Move to Hungary and you work out quickly that one document governs all the others: the lakcímkártya, the address card. Without it there is no bank account, no phone contract, no tax number and no registration with the health insurance system. And you only get the address card if your landlord plays along.
The place this happens is the Kormányablak, the "government window", a one-stop shop where several separate authorities were folded into a single counter hall. Older Hungarians and roughly half of all directions you will be given still say Okmányiroda, which is what the predecessor office was called. Both words point at the same building.
What follows is not a language course. It is the set of terms that will actually be said to you, printed on the form in front of you, or announced over the speaker when your number finally comes up.
A word on pronunciation first, because Hungarian spelling will mislead you in ways that feel almost deliberate. s is "sh". sz is a plain "s". cs is "ch". zs is the "s" in "measure". gy is roughly the "d" in a British "during". Short a is closer to the vowel in "hot" than the one in "hat", and é is a long "ay". The stress falls on the first syllable of every word, without exception, no matter how long the word gets.
The office and getting through the door
Kormányablak (kor-mahny-oblok): literally "government window". The central point of contact for nearly every administrative errand you will have.
Okmányiroda (ok-mahny-ee-ro-do): "document office". Officially abolished, alive and well in everyday speech.
Időpontfoglalás (ee-dur-pont-fog-lo-lahsh): the appointment booking. It runs online, and in the popular Budapest districts the slots go fast.
Sorszám (shor-sahm): the queue number.
Ügyintéző (ewj-in-tay-zur): the case handler, the person who processes your file. You will hear this word often, because the announcement sends you to a named individual rather than a window.
Ügyfélszolgálat (ewj-fayl-sol-gah-lot): customer service, which in an office like this means the counter area itself.
Your documents
Útlevél (oot-le-vayl): the passport. Literally "road letter".
Személyi igazolvány (se-may-yee ig-o-zol-vahny): the national ID card. Usually shortened to személyi.
Lakcímkártya (lok-tseem-kahr-tyo): the address card. The document everything in this building revolves around.
Lakcímbejelentő lap (lok-tseem-be-ye-len-tur lop): the form on which you register that address.
Befogadó nyilatkozat (be-fo-go-doh nyi-lot-ko-zot): the declaration of acceptance from your landlord or the property owner. This is where it really goes wrong for people. Whoever owns the flat has to state in writing that you are allowed to live there, and sign it. Plenty of landlords have never seen the form, or have seen it and would rather not. Settle this before you book the appointment, not afterwards.
Bérleti szerződés (bayr-le-tee ser-zur-daysh): the rental contract.
Adóazonosító jel (o-doh-o-zo-no-shee-toh yel): the tax identification number. You need it for any employment.
TAJ-szám (toy-sahm): the social security number, without which no doctor's appointment goes anywhere.
Regisztrációs igazolás (re-gis-trah-tsi-ohsh ig-o-zo-lahsh): the registration certificate, and this is the point where your passport matters. If you hold an EU passport you do not apply for a residence permit in the classic sense at all; you register a right you already have, and this certificate is the proof of it. If you do not hold one, which since Brexit includes British citizens and has always included Americans and other third-country nationals, the document you need is a tartózkodási engedély (tor-tohz-ko-dah-shee en-ge-day), an actual residence permit, granted on a stated ground and with a considerably longer list of requirements behind it. Work out which of the two applies to you before you start filling anything in.
The procedures
Kérelem (kay-re-lem): the application.
Bejelentkezés (be-ye-lent-ke-zaysh): the registration of your address.
Igazolás (ig-o-zo-lahsh): the certificate. A word you will meet everywhere, because Hungary has a dedicated certificate for very nearly every state of affairs.
Illeték (il-le-tayk): the administrative fee.
Bélyegző (bay-yeg-zur): the stamp.
Aláírás (o-lah-ee-rahsh): the signature.
Eredeti (e-re-de-tee): the original. Másolat (mah-sho-lot): the copy.
Érvényes (ayr-vay-nyesh): valid. Lejárt (le-yahrt): expired.
The words you hopefully won't need
Hiánypótlás (hee-ahny-poht-lahsh): the supplementary submission of missing documents. The word that announces you will be coming back.
Hiányzik egy dokumentum (hee-ahny-zik ej do-ku-men-tum): "a document is missing".
Elutasítva (el-u-to-shee-tvo): rejected.
Fellebbezés (fel-leb-be-zaysh): the appeal.
Jöjjön vissza (yur-yurn vis-so): "come back again". Said kindly, and still a morning gone.
Why this beats a translation app
Hungarian has a reputation for being hard, and where the grammar is concerned the reputation is earned. But the vocabulary that governs your actual life in Hungary is small and highly repetitive. It is a few dozen terms that turn up in every government building in the country, and not one of them is on page one of a course book.
Nor will a phone save you at the counter. Translation apps are good at documents and useless at speed: the sentence is said once, the queue is moving, and you cannot look up a word you did not hear clearly enough to type. Recognition is what you need, and recognition of forty words is a much smaller undertaking than learning Hungarian.
That is precisely what Vokabulo is built for. You capture the words your own life puts in front of you and learn them in the context where you will meet them again. Hungarian taught straight from English, with over 100 languages available in every combination.
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