Hungarian Skills by StrengthCrownsNameOriginal Order

• ••• 14 Basic 232 @ 50% 50

  akkor · alacsony · angol · diák · egyedül · fekete · fiatal · ház · ilyen · játék · ki · kicsi · korán · ma · magas · magyar · milyen · mit · most · már · nagy · orvos · piros · sofőr · szép · tanár · te · én · óra · ön · újra
  31 words

  The verb lenni ‘to be’

  	SG	PL
  1	(én) vagyok ‘I am’	(mi) vagyunk ‘we are’
  2	(te) vagy ‘you (sg.) are’	(ti) vagytok ‘you (pl) are’
  3	(ő) van ‘s/he is’	(ők) vannak ‘they are’

  The most important thing to keep in mind is when to use the third person van ‘is’ and vannak ‘are’, and when to leave them out!

  These examples will help illustrate the difference.

  Én tanár vagyok. meaning ‘I am a teacher.’

  Ő tanár. meaning ‘She/he is a teacher.’

  In the first sentence above, there is a verb, vagyok, but in the second sentence there is no van.

  When expressing what something is like, you do not use van .

  The following examples are fine without van or vannak, in fact, you must not use van here :

  Az autó piros. ‘The car is red.’

  A fiúk tanárok. ‘The boys are teachers.’

  Personal pronouns

  	SG	PL
  1	én ’I’	mi ’we’
  2	te ’you (sg.)’	ti ’you (pl.)’
  3	ő ’she/he/it’	ők ’they’

  But there are many differences between the two languages:

  • Hungarian has pronouns for the second person singular AND the second person plural: te means ‘you (sg.)’, while ti means ‘you (pl.)’.

  • Hungarian has no gender: the third person singular pronoun ő means both ‘she’ and ‘he’. Thus a sentence like Ő tanár can mean either ‘She is a teacher’ or ‘He is a teacher’.

  • Like German, French and Spanish, Hungarian has pronouns that are used when talking formally to someone : ön in the singular and önök in the plural. They're translated as ‘you’ and they are used in formal settings when talking to someone senior, or a stranger, and when being polite.

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• ••• 23 First Names23 @ 50% 50

  a neved · hogy hívnak? · jános · kati · lászló · mi a neved · péter · zsuzsa · éva
  9 words

  Péter, Kati and Éva are common Hungarian names.

  There are several ways of asking someone what their name is, here are two .

  • One is a neved, meaning ‘your name’ . You can ask someone Mi a neved or ‘What is your name?’ — Recall that we don't always say is in Hungarian.

  • Another is to use hogy hívnak, which is literally ‘How do they call you?’, but it's just another way to say ‘What's your name?’.

  A resource

  Duolingo removed the forum which had tons of useful posts. We tried to save the most important ones, so you if you feel you need more grammar help, check out this blog: magyarbagoly.blogspot.com

• ••• 23 Basic 121 @ 50% 50

  a · ablak · alma · asztal · autó · az · egy · ez · fiú · igen · lámpa · lány · mi · nem · szék · telefon · vagy · és
  18 words

  Lesson 1

  Just like in English, Hungarian has definite articles and an indefinite article.

  A and az are like English's the . A fiú = the boy .

  If the word starts with a vowel, you use az. For a consonant, you use a.

  az alma, a fiú

  Hungarian's indefinite article is simpler: the indefinite article a or an is always egy.

  egy alma, egy fiú

  Don't confuse Hungarian's a / az, the definite article meaning the, with English's a / an, which are the indefinite articles, meaning egy!

  Lenni, the verb "to be"
  

  The present tense is :

  	SG	PL
  1	(én) vagyok ‘I am’	(mi) vagyunk ‘we are’
  2	(te) vagy ‘you (sg.) are’	(ti) vagytok ‘you (pl. ) are’
  3	(ő) van ‘s/he is’	(ők) vannak ‘they are’

  The subject pronouns are in parentheses because they are often dropped , the verb conjugation shows the person.

  You are a teacher can be Te tanár vagy. or just Tanár vagy.

  When to include van/vannak

  Hungarian sometimes drops van and vannak. Sometimes there's NO verb where English has is ! You would say What is this ?, Hungarian drops the "is " :

  Mi ez? = what is this ? . . .

  Hungarian word order is freer than in English. To ask What is this?, both Mi ez? and Ez mi? are fine.

