Hungarian Phrases for Tourists: Useful Words and Funny Sayings

Hungarian looks like a wall of accents and consonants, but you need about fifteen phrases to get through a trip, and every one of them is easier to say than it looks. Say köszönöm at a market stall or egészségedre over a pálinka and you will get a smile, because almost nobody expects a visitor to try.

Below are the phrases worth learning, with a pronunciation you can read off the screen, when to use each one, and then the part Hungarians themselves love: the funny sayings, the tongue twister, and the absurdly long word.

📋 At a Glance

You want to say	Hungarian	Say it like
👋 Hi / bye (informal)	Szia	SEE-yo
🏪 Good day (polite)	Jó napot	YOH NO-pot
🙏 Thank you	Köszönöm	KUR-sur-nurm
🍺 Cheers	Egészségedre	EH-gays-shay-ged-reh
🍺 A beer, please	Kérek egy sört	KAY-rek edj shurt
🧾 The bill, please	Fizetnék	FEE-zet-nayk
✅ Yes / ❌ No	Igen / Nem	EE-gen / nem

Want to hear them first? This short video says the key phrases twice, once at normal speed and once slowly, then the naughty-sounding words and funny sayings below:

EMBED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsB4iQifBNA | Hungarian phrases for tourists, with pronunciation (2:28)

How to Pronounce Hungarian in Two Minutes

Hungarian spelling is phonetic: every letter is said, always the same way. Four rules carry you most of the way.

1. Stress the first syllable. Always.
2. sz is s, and s is sh. Put rules one and two together and Budapest comes out as BU-do-pesht, not bu-da-PEST.
3. Plain a is a short, rounded o, like the o in British “hot”. Á with an accent is a long “ah”.
4. Accents make vowels long, not stressed. É is “ay”, í is “ee”, ó is “oh”, ú is “oo”.

The rest of the alphabet in one table:

Letter	Sounds like	Example
cs	ch in “church”	csárda (CHAHR-do), a country inn
gy	d + y, as in “during” said fast	egy (edj), one
ny	ny in “canyon”	mennyi (MEN-nyee), how much
zs	s in “measure”	zsemle (ZHEM-leh), bread roll
c	ts in “cats”	utca (OOT-tso), street
ö, ő	the vowel in “fur”, without the r	sör (shur), beer
ü, ű	French “tu” or German “über”	kerül (KEH-rewl), it costs
j, ly	y in “yes”	jó (yoh), good

In this guide, “ur” in a pronunciation stands for the ö sound: read it the British way, with no r. “Ew” stands for ü: say “ee” with rounded lips.

The Survival Phrases

These cover greetings, shops, cafes and getting around. The first column is what to say; the second is how; the third is when.

Hello, Goodbye, Please and Thank You

Hungarian	Say it like	Means, and when to use it
Szia	SEE-yo	Hi and bye, to one person you’d call by first name
Sziasztok	SEE-yos-tok	Hi and bye to a group of friends
Jó napot (kívánok)	YOH NO-pot (KEE-vah-nok)	Good day: shops, restaurants, ticket desks, anyone older
Helló	HEL-loh	Hello, and also goodbye, which surprises visitors
Viszlát	VEES-laht	Bye, polite but relaxed
Köszönöm	KUR-sur-nurm	Thank you
Köszi	KUR-see	Thanks, casual
Szívesen	SEE-veh-shen	You’re welcome
Kérem	KAY-rem	Please, or here you are when handing something over
Igen / Nem	EE-gen / nem	Yes / no
Bocsánat	BO-chah-not	Sorry
Elnézést	EL-nay-zaysht	Excuse me, to get attention or squeeze past

Szia sounding like “see ya” is a happy accident: Hungarians really do use it for both hello and goodbye. One thing that throws visitors is the formal and informal “you”. Szia and egészségedre are the informal side. With a shop assistant or a waiter of your parents’ age, jó napot is the safe opener, and nobody will mind if you mix the two up.

