Talking about Family

This original conversation takes place during lunch at work. Tamás shows Nóra a family photograph on his phone, and then they compare their families. The dialogue is short enough for A1 learners, but it brings together the suffixes that Hungarian uses where English repeatedly uses my, your, his, and have.

The complete Hungarian dialogue

Nóra: Ő a nővéred a képen?

Tamás: Igen, Eszternek hívják. Harminckét éves, és Győrben él a férjével.

Nóra: Van gyerekük?

Tamás: Igen, két lányuk van. A nagyobbik nyolcéves, a kisebbik öt.

Nóra: És ki áll melletted?

Tamás: Az öcsém, Marci. Huszonhárom éves, és még a szüleinkkel lakik Pécsen.

Nóra: Szép nagy családod van.

Tamás: Neked vannak testvéreid?

Nóra: Igen, egy bátyám van. Londonban dolgozik, de minden vasárnap felhívjuk egymást.

Tamás: A szüleid Magyarországon élnek?

Nóra: Anyukám Debrecenben, apukám pedig Szolnokon él.

Tamás: Mindketten tanárok?

Nóra: Nem. Anyukám orvos, apukám pedig már nyugdíjas.

Idiomatic English translation

Nóra: Is that your older sister in the picture?

Tamás: Yes, her name is Eszter. She's 32 and lives in Győr with her husband.

Nóra: Do they have children?

Tamás: Yes, they have two daughters. The older one is eight; the younger one is five.

Nóra: And who's standing beside you?

Tamás: My younger brother, Marci. He's 23 and still lives with our parents in Pécs.

Nóra: You have a lovely big family.

Tamás: Do you have any brothers or sisters?

Nóra: Yes, I have one older brother. He works in London, but we call each other every Sunday.

Tamás: Do your parents live in Hungary?

Nóra: My mother lives in Debrecen, and my father lives in Szolnok.

Tamás: Are they both teachers?

Nóra: No. My mother is a doctor, and my father is already retired.

The English translation supplies pronouns and forms of be/have that Hungarian leaves unspoken or expresses through suffixes. The Hungarian is not incomplete: person, number, and possession are recoverable from its morphology and context.

Sentence-by-sentence segmentation

The breakdown is intentionally literal so the suffix layers are visible. The full possession system is organized on the singular possessor forms page.

Decision 1: kin terms encode relative age

Hungarian has everyday terms for an older or younger sibling. Nővér is an older sister, húg a younger sister, báty an older brother, and öcs a younger brother. Testvér is the general gender-neutral “sibling.”

English brother does not force the age distinction. If the relative age is unknown or irrelevant, fiútestvér is possible but less conversational; speakers often say simply testvér and clarify later.

Decision 2: possessors live in suffixes

Nővéred contains -ed “your”; öcsém contains -ém “my”; lányuk contains -uk “their.” Hungarian does not need a separate possessive adjective before each noun.

The article a can precede a possessed noun: a nővérem. English speakers sometimes omit the suffix after adding an article, but a nővér means “the older sister,” not “my older sister.”

Decision 3: possessed plurals have their own marker

In testvéreid, -ei- marks multiple possessed siblings and -d marks the second-person singular possessor. Compare testvéred “your sibling” with testvéreid “your siblings.”

Plural gyerekeik does not use ordinary bare plural gyerekek + their. Hungarian builds gyerek-ei-k, and vowel choice depends on the noun's possessive pattern.

Decision 4: possession uses van, not a transitive “have”

Hungarian possession presents the possessed item as existing for a possessor: (nekem) egy bátyám van, literally “to me an older brother-my exists.” The dative possessor can be omitted when context identifies it.

Negative possession uses nincs/nincsenek, not nem van. Number agrees with the possessed noun when it is genuinely plural, but quantified nouns stay singular.

Decision 5: a numeral is followed by singular

Két lányuk van uses singular lány, even though two people are meant. A nagyobbik and a kisebbik then select individuals from that known pair.

The second clause omits both lány and éves because the parallel first clause supplies them. A literal English-style két lányok is ungrammatical.

Decision 6: age has no present-tense copula

Age is expressed as number + éves, with no overt van in third person: Harminckét éves. The subject pronoun is also omitted because the conversation still concerns Eszter.

First and second person require the copula: huszonhárom éves vagyok, hány éves vagy? Third-person harminckét éves van incorrectly copies English is.

Decision 7: omitted subjects remain identifiable

After introducing Eszter, Tamás says Harminckét éves, és Győrben él without ő. The zero copula handles the age predicate, and él is third person. Repeating ő would add contrast, as if distinguishing her from someone else.

The first omitted subject is Nóra's brother. The -juk ending then identifies a first-person plural subject, and accusative egymást supplies the reciprocal object.

Decision 8: predicate nouns and pedig

Present third-person identity predicates omit van: Anyukám orvos, apukám nyugdíjas. Pedig links the second family member with a mild contrast.

The alternative order pedig apukám is possible in a different discourse arrangement, but placing pedig after the contrasted topic apukám is the unmarked pattern here.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Kin terms can distinguish an older from a younger sibling.
• Possessor suffixes attach to the noun; plural possession and case follow in a fixed order.
• Hungarian “have” is dative possessor + possessed noun + van.
• A numeral takes a singular noun: két lányuk van.
• Third-person present age and profession predicates omit van.
• Subjects and repeated predicate material disappear when context and endings keep them recoverable.