  Be alert! The verb is only left out when the subject is in the third person AND the sentence expresses a property of the subject like Ez mi? “What is this?“, Péter egy diák “Péter is a student.”, or Péter álmos “Péter is tired.”
  

  This only happens in the third person, the first and second person (I, you, we, plural you ) vagyok, vagy, vagyunk, vagytok are NEVER omitted.

  Don't use van or vannak if you are saying what someone or something is.

  "Ő tanár" - "He is a teacher"

  "Péter tanár" - "Péter is a teacher"

  "Az alma piros" - "The apple is red"

  "Mi az?" - "What's that?"

  But, do use van/vannak when describing when, how, the state, or where something or someone is.

  Time - Expressing when something is.

  "Mikor van a buli?" - "When is the party?" "A buli hétkor van." - "The party is at 7."

  State - how something/someone is.

  "Apád ma hogy van?" = "How is your dad today?" "Ma jobban van, mint tegnap, köszönöm." - "He is better today than he was yesterday, thank you."

  Location

  "Hol van a mozi?" - "Where is the cinema?" "Ott van jobbra." - "It's there on the right."

  Adverbial Participle - a verbal state of a noun

  "Ki van nyitva az ablak?" - "Is the window open?" "Nem, be van zárva." - "No, it's shut."

  All the above become "vannak" when the subject is plural:

  "Itt vannak a poharak." - "Here are the glasses."

  "A szobák fűtve vannak." - "The rooms are heated."

  See another explanation here: Hungarianreference.com/Van-is-exists-omitting

• ••• 32 Basic Phrases11 @ 50% 50

  akarok · bocsánat · bort · elnézést · estét · hogy · hány éves · ide · igen · jó · jól · kérek · kívánok · köszönöm · menj · menni · nagyon · napot · nem · nincs · oda · paprikást · reggelt · rosszul · sajnos · szeretnék kérni · szia · szépen · szívesen · sört · vagy · vagyok · viszlát · viszontlátásra · vizet · éjszakát
  36 words

  Welcome to the Hungarian course!

  Here you'll meet your first Hungarian phrases as well as a few verbs, most importantly, lenni ‘to be’. It is conjugated as follows:

  	SG	PL
  1	(én) vagyok ‘I am’	(mi) vagyunk ‘we are’
  2	(te) vagy ‘you (sg.) are’	(ti) vagytok ‘you (pl) are’
  3	(ő) van ‘s/he is’	(ők) vannak ‘they are’

  The pronouns in the Hungarian examples are in parentheses because you mostly don't have to use them. The verb form tells you which person and number is indicated.

  Orthography (spelling ) and pronunciation

  Hungarian uses the Latin alphabet (like English) with some additional letters and diacritics. Let's start with the vowels.

  Vowels can be short and long. Short vowels are a, e, i, o, u, ö and ü. Their long versions are á, é, í, ó, ú, ő and ű.

  Consonants can ALSO be short and long. Long consonants are "lengthened " by doubling them, as in reggel ’morning’ .

  Some Hungarian consonants are spelled very differently from their English counterparts:

  Letter	Hungarian pronunciation
  c	like ts in cats
  cs	like ch in channel
  s	like sh in shower
  sz	like s in sing
  zs	like s in pleasure

  So Hungarian szia (’hello’ or ’goodbye’) sounds a bit like English see ya.

  The letters gy, ny, ty represent sounds that sound a bit like adding a y sound to the preceding sound.

  Take a look at this video (there are others) to hear how the vowels and consonants are pronounced:

  Youtube: The sounds of the Hungarian alphabet

  Another video, as a gentle intro to the Hungarian language:

  Hungarian explained - such long words, such an isolated language

• ••• 41 Verb practice613 @ 50% 50

  autókat · erőseket · férfiakat · gyerekeket · görögöket · imádják · kutyákat · magyarokat · nagyokat · nehezeket · nőket · ruhákat · székeket · szépeket · tisztákat · tisztát · virágokat
  17 words

  You've already learned a whole lot about Hungarian verbs! They can be intransitive (not take an object) or transitive (take an object). When they are transitive, they can have different forms based on whether their object is definite or not! And of course, we can put them in the past tense, too.

  So far, you were practising these skills separately, but in this skill, you'll have to concentrate on whether you're dealing with the present or the past, and with definite or indefinite objects!