In a Bar, Café or Restaurant

Hungarian	Say it like	Means
Kérek egy sört	KAY-rek edj shurt	A beer, please
Kérek egy kávét	KAY-rek edj KAH-vayt	A coffee, please
Egészségedre!	EH-gays-shay-ged-reh	Cheers! (also said after a sneeze)
Jó étvágyat!	YOH AYT-vah-dyot	Enjoy your meal
Finom!	FEE-nom	Delicious!
Fizetnék	FEE-zet-nayk	I’d like to pay, the way to ask for the bill
Kártyával	KAHR-tyah-vol	By card

Kérek means “I’d like”, and it works with almost anything: point at a pastry, say kérek egyet (KAY-rek EDJ-et, I’d like one) and you have ordered. Before you pay, read our guide to tipping in Hungary for the service charge line on the bill.

A word on cheers. Plenty of Hungarians over fifty still won’t clink beer glasses, a custom tied to the executions of the 1848-49 revolution’s generals in 1849. Clink wine and pálinka, raise the beer. Our Hungarian etiquette guide has the full story, and the Hungarian beer guide tells you what to order once you’ve said kérek egy sört.

Getting Around and Getting Help

Hungarian	Say it like	Means
Mennyibe kerül?	MEN-nyee-beh KEH-rewl	How much is it?
Hol van a mosdó?	hol von o MOSH-doh	Where is the toilet?
Beszél angolul?	BEH-sayl ON-go-lool	Do you speak English?
Nem beszélek magyarul	nem BEH-say-lek MO-dyo-rool	I don’t speak Hungarian
Nem értem	nem AYR-tem	I don’t understand
Segítség!	SHEH-geet-chayg	Help!

Signs you’ll see everywhere: bejárat (entrance), kijárat (exit), nyitva (open), zárva (closed), utca (street), tér (square), and on toilet doors férfi (men) and női (women). If you get sick, the emergency guide lists the numbers to call.

Little Words You’ll Hear All Day

Some of the most useful Hungarian is a single syllable. Learn these and conversations around you start to make sense.

• Na (no). The all-purpose filler: “well”, “come on”, “so”. Na, mehetünk? means “So, shall we go?”
• Jaj (yoy). Oops, ouch, oh dear. Drop a fork and every Hungarian at the table says it.
• Hajrá (HOY-rah). Go! What fans shout at a match, and what friends say before your exam.
• Puszi (POO-see). A kiss. Hungarians greet friends with two cheek kisses and sign off texts with puszi, sometimes puszi puszi.
• Basszus (BOS-soos). Literally “bass”, as in the low voice. It’s the polite stand-in for a much ruder word, roughly “damn it”, and you’ll hear it when the tram leaves without someone.
• Oké (OH-kay). Yes, it’s just okay, spelled the Hungarian way.

Hungarian Words That Sound Naughty in English

Every American who spends a week in Budapest comes home with the same list. These are perfectly innocent Hungarian words that happen to sound like something else in English. Hungarians know it, and most of them find it as funny as you do.

Hungarian	Say it like	What it really means
Puszi	POO-see	A kiss. Yes, it sounds exactly like the word you’re thinking of. Grandmothers say it to toddlers, friends sign off texts with it, and puszi puszi is a normal way to say goodbye.
Fakanál	FO-ko-nahl	A wooden spoon. Say it quickly and the first half sounds like the F-word; the second half does not help. The most innocent object in any Hungarian kitchen.
Csók	choke	A kiss, the romantic kind. Sweet in Hungarian, alarming in English.
Sör	shur	Beer. Ask “Kérsz egy sört?” (would you like a beer?) and the answer sounds like “sure”.
Tök	turk	A pumpkin. It also means “totally” (tök jó, totally great), and in slang it’s the part a soccer player covers when he lines up in a free-kick wall. Tökös, having some, means gutsy.
Tejel	TEH-yel	To give milk, as a cow does. In slang it means to pay up, so a friend telling you to tejelj wants your share of the bill.

It works the other way, too. Don’t ask a Hungarian child for a “cookie”. In Hungarian kuki, said the same way, is a little boy’s word for what’s in his swimming trunks. In a café, ask for süti (SHEW-tee) instead.

