# Őrület, őrület, (hogy) mire képesek



## Jfoe

Hi, I'm involved in a play, and one of the characters is Hungarian. At one point, when she is upset, she mumbles
"Orulet orulet nure Kepesek." 
What does this phrase mean, or is it made up?
Also, does anyone have any tips on pronouncing/speaking Hungarian?
Please, any help would be appreciated!


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## MosoMasa

Hello Jfoe,

The sentence is not right as it is, my guess is that it could be the following:
*Őrület, őrület*, *(hogy)* *mire képesek*./! 
Word by word: (It is) _Insanity, insanity (the thing/s that) they are capable (of)_

In English it could be something like: _It's incredible/I just can't believe/It's madness, its' madness! what they are capable (with or without "of"...)._

The beginning depends on the context and the way the character really takes things. (I lack context and intensity to be more precise.) What play is that?

Before we know what stands instead of "nure", we cannot say anything for sure.

In any case, it is not a well-known line from anything I know but the form I suggest could be a sentence quite often used in our contemporary world as well as any previous times.


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## Bob Rose

MosoMasa said:


> Hello Jfoe,
> 
> The sentence is not right as it is, my guess is that it could be the following:
> *Őrület, őrület*, *(hogy)* *mire képesek*./!
> Word by word: (It is) _Insanity, insanity (the thing/s that) they are capable (of)_
> 
> In English it could be something like: _It's incredible/I just can't believe/It's madness, its' madness! what they are capable (with or without "of"...)._
> 
> The beginning depends on the context and the way the character really takes things. (I lack context and intensity to be more precise.) What play is that?
> 
> Before we know what stands instead of "nure", we cannot say anything for sure.
> 
> In any case, it is not a well-known line from anything I know but the form I suggest could be a sentence quite often used in our contemporary world as well as any previous times.



The quote is from a play by Agatha Christie named_ A Murder Is Announced._ Mitzi, the maid, says it when she reads an "advertisement" for a murder to take place in the home in which she serves as maid.


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## Zsanna

I suppose in that case the sentence appears without any accents in the original, too. 
Still, "nure" and "Képesek" (capitals!) shouldn't appear like that.


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## AndrasBP

Zsanna said:


> Still, "nure" and "Képesek" (capitals!) shouldn't appear like that.


I'm quite certain that "nure" is the result of some sort of faulty character recognition, after scanning the text. It should indeed be "mire". I've seen similar errors that probably aren't typos. "nu" and "mi" look similar enough to confuse the software.


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