• ••• 41 Pronouns of Position382 @ 50% 50

  Pronouns of position

  	Case ending	...me	... you	... him/her
  	- ban - ben	bennem	benned	benne
  	- on - en -ön -n	rajtam	rajtad	rajta
  	- nál - nél	nálam	nálad	nála

  	Case ending	...us	... you (pl)	... them
  	- ban - ben	bennünk	bennetek	bennük
  	- on - en -ön -n	rajtunk	rajtatok	rajtuk
  	- nál - nél	nálunk	nálatok	náluk

• ••• 41 Pronouns of Source381 @ 50% 50

  You learned the case endings earlier. For example, in the house = a házban. In this skill, you will see constructions like "in me", "from you", "about him".

  Pronouns of source

  	Case ending	...me	... you	... him/her
  	- ból - ből	belőlem	belőled	belőle
  	- ról - ről	rólam	rólad	róla
  	- tól - től	tőlem	tőled	tőle

  	Case ending	...us	... you (pl.)	... them
  	- ból - ből	belőlünk	belőletek	belőlük
  	- ról - ről	rólunk	rólatok	róluk
  	- tól - től	tőlünk	tőletek	tőlük

• ••• 32 Ablative Case243 @ 25% 75

  katitól · pétertől
  2 words

  The ablative case -tól/-től shows motion away from something.

  It can usually be translated with from , but not all uses of from can be translated with the ablative!

  • A folyótól jövök. ‘I am coming from the river.’

  • Az épülettől indul a busz. ‘The bus is leaving from the building.’

  There are nine different cases that are related to location. We can arrange them in a 3 x 3 matrix. The triads of movement are :

  	goal	position	source
  SPACES	-ba -be	-ban -ben	-ból -ből
  SURFACES	-ra -re	-on -en -ön -n	-ról -ről
  SOLIDS	-hoz -hez -höz	-nál -nél	-tól -től

  spaces:
  Bemegyek a házba. - I go into the house.
  A házban vagyok. - I am in the house.
  Kimegyek a házból. - I go out of the house.

  surfaces:
  Az asztalra rakom a könyvet. - I put the book on the table.
  A könyv az asztalon van. - The book is on the table.
  Elveszem az asztalról a könyvet. - I take the book away from the table.

  solids:
  Odamegyek a szoborhoz. - I go over to the statue.
  A szobornál várok. - I wait at the statue.
  Elmegyek a szobortól. - I go away from the statue.

• ••• 32 Accusative 161 @ 25% 75

  almát · autót · buszt · bírót · diákot · eladót · fiatalt · fiút · fát · férfit · gyereket · házat · iskolát · jeget · kenyeret · keveset · kicsit · kit · könyvet · lányt · magasat · mit · nőt · orvost · rendezőt · riportert · semmit · sokat · szállodát · tanárt · telefont · vacsorát · valamit · épületet · írót · ügyvédet
  36 words

  Direct Objects and the accusative case

  The accusative is a fancy word for DIRECT OBJECT ! In Hungarian, it is shown by a * t * - on a direct object !
  

  Fiú, ’boy’ , becomes fiút when it is the DIRECT OBJECT !

  In English, direct objects usually follow the subject and the predicate, as in

  • The girl sees a boy.

  Boy is the direct object, girl is the subject, and sees is the predicate.

  In Hungarian, the word order can be less regular, but the direct object case is marked with t :

  • A lány lát egy fiút.

  The subject is lány , the verb is lát, and fiút is the direct object, with its accusative ending, t ! So, that "t " is a helpful hint to Hungarians that this word is a DIRECT OBJECT .
  

  Accusative endings

  If a word ends in i, í, o, ó, ö, ő, u, ú, ü, or ű (not a or e), then t is added directly to the end of the word

  • fiú -> fiút
  • nő -> nőt

  But words ending in -a and -e, become -á and -é when they get the t.

