What does “nyereményjáték” mean in Hungarian?

Nyereményjáték is the everyday Hungarian word for a giveaway or prize draw — the “like, follow, comment to win” kind you scroll past online. It’s two nouns welded into one: nyeremény (“prize, winnings”) plus játék (“game”). Hungarian loves stacking nouns this way, so once you spot the seam you can read the whole word at a glance: a “winnings-game,” i.e. a contest where you can win something.

The first half is itself built from a verb: nyer (“to win”) plus the deverbal suffix -mény, which turns an action into its result — so nyeremény is literally “the thing won.” The same -mény pattern gives esemény (“event,” from esik, “to happen”) and vélemény (“opinion”). In this clip the host announces a nyereményjáték and lists the rules out loud: like the Instagram post, follow the account, and drop a specific emoji in the comments to enter — exactly the script every Hungarian nyereményjáték follows.