Júniusi témák az Easy Hungarian Magazinban

Why do Hungarians ask questions in the negative?

Hungarians routinely offer and request things in the negative, and it is meant warmly. Nem kérsz egy kávét? (“Won’t you have a coffee?”) and Nincs kedved eljönni? (“Don’t you feel like coming?”) sound faintly gloomy translated word for word, but they are the polite default: phrasing the offer negatively leaves the other person an easy way out.

The same habit runs through questions to strangers — Nem tudja, merre van a posta?, “You wouldn’t know where the post office is?” — and through Hungarian modesty, where nem rossz (“not bad”) is genuine praise. Hungarians themselves list negative questions among the customs that puzzle foreigners, in the same breath as loud nose-blowing and dubbed films, which is exactly the set this creator promises to write about.