  • alma ’apple’ -> almát
    
  • körte ’pear’ -> körtét

  If the word ends in a consonant, we USUALLY have to add a vowel before the accusative t -ot / -at / -et / -öt . Which vowel is determined by vowel harmony ! Words with front vowels get a front vowel before the t, words with back vowels get a back vowel. But -r / -l / -n / - ny / - s / -sz / -z / -j / -ly take the -t directly (see below ) .

  back vowels	front vowels
  a, á	e, é,
  o, ó	i, í,
  u, ú	ö, ő
  	ü, ű

  -back vowels usually get -ot

  • sajt ‘cheese’ -> sajtot

  • narancs 'orange' -> narancsot

  -some words, which you have to memorize, get -at:

  • ház ‘house’ -> házat

  • toll 'pen' -> tollat

  -front vowels get -et:

  • szék ’chair’ -> széket

  • zöldség ’vegetable’ -> zöldséget

  • round vowel words which have ö / ő / ü / ü in the last syllable get -öt

  • gyümölcs ’fruit’ -> gyümölcsöt

  • főnök ’boss’ -> főnököt

  When the word ends in -r / -l / -n / - ny / - s / -sz / -z / -j / -ly we USUALLY add the -t directly .

  • bor ’wine’ -> bort

  • lány ’girl’ -> lányt

  A note on word order

  In sentences with a subject, verb and object, Hungarian has very flexible word order. All of the following can be used in certain contexts:

  • Péter lát egy házat.
  • Péter egy házat lát.
  • Egy házat lát Péter.
  • Egy házat Péter lát.

  They all mean ‘Péter sees a house.’, but each sentence conveys slightly different information with respect to which element is in FOCUS (or stressed ) . A focused phrase appears immediately in front of the verb and it often represents new information or contrast.

  The first sentence (with Péter above ), for example, would be a valid answer to a question like ‘Who sees a house?’ but the second sentence would be " A HOUSE is what Peter sees ", because here egy házat ‘a house’ immediately precedes the verb and is, therefore, in focus.

  FOCUS can be very tricky, but English has similar constructions !

  If you have

  • What does Péter see?

  the question word is in focus and asks for new information. In the reply, the answer to what will also be new information and be in focus.

  And in English you can say,

  • Péter sees a house.

  or

  • It's a house that Péter sees.

  Or:

  • It is Péter who sees a house.

  Each of these stresses something different. In Hungarian, it's done with FOCUS . . .

  Word order in questions

  Question words generally ask for some (new) information and act like a focused part of the sentence. In Hungarian, a question like ‘Who(m) does Mari see?’ ’who(m)’ is in focus and has to appear right before the verb:

  • Kit lát Mari?
  • Mari kit lát?

  Keresni

  If the root (stem ) of a verb ends with s, z, sz, then the second person singular informal (te) form ends with l.

  	keres (search)	olvas (read)	vesz (buy)
  én	keresek	olvasok	veszek
  te	keresel	olvasol	veszel
  ő	keres	olvas	vesz

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• ••• 32 Verbs 1 : Present Single51 @ 25% 75

  Here are the present tense singular (I, you, s/he ) forms .
  

  • Tanulni means both ‘to learn’ and ‘to study’. Its stem is tanul- . Its 'indefinite ' present conjugation is :

  	tanulni ‘to learn/study’	suffix (ending)
  1	tanul-ok ‘I learn’	-ok
  2	tanul-sz ‘you learn’	-sz
  3	tanul ‘she/he learns’	(null)

  These suffixes (endings ) are used for all the verbs in Lesson 1.

  In Lesson 2, we find verbs like sietni ‘to hurry’. This table shows the singular forms of sietni.

  	sietni ‘to hurry’	suffix (ending)
  1	siet-ek ‘I hurry’	-ek
  2	siet-sz ‘you hurry’	-sz
  3	siet ‘she/he hurries’	(null)

  Notice that the first person singular suffix for sietni is -ek, not -ok as in 'tanulni ' ? Why?

  What's happening here is vowel harmony, which you will need for more than to conjugate verbs...

  Vowel harmony means that the vowels (a, e, i, o and u ) in a word require that the vowels in suffixes (like -ek and -ok) "match " the vowels in the words they attach to:

  We use * -ok when the verb it attaches to contains the vowels a, á, o, ó, u, or ú.

  • -ek occurs when the verb it attaches to contains i, í, e, é.

  and * -ök occurs when the verb it attaches to contains ö, ő, ü, or ű.

  The vowels in the suffixes have to be in “harmony” with the vowels in the word they attach to. Moreover, this “harmony” has two groups of vowels, called “back” and “front” (and later "rounded " :

  front vowels	back vowels
  i, í, ü, ű	u, ú
  e, é, ö, ő	o, ó
  	a, á

  This table helps determine which vowel should precede the -k in the first person singular — If they are back, we get -ok. If they are front, we get -ek or -ök.

  There are exceptions; you'll learn about those a little later!

  About word order

  Word order in Hungarian is more flexible than in English, but it is not completely free (more about this soon).

  Some words, or parts of the sentence , have to come immediately before the verb - a location called "focus " .

  Question words like ki ‘who’ or mi ‘what’ ...

  • Ki sétál a piac mellett? ‘Who is taking a walk next to the marketplace ? ‘

  Or when you compare or contrast two phrases (or words), one is in focus and has to come right before the verb.

  For example:

  • Nem a piac mellett sétálok, hanem az áruház mellett. ‘I am not walking next to the market, but next to the department store.‘

  The contrast is between a piac mellett ‘next to the market‘ and az áruház mellett ‘next to the department store‘.

• ••• 32 Occupations41 @ 25% 75

  bíró · eladó · főnök · katona · munkás · mérnök · művész · művésznő · pincér · politikus · postás · rendező · rendőr · riporter · sportoló · szakács · színész · színésznő · titkárnő · turista · tűzoltó · zeneszerző · zenész · énekesnő · író · óvónő · ügyvéd
  27 words

  Gender in occupations

  Hungarian does not usually specify one's gender: the pronoun ő means ‘he’ and ‘she’. But, when speaking about jobs and occupations, there is a way of showing genders .

  For most occupations, like művész ‘artist’ or rendőr ‘policeman’, just add nő ‘woman’ .

  művésznő is a female artist, and rendőrnő is a policewoman.

  Nem... hanem... sentences

  Én nem a szakács vagyok, hanem a pincér. I am not the cook, but rather the waiter.

  These nem/hanem types of sentences consist of two parts, and mean something like It is not X, but Y where X and Y contrast. X and Y can be two nouns, two places, two adjectives, two verbs, etc.

  Both de and hanem translate to but, but they are not the same. Think of hanem as but rather. If you speak German, de=aber, hanem=sondern.

  When to use hanem, and when to use de ?.

  Hanem is never alone, if hanem is used, there will always be nem in the first part of the sentence.

  Nem

  Nem precedes what it negates. To find the place for nem, look into the second part of the sentence . The negation has to contrast with the hanem part.

  Én nem a szakács vagyok, hanem a pincér. I am not the cook, but the waiter. The contrast is : the waiter versus the cook, so nem comes before a szakács.

  Nem én vagyok a pincér, hanem ő. It is not ME who is the waiter, but HIM . The contrast is : me versus him, so nem is placed before én.

  The verb can be in the middle of the sentence (after nem X) or at the end (after hanem Y). A megálló nem itt van, hanem ott. A megálló nem itt, hanem ott van. (The stop is not here, but there.)

  Occasionally the contrasting pair is two verbs: Én nem állok, hanem ülök. I am not standing, but sitting.

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• ••• 32 Places 142 @ 25% 75

  ahol · alatt · bank · előtt · fa · folyó · fölött · iskola · kórház · között · megálló · mellett · mögött · piac · pályaudvar · repül · repülőgép · repülőtér · régi · szálloda · város · áruház · épület · új · üzlet
  25 words

  In this skill, you'll start with locations and relations between locations .
  

  English has prepositions, words like on, in, by, etc. which express location:

  • on the building, in the city, by the tree

  Hungarian expresses some of these meanings using suffixes (soon! ), and some of them using postpositions, not prepositions .

  In English, we say behind the tree but in Hungarian, we say a fa mögött. (Literally: "the tree behind".)

  In Lesson 3, you'll learn more nouns.

  "Ott, ahol" sentences

  In this skill, you will see some compound sentences - here, they mostly follow the structure "something takes place where something else does, too".
  These compound sentences have two verbs; the second clause elaborates on a detail (a location) in the first sentence. So, the second clause is a subordinate clause.

  In English, all you need to get this connection is to add "where" - it links the location in the first clause to the location in the second clause. This is not how it works in Hungarian. "Ahol" (~where at ) marks the location in the second clause. You need "ott" (a demonstrative word) to mark the location in the first clause - "ott", "there". You need both .

  To summarize: "... where ..." will usually translate to "... ott ..., ahol ..." . ( "ott" usually won't be right in front of "ahol".)

  I am singing where you are having lunch. - Ott énekelek, ahol (te) ebédelsz.

  Later, you will find you can replace either "ott" or "ahol" to create more complex relations between the two clauses. It's worth mentioning that you can omit the demonstrative word - but then it will be implied at the end of the first clause which usually creates odd word order.

