Hungarian: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) [Paperback]

Carol H. Rounds (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415226120 | ISBN-13: 978-0415226127 | Publication Date: August 10, 2001

This user-friendly guide to modern Hungarian clearly introduces the most important structures of this fascinating language. Suitable for beginning, intermediate and advanced students, it can be used by those studying independently or following a taught course. Topics include:
* verbal prefixes
* aspect and tense
* word-formation mechanisms
* linking vowels
* the case system and its uses
* word order.
Appendices include the formation of irregular verbs, complete noun declensions and irregular noun patterns.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Carol Rounds has taught Hungarian at Columbia University since 1988.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (August 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415226120
• ISBN-13: 978-0415226127
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,975,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Hungarian
  • #47 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Hungarian > Instruction

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best for Hungarian grammar, December 12, 2005

By 

David Sallay (South Jordan, UT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hungarian: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) (Paperback)

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.

Also, what's all this confusion about cases in other reviews? Anyone who's studied the language would know that most of the so-called 24 "cases" in Hungarian aren't like the cases you'd find in German, Russian, or even English. Case, in a traditional sense, is required by the grammar but doesn't affect meaning. In German the only difference between "Ich liebe du" and "Ich liebe dich" is that the grammar demands you say "dich." The locative cases in Hungarian aren't cases in this traditional sense. There's a difference in meaning between "Megyek a boltBA" and "Megyek a boltBÓL, máshova...", but the grammar doesn't require you use one not the other to make the sentence sound right. If anything, I find Hungarian cases to be easier than German or English, because I don't have to memorize gender variants and they're not there solely for the grammar.

Cases more so differ from postpositions in that they're attached to the word and follow vowel harmony. Every textbook teaches the two separately. I think the book is excellently organized, in that I could easily find whatever topic I was looking for by chapter heading.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential buy, March 13, 2006

By 

Numero Uno - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hungarian: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) (Paperback)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy and complete grammar book, July 9, 2011

By 

gedance (New Carrollton, MD United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hungarian: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) (Paperback)

I have used other Hungarian grammar books (smaller, easier to carry) and I got this one based on the author's "Colloquial Hungarian" textbook. This grammar is clear and comprehensive and satisfying. Such books are not 'read' but investigated, and so far I am delighted.