Hungarian to English Translation

This direction is used when a Hungarian document has to be submitted in an English-speaking country. The typical applicant is someone who studied or worked in Hungary and is applying to a university, an employer or an immigration authority in the USA, the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia. The regime of source and target differs from the hu|de pair: here the document is submitted not to a German-speaking country but to the Anglo-Saxon declaration system.

Concrete examples clarify the direction: a student applying for a master’s programme in the USA with a Hungarian university diploma, the documents of a specialist who worked in Hungary and moved to the United Kingdom, the civil registry records of a family relocating to Canada. What they have in common is that the document is meaningful within the Hungarian system while the receiving side does not recognise that context directly.

Education files are the backbone of demand; the international standing of Hungarian higher education, and of its medical and engineering programmes in particular, keeps diploma translation in constant demand in this direction. The second cluster is employment and civil registry documents.

The common difficulty with these documents is that the Hungarian administrative structure and name order are not directly recognisable to an English-speaking authority; the translation resolves these differences and transfers the document into the target system.

Hungary’s medical, dental and engineering programmes, taught in English as well as in Hungarian, attract a large number of international students; after graduating, these students submit their diplomas and transcripts in their own country or in a third country. Such files make up a significant part of this direction.

In these diploma files a detailed breakdown of courses, credits and clinical practice hours is required; the recognition body cannot complete its assessment on a summary translation. Course titles are carried across according to their function, keeping the original form where necessary.

The fact that the surname is written first in Hungarian names is a point that has to be corrected consistently in every document in the file; correcting it in one document and overlooking it in another makes the same person appear under two different names.

The position of the seal and the registration date on the documents is preserved; in Hungarian official documents these elements are part of the verification and are not omitted in the translation.

Technical issues specific to Hungarian into English

The most obvious trap in this pair is name order: in Hungarian documents the surname is written first (e.g. Kovács Anna). When carried into an English form the order is corrected to given name–surname and which element is the surname is confirmed against the passport; otherwise the surname is taken for a given name and the file becomes contradictory as to identity.

The long vowels of Hungarian (ő, ű) do not exist in English; they are carried across according to the spelling in the passport. Long expressions built with agglutinative suffixes are resolved into prepositional structures in English, because no single word can render them.

The Hungarian date order (year-month-day) is clarified in the English translation by writing the month out in words. Institution names are rendered according to their function; the grading system (1–5) is not equated with an English counterpart but explained, and it is stated that 5 is the highest mark.

The seal and the registration details on the document are kept in their position. Correcting the name order consistently in documents belonging to the same person is critical if the application is to look free of contradiction as to identity.

Because the Hungarian diploma system rests on the European higher education framework, the credit and level information in the transcript is clearly preserved; in medical and engineering applications a detailed breakdown of courses is particularly required.

The name forms women take on marriage (e.g. the -né suffix) call for separate attention; since this suffix is derived from the husband’s name, it is not left as it stands in the English translation but explained, and its relation to the woman’s own name is shown.

Hungarian official style carries information densely through suffixes; when it is taken into English this density is unpacked and each condition is given separately, so that no obligation is lost along the way.

Documents for which this direction is required

• Diplomas, bizonyítvány and mark sheets
• Birth, marriage and civil registry records (anyakönyvi kivonat)
• Employment, service and criminal record certificates
• Bank and income documents
• Professional qualification certificates

Education files are the backbone of demand; correcting the name order consistently across all documents is critical. In medical and engineering applications a detailed breakdown of courses is required.

In employment files the service record and job titles are carried across accurately. In family documents the relationships between relatives and the married name forms are stated clearly.

Chain of certification

Because the target is an English-speaking country, the sworn translator system does not come into play: the USA and the United Kingdom ask for a signed statement of accuracy, Canada for a translator registered with a provincial association or an affidavit, Australia for NAATI accreditation. A document arriving from Hungary is expected to bear an apostille.

For these differing expectations, look at the certification regime of the target country and the document type requirements. Tell us the surname–given name order of the name and the target institution before you send the document.

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