EMBED: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CkA46LJ53cQ | Hungarian words that sound naughty in English (31 seconds)

Funny Hungarian Sayings, Translated Word for Word

This is where Hungarian gets good. The language is full of idioms that make perfect sense to a local and none at all to anyone else. Drop one of these into a conversation and you will make a friend.

Hungarian	Word for word	What it means
Kolbászból van a kerítés	The fence is made of sausage	A land of plenty; mostly said in the negative, as in “the fence isn’t made of sausage there either”
Bagoly mondja verébnek, hogy nagyfejű	The owl tells the sparrow it has a big head	The pot calling the kettle black
Nem fenékig tejfel	It’s not sour cream all the way to the bottom	It’s not all roses
Ez nem az én asztalom	This is not my table	Not my department, not my problem
Ott van a kutya elásva	That’s where the dog is buried	That’s the heart of the matter
Kiugrott a nyúl a bokorból	The rabbit jumped out of the bush	So that’s what you were after, the truth is out
Füle botját sem mozdítja	He doesn’t even move the stick of his ear	He’s ignoring it completely
Lóg az eső lába	The rain’s leg is hanging	It’s about to rain
Eszi, nem eszi, nem kap mást	He eats it or he doesn’t, he gets nothing else	Take it or leave it
Szegény ember vízzel főz	The poor man cooks with water	You make do with what you have
Addig nyújtózkodj, amíg a takaród ér	Stretch only as far as your blanket reaches	Live within your means
Nem enged a negyvennyolcból	He won’t give an inch of forty-eight	He refuses to compromise (1848 was Hungary’s revolution)
Lassan járj, tovább érsz	Walk slowly and you’ll get further	More haste, less speed
Ki korán kel, aranyat lel	Who gets up early finds gold	The early bird catches the worm

The Black Soup Still to Come

One saying has a Budapest story behind it. Hátravan még a feketeleves, “the black soup is still to come”, means the worst is yet to come. The story goes that in 1541, after the Ottoman army drove the Habsburg besiegers away from Buda, the sultan invited the Hungarian lords to a feast. Once the meal was over and the black soup was served, which tradition says was coffee, still unknown to Hungarians, the guests learned that Buda had been taken while they ate, and one of them, Bálint Török, was held captive. Coffee really did reach Hungary with the Ottomans, and the phrase has stayed tied to that feast. The tomb of Gül Baba on Rózsadomb is the place in Budapest that remembers that era best.

Hungarian Words You Already Know

English borrowed a few words from Hungarian, and you’ve likely used them without knowing.

• Coach. The horse-drawn carriage, and then the bus, comes from kocsi, a carriage from the village of Kocs in northwest Hungary. The same word traveled into German as Kutsche, French coche and Spanish coche.
• Hussar. From huszár, the Hungarian light cavalryman.
• Paprika and goulash (gulyás, the herdsman’s stew).
• Biro. In Britain a ballpoint pen is a biro, after László Bíró, the Budapest-born inventor who patented it.

Try the Tongue Twister

Hungarians test each other with this one, and it’s a fair final exam for the pronunciation rules above:

Mit sütsz, kis szűcs? Sós húst sütsz, kis szűcs? (mit shewts, kish sewch? shohsh hoosht shewts, kish sewch?) “What are you frying, little furrier? Are you frying salty meat, little furrier?”

And if you want the word Hungarians like to show off as their longest, it’s megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért, 44 letters, which means roughly “for your repeated behavior as if you could not be desecrated”. Nobody uses it. Everybody knows it.

Which Phrases Should You Actually Learn?

If you only learn five, make them jó napot, köszönöm, kérek, egészségedre and szia. That covers walking into a shop, thanking someone, ordering anything, toasting, and leaving. In central Budapest most people who serve tourists speak English, so you won’t need Hungarian to get by. You’ll want it because a köszönöm changes the tone of every exchange.

The Verdict

Hungarian is famously hard to learn and surprisingly easy to read out loud. Master the first-syllable stress and the s and sz switch, carry the survival phrases, and keep one funny saying in your pocket for the moment someone pours you a pálinka. When they laugh at the sausage fence, you’re in.

📱 Spotted a phrase we got wrong?

Hungarian has regional twists and plenty of slang. Tell us what you hear on the street and we’ll add it.

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