r/hungarian • u/Heldhram Beginner / Kezdő • Sep 07 '22
Kérdés Could someone help me with the different ways of saying “mom/mother/mommy” in Hungarian please? Thanks
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u/noondi34 B1 Sep 07 '22
Édesanya is another word for mother. Literally translates to “sweet mother”. Very endearing, I think.
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u/Vitired NATIVE Sep 07 '22
Édes- is also used to indicate that you are related to said person by blood. Édesanya is your birth mother, édesapa and édestestvér also exist, although the latter is almost always exclusively used to emphasize that said person and you share the same parents. But yes, it is endearing.
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u/Passer_montanus NATIVE Sep 07 '22
Anya is the official word for mother. A child can call their mother both Anya and Anyu (but usually only one of those). You don't refer to someone as an anyu, that word is only used by children to call their mother. (So you don't say that "she's the anyu of X".)
Anyuka is what you call a woman with child, for example there is some group for young mothers then it's called Anyukák csoportja. You can also say "Ő az anyukám" if you want to say "She's my mom", sounds more affectionate than "Ő az anyám", similar to the difference between mom and mother.
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u/McDeJay Sep 08 '22
Adding to the above post you would also use anyuka, or anyu when talking to someone about their mother. For example the sentence "where does your mother work?" is better translated as "hol dolgozik anyukád?" or "hol dolgozik anyud?" (both versions can regularly be heard) rather than "hol dolgozik anyád?". The word "anyád" sounds rude and non respectful so you can usually hear it changed to anyukád or anyud.
As a side note we regularly use "anyád" with my partner when referencing each other's mother, as it is a sort of funny way to talk about them, similar to joking with mother in laws. But I would never use it when talking to someone I'm not very close to. My mother says "anyád" to me when referencing herself sometimes, similarly because it's a funny thing to say. :)
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u/Passer_montanus NATIVE Sep 08 '22
Oh, yes, "Anyád!" can be a curse word😃 That's because it's short for "kurva anyád" which means "your bitch mother" (would be "Son of a bitch" in English). Oh, the beauties of this language :)
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u/GiantPixelArt Sep 08 '22
I've been wanting to ask this... My mom always called her parents Anyu and Apu, but all the learning resources say anya and apa. Thanks for the clarification. 🙂
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u/IllustriousBrief8827 NATIVE Sep 08 '22
'Anya' is the 'official' term for it. 'Anyu', 'anyuci', etc. are more casual versions.
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u/laughingminion Sep 07 '22
Hey Guys, can anyone suggest a rather economical Hungarian language class/source to learn intermediate level Hungarian? In Budapest. Köszönjük 🙏
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u/zorgofurge NATIVE Sep 08 '22
Anya and anyu are the same, no difference whatsoever. It is only a programming mistake of Duolingo. That’s why you go to a language teacher to learn a language and not a free mobile app.
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u/EternalSighs Sep 08 '22
Anyuci = mommy/mummy! That’s what my Hungarian mum taught me when I was little, anyway! Seems a bit more endearing
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u/arpr59 NATIVE Sep 08 '22
Anyu is perfectly fine (it is the normal form in my family, for example), it should have been accepted. Other forms: anyuci, anyuka and in some families mama, mami (in general mama and mami mean grandmother/granny, but some people call mothers mama).
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u/eszther02 Sep 13 '22
I guess that it was a mistake because you say ''anyu'' in those cases, when you address your mother or talk about your own mother. You don't really say ''your anyu'' like that, it's always ''anya''. And they were probably talking about a mother here, which is ''egy anya'', it can never be ''egy anyu''. I'm not sure if I explained this properly, it's like the official form of the word.
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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '22
Anyu is like "mommy", Anya is "mother". You can call your mother as anyu, but if you want to name an other person, than you say anya.