Are Finnish and Hungarian similar languages?

Question

I know Finnish and I would like to learn Hungarian because I like Hungary,they say Finnish and Hungarian are very similar languages.
Will knowing Finnish help me learn Hungarian faster?

And,how difficult is Hungarian?Is it more difficult than Finnish?I'm Italian so my native language isn't similar to Hungarian at all and if it's too difficult I will not try to learn it

Answer 1

Hi. If you want a short and quick answer, then here is what I know:

Finnish and Hungarian are from one language family. But, Estonian is also from the same family and it appears to be closer to Finnish. Hungarian still shares some features like Estonian and Finnish, but not that much.



In conclusion, you would find it JUST difficult but not extremely difficult. If you really want to learn it, go ahead - you will do it, I'm sure. If you don't want to, then just consider learning another one you like. My opinion? Learn it. :)



~ iHelpU

Answer 2

They say that Finnish and Hungarian are similar languages.... true.. and certainly they are from linguistic family, but German and English are also from the same language family and they are both extremely different langauges.



I would not say Finnish and Hungarian are necessarily similar. Finnish and Estonian are incredibly closely related.



That being said, there are certain Finnish words that are similar to Hungarian words.

For example:

vér in Hungarian means blood and in Finnish, the word is veri

Eleven in Hungarian is alive, and in Finnish, alive is elävä

To go is menni in Hungarian, and mennä in Finnish.

etc. etc.



So! If you wish to learn Hungarian, be prepared for it to be difficult, but it certain will help knowing Finnish... :-)

Good luck! Don't let the difficulty of a language dissuade you from learning it.

Answer 3

Actually, Hungarian and Finnish are much less related linguistically than what has been expected earlier in the past, Estonian is much closer to Finnish.

Answer 4

Check out www.fsi-language-courses.org and www.byki.com for both Finnish and Hungarian.

Answer 5

They are distantly related (like for example the same way English and Persian are), and are completely incomprehensible to each other.



@Laurence: Finnish/Hungarian have not been conclusively determined to be in the same family as the turkic languages, korean, or japanese.

Answer 6

They are both Ural-Altaic languages, as is Turkish. They each separated from their common ancestor language some two or three thousand years ago, so the similarity is about on the level of English with, Russian, Greek and Welsh. Estonian.and Lapp are, however, much closer to Finnish (just as say, English is to Dutch or Russian is to Serbo-Croat). Finnish and Estonian were only really separated, politically and linguistically, when Peter the Great conquered a narrow wedge of land between them on which he built his new (Russian speaking) city of St. Petersburg, and they are still almost mutually intelligible.