ESL Students’ Issues: 7 points Hungarian students should mind when essay writing

Students from Hungary who attend colleges in countries that primarily speak English may have difficulties in their writing, even if they already know some English. This is because English and Hungarian are from two very different language families. English is a Germanic Language, while Hungarian is a Uralic language. This major difference makes the two languages wording, grammar, and phrases have major differences. Some of these main differences and what to do about them will be discussed in this article.

1. Words Aren’t Always Spelled as They Sound

While not all words in Hungarian are spelled as they sound, many are. However, hardly any words in English are spelled as they sound, which can be a major problem for many new ESL students. It is important to keep this in mind while writing papers. However, if you are using a program with a good spell checker, like Microsoft Word, you may be able to correct your spelling easily. In this case,

if you don’t know how a word is spelled, spell it as it sounds, and the spell checker should be able to give you the correct spelling, so long as you are close enough to the correct spelling.

2. Learn Prefixes and Suffixes

English has more prefixes and suffixes than Hungarian does. Both of these types of affixes add to a word, and they often change the word’s meaning. This is why is important to know what an affix means and how it is spelled. Click here to see a list of some of the most common prefixes and suffixes in the English language. Commit these to memory, and both your spelling skills and general vocabulary are sure to expand.

3. English is NOT as Flexible as Hungarian

Hungarian has what is called a “flexible word order.” This means that sentences can be ordered in different ways and still be grammatically correct. However, this is not the case in English. For example, “I like my cat,” is grammatically correct, but “My cat, I like.” is not, even though it can be easily understood by English speakers. It is important to know the correct word order in English.

In most sentences, the correct work order is SVO, which stands for Subject, Verb, and Object. However, not all sentences have objects, and some may appear like they do not have subjects. To learn more about word order in English, read this article.

4. Learn Different Letter Pronunciations

While Hungarian and English share some of the same letters, some of the letters they share (while they look exactly the same in print) are pronounced differently when spoken. For example, the letter S is one of the letters that are pronounced differently.