In today's Mini Hungarian Lesson, we're going to show you some common expressions to react to surprising information. To make it more fun and practical, we'll share 8 surprising facts about ourselves while demonstrating these reactions. 😊
If you’d rather watch a video lesson in Hungarian—with both Hungarian and English subtitles—you can check it out here (it’s free!):
“Nahát!” is one of the most common ways to express surprise in Hungarian. It's a versatile expression that can convey anything from mild amazement to complete astonishment. Let's see it in action in this START dialogue:
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But of course, "Nahát!" isn't the only expression for showing surprise in Hungarian. Let's explore some other ways to react to surprising news! (In the video lesson you can listen to the full conversations.)
1. Komolyan? - Seriously?/Really?
2. Mi van? - What?! (informal, expressing disbelief)
3. Nem mondod! - You don't say! / No way!
4. Tényleg? - Really?
5. Azta! - Wow!
6. Nahát! - Wow!
7. Ne már! - No way! Come on!
8. Tyűha! - Whoa!
9. Te jó ég! - Oh my goodness!
We love teaching Hungarian through dialogues because they're the best way to prepare for everyday conversations. While any text can help you learn useful words and sentence structures, you can only master natural reactions like the ones we shared above by listening to real dialogues.
This is exactly why we share daily conversations in our Daily Dose of Hungarian program. 💛
We've included many natural reactions in our free e-book "Speak Hungarian Like a Native.", too. You can get it here, in case you haven’t seen it yet: