and Hungarian, plus helpful information on pronunciation, basic grammar and conversions. Highly recommend it for beginners.

you could do better
If you're traveling as a tourist, this dictionary should be adequate for your needs.The dictionary is what it is: concise.However, as a student studying Hungarian, I feel that a volume that encompasses more would better serve the purpose of a reference book.As the book has only 10,000 words, I found many gaps when I went to look up a word in Hungarian or to try to find the Hungarian translation of an English word.A handy quick reference, but be sure that that's all you need it for. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Dictionaries    2. English    3. English language    4. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    5. Hungarian    6. Hungarian Language    7. Polyglot Dictionaries    8. Reference    9. Bilingual dictionaries    10. Language & Linguistics    11. Ural-Altaic & Hyperborean Languages   

Features

• Audiobook

Subjects:  1. Audio Adult: Language    2. Foreign Language Study / Hungarian    3. Hungarian (Magyar)    4. Language teaching & learning material & coursework