# He said



## pizzakid

How does the narrative 'he said', 'I said' seen in novels work in Hungarian? It would also be interesting to know how it works with adjectives. Also, are there any other commonly used tags in Hungarian (shouted, muttered) I should know about? Can anyone provide a translation for these in all the different persons?:

_"Bond. James Bond." he said._

_"I told you I hate cheese!" I said angrily_.

Thank you for reading!


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## Zsanna

I'm not sure I've totally understood your question (I do not really know the real source of the problem) but here are some answers to go on. 

First, your quotes:
- Bond. James Bond - mondta.
- Mondtam, hogy utálom a sajtot! - vetettem oda mérgesen.

In other words: 
no inverted commas, no italics, no full stops (before the dash introducing "I/he said" bit because the sentence-finishing full stop comes after that anyway; except, as in your example, there are more than one sentences quoted.)

There are instead: a dash in front of and after the quoted text, exclamation or question marks at the end of the quoted sentence(s) (please note the different use of exclamation marks in Hungarian), full stop (only) at the end of the whole sentence.

In your second example, I should have put "mondtam mérgesen" (= I said angrily) in a word by word translation at the end of the sentence but (to produce a _translation_) I replaced it by a (bit more interesting) synonym (= "I threw it there angrily") to avoid repetition. (Besides, by doing that I indicated irritation more palpably.) 

Hungarian does not tolerate repetition of the same word in the same (or even following) sentences without a good reason (like play on words or some other, special stylistic reason - non existant here).

In this case the adjective (_mérgesen_) would not change anything. I don't really see in what way it could cause a problem, either... (That is for somebody who speaks Hungarian.) Hungarian adjectives do not have (so change) forms like Sing./plural, masculin/feminin...

As far as "other commonly used tags" are concerned:
1) The thing is that Hungarian uses a much richer vocabulary in these places than what you see in the same situation in English. 
Often, as a translator, you can express even meanings that you could not imply in the translation of the sentence itself preceding it. 
The point is exactly to be able to juggle with them (know a lot of synonyms and apply them at the right moment), to include more information, give a little plus, a special atmosphere, style, etc. to the text.

2) However, here is a little list (all in the 3rd pers. Sing.):
shouted = kiáltotta (kiabálta, ordította, rikítozta, ...) 
muttered = suttogta (motyogta, rebegte, mondta a bajsza alatt, ...)
asked = kérdezte (tudakolta, érdeklődött, ...)
answered = választolta (, ...)

But I certainly would not know what your "I should know about" refers to and why you'd need the conjugation. I'll need more explanation about your real problem.


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## pizzakid

Hmm, I must have been referring to tags that are frequently used, but your post pretty much covered that. Thanks for your extensive help. Köszönöm!


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## chriskardos

here's the word say in all the personsand in the past form:
Mondtam
mondtad
mondta (both he and she)
mondtuk
mondtátok
mondták

vetettem oda mérgesen means i threw it in his face angrily
well what else would you like to know?
are you writing a book or something?


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## Zsanna

Chris, it does not change much just to be precise: I gave a word by word translation to the "vetettem oda mérgesen"  (in n°2) and you gave another that involves "in his face" which is a (rather free) interpretation of the situation... 
No problem of course, as long as it is clear to everybody.


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