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The reading ladder

Reading is where Yomitan turns Hungarian from opaque to merely hard. Read digitally as long as your lookup speed matters — paper comes later.

Rung 1 — Sheltered reading A1

Section titled “Rung 1 — Sheltered reading ”
  • Graded readers and parallel texts (HU/EN side by side)
  • Your Anki sentences are reading — at this level, that counts
Farkas TranslationsA2parallelfree

Bilingual books with aligned HU/EN paragraphs — the cleanest parallel-reading source on the web.

BabelmatrixB2parallelfree

Hungarian literature side by side with its translations — poems and prose excerpts, beautifully presented.

Egy kis magyarA2gradedfree

Reading articles written for learners, sorted by level — rare and valuable.

LanguageCrush readingA2toolfreemium

Assisted-reading platform with a Hungarian section — import texts or YouTube subtitles and read with one-click lookups. A browser-only alternative while your Yomitan setup matures.

Rung 2 — Children’s books A2

Section titled “Rung 2 — Children’s books ”
  • Picture-book tier: short sentences, present tense, pictures carrying context (Bogyó és Babóca tier)
  • Folk tales in text form — pairs beautifully with the animated versions you’ve heard
Benedek Elek: Magyar mese- és mondavilágA2bookfree

The classic folk-tale collection in text form — simple grammar, slightly archaic flavor. Pairs perfectly with the animated Magyar népmesék you’ve been watching.

MEK — Magyar Elektronikus KönyvtárB1libraryfree

The national digital library: thousands of free Hungarian ebooks, classics through children’s literature. Legally free, Yomitan-friendly in browser formats.

Rung 3 — News B1

Section titled “Rung 3 — News ”

News prose is formulaic — the same structures daily, which is exactly what an intermediate learner wants:

TelexB2newsfree

The default modern news site. Clean prose, broad topics; the “in English” section makes DIY parallel reading possible for some stories.

444B2newsfree

Looser, snarkier register than Telex — closer to how people actually write online.

hvg.huB2newsfree

Heavier economics/politics vocabulary — a deliberate step up.

Képregény MarketB1comicspaid

Hungarian comics shop — comics are the classic bridge format: pictures carry context, dialogue is real.

750 magyar közmondásB1referencefree

750 proverbs with explanations — bite-size reading with maximum cultural payload.

Rung 4 — Books for pleasure B2

Section titled “Rung 4 — Books for pleasure ”
  • Translations of books you’ve already read — known plot is scaffolding (the dub trick, in print)
  • YA novels before literary fiction: modern language, dialogue-heavy
  • First novel rule: pick short, pick fun, and finishing slowly still counts as finishing

Rung 5 — Literature C1

Section titled “Rung 5 — Literature ”

Contemporary Hungarian fiction, then the classics. By this rung the ladder has done its job.

Intensive vs. extensive, applied

Section titled “Intensive vs. extensive, applied”

At every rung, mix both: one short text worked through completely with Yomitan (intensive), plus volume you read tolerating ambiguity (extensive). The intensive text should be below your frustration threshold — struggle is for sentences, not whole pages.