Is Hungarian even more difficult than Chinese?

Question

I will probably need to learn Hungarian in the future. I've heard that it's a very hard language, even more complicated than Chinese. What's your opinion?

Answer 1

The Hungarian language does many things that English and Mandarin don't do (there is no such language as "Chinese"--the most common Chinese language is Mandarin). For example, there are at least a dozen different cases on Hungarian nouns. Mandarin and English use word order to mark these things: hegy = "mountain", hegyben = "in the mountain", hegybe = "into the mountain", hegybo"l = "out of the mountain", hegyen = "on the mountain", hegyro"l = "off of the mountain", hegyra = "onto the mountain", etc. Verbs are equally complicated: fut = he runs, futok = I run, futol = "you run", futott = he ran, futhat = he can run, futat = he makes someone else run, etc. In addition, you mark verbs different if the direct object is definite or not: Olvasok levelet "I am reading a letter, Olvasom a levelet "I am reading the letter". Hungarian is a fun language to learn, but it is not easy and speaking it well is very difficult. Reading it is easier than reading Chinese, but speaking is another matter entirely.

THANKS FOR THE CORRECTIONS, ZOLTA: My Hungarian is rusty. I learned it over 20 years ago and have, sadly, only spent two weeks "in country" since then.

Answer 2

Is Hungarian Hard To Learn

Answer 3

Hello to you Marinika,
Let me tell you what I think the perfect approach is to learn the Hungarian language.

The basics are extremely important.
You should always start learning from the base.
I agree with Taivo and Oregfiu as well the motivation is indispensable.
You should know we as Hungarians will respect your efforts in learning our language for sure.

Tell me in English what would you like to be able to tell ,to talk about in Hungarian.

You have the examples then. After that you should find a person who explains the Hungarian grammar of those sentences.
After that you only need to practice the language.

Let's start the journey.

to Taivo: you made some mistake
"hegyre" in place of "hegyra" because of the wovel Harmony
"futsz"in place of "futol" because it does not end with either -s, -sz, -z.

Anyway I wouldn't say these mistakes are anoying.I would say if you use them correctly you can get closer to come to know how solid and living structure the Hungarian language is.

I wish you All the best,
Zolta from Hungary

"keep your tools handy"

Answer 4

You can surely learn Hungarian if you have a strong motivation.

To learn Hungarian is more difficult than to learn most of other European languages.

But it is not more difficult for you than to learn English for Hungarians. And many Hungarians do speak English.

One of my friends learned Hungarian when he was about 30. His only motivation was to understand his mother-in-law who doesn't speak any other language. Few years later this my friend worked as a foreign reporter in Budapest.

I speak better English than Russian, though I have no any formal English education and I have learned Russian for many years at school. So motivation really matters.

Maybe you will find this link useful:
http://www.nyariegyetem.hu/

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Answer 5

Chinese is definitely not the easiest to learn, but it must be the most necessary for us to learn. We in the West need to make more of an effort to understand China - after all, we’re surrounded by stuff that’s made there! Check this site to learn more about learning Chinese http://www.learnchinese.bj.cn/