What does “északi sark” mean in Hungarian?

Béla sört szeretne inni egy vicces történetben

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A1 Hungarian listening practice · Standard Hungarian · Picked for people who know a little

💡 Did you know?
az északi sark
Hungarian geography word
the North Pole“ — from sarok, ”corner, heel, hinge

Hungarian builds “the North Pole” out of a strikingly homely word. Sarok is the corner of a room, the heel of a shoe, the hinge a door swings on; its shortened stem sark gives az északi sark, the North Pole, and a déli sark, the South Pole. In Hungarian, the planet turns on a hinge.

The adjective is sarki, “polar” — sarki róka (arctic fox), sarkkör (polar circle) — but sarki equally means “on the corner,” as in a sarki bolt, the corner shop. Note also the case pairing this story drills over and over: az északi sarkra megy (“goes to the pole”) against az északi sarkon van sör (“there’s beer at the pole”) — -ra for movement towards, -on for being there.

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this A1 Hungarian listening practice video?

82.8%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common Hungarian words
Most of the words in this video are common Hungarian words.

How common in written Hungarian

45.2%
Top 1,000
82.8%
Top 2,000
96.8%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken Hungarian

87%
Top 1,000
94.2%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000
👄 Words for talking
This video uses words people often say in Hungarian.

Harder words in this video

These words are harder than A1. Here is what they mean.

bélának
1×
Not in top 5,000
sarkra
1×
Not in top 5,000
sörben
1×
Not in top 5,000
söre
1×
Not in top 5,000
afrikába
1×
Not in top 5,000

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

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