One of the challenges of learning Hungarian is the lack of words that the language shares with English. Part of the problem is that Hungarian is not related to most other European languages. I will illustrate by comparing words for the number three in various languages:

English: three. Dutch: drie. German: drei. Spanish: tres. French: trois. Italian: tre. Romanian: trei. Greek, tria. Russian: tri. Polish: trzy. Hungarian: harom. When you bear in mind that the sounds of d, t and th are very close to one another phonetically, it is easy to see how different Hungarian is from these other languages.

Another factor is that English has borrowed only a few words from Hungarian.

Here are a few examples:

Coach. Hussar (a light cavalryman), saber and shako (a type of military hat). Goulash, tokay (a type of wine) and paprika. Several names of dog breeds, such as puli (Hungarians love dogs).

Fortunately, Hungarian has borrowed a few words from English, for which we are grateful.

Other vocabulary features seem strange to English speakers. Hungarian has no verb that means “to have” or “to own.” These concepts are expressible, but not in the same way that we do it in English. Hungarian has no simple way to refer to your ”brother” or “sister” without specifying whether the brother or sister is older or younger than you are.