  Word order

  Word order is complicated in Hungarian. For a longer explanation, read these forum posts:

  On Emphasis and Word Order in Hungarian

  Structure and word order of a Hungarian sentence

  Once more on Hungarian Word Order

  Important advice ! "Ask not where to put the verb, ask where to put everything else - relative to the verb ! ”

  Word order in questions

  Questions have even stricter rules than statements. In Hungarian, if the question has a question word (who, what, where, when, why, how), then that word must be placed immediately in front of the verb.

  It's good to start a question with a question word, but not always necessary.

  Examples:

  • Mi van a város fölött?
  • A város fölött mi van?
  • Ki sétál a régi házak között?
  • A régi házak között ki sétál?

  The question word must come immediately before the verb . It is always in focus - since focus is on the word or phrase immediately before the verb .

  Examples: Mi van a város fölött? A város fölött mi van? Ki sétál a régi házak között? A régi házak között ki sétál?

  In other cases, it may be that the question word is part of a "block" Hány gyerek? Mennyi víz? Milyen autó? If so, place the verb after this block.

  Hány gyerek van itt? Mennyi víz van a pohárban? Milyen autót vesz Péter?

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• ••• 41 Possession Object462 @ 25% 75

  Here, you will meet possessed direct objects, objects with both a possessive and an accusative suffix. The form is that the noun is followed by the possessive marker and by the accusative marker - in that order:

  • ház → ház-am → ház-am-at ‘my house (obj.)’

  The accusative is fairly regular, too. Recall that for a word like alma ‘apple’, adding the accusative lengthens the final vowel:

  • alma → almá-t ‘apple (obj.)’

  The same happens with possessive forms ending in -a:

  • ház-a ‘his/her/its house’ → ház-á-t ‘his/her/its house (obj.)’

  Note that possessed direct objects (nearly) always require the definite verb form, and they often appear with a definite determiner or possessor .

  Finally, if the possessor is in the first or second person singular, the accusative can sometimes be omitted:

  • Add a kezed! ‘Give me your hand!’

  Here, it is fairly common to just use kezed instead of kezedet. But if the possessor is in the third person this is never possible.

• ••• 41 Quoting621 @ 25% 75

  említi · említjük · gondolja · gondoljuk · gondolom · hisszük · hiszem · hiszi · kérdezi · kérdeznek · válaszolja · válaszoljátok · válaszolom
  13 words

  This skill is about embedded clauses with verbs of believing, such as gondol ‘to believe’, and verbs of saying, such as kérdez ‘to ask’.

  In English, the complement clause of believe is often introduced by that. In Hungarian, hogy has the same function (but it is preceded by a comma):

  • I believe that it is raining.
  • Azt hiszem, hogy esik az eső.

  In Hungarian, however, the main clause also contains azt, the accusative form of the demonstrative az. This is necessary with the verbs gondol, hisz ‘to believe’ and válaszol ‘to reply’:

  • Mari azt gondolja, hogy esik. ‘Mari believes that it is raining.’
  • Péter azt válaszolja, hogy jön. ‘Péter answers that he is coming.’
• ••• 41 Choices 7442 @ 25% 75

  akit · amit · azokat · azt · borokat · ezeket · ezt · fiúkat · fiút · házakat · kenyereket · kenyeret · kutyát · lányokat · lányt
  15 words

• ••• 41 Accusative Numerals432 @ 25% 75

  első · elsőt · ezreket · ezret · harmadik · harmadikat · harmincadikat · harmincat · hat · hatodik · hatodikat · hatot · hetedik · hetet · huszonötödiket · huszonötöt · hármat · három · kecskét · kettőt · kilenc · kilencet · másodikat · negyediket · nyolc · nyolcadikat · nyolcat · négyet · szeretjük · százat · ötvenediket · ötvenet · ötödik · ötödiket · ötöt · újságot
  36 words

• ••• 41 Past tense 2422 @ 25% 75

  You have recently learned the past tense in Hungarian. As you remember, it is formed by adding a -t- to the stem followed by personal suffixes. However, as in the present tense, Hungarian distinguishes using a verb form whether the (third person) direct object is definite or not. In the skill Past 1, we showed you the forms without objects or with indefinite objects. Here are the forms for past tense verbs with definite objects.

  We start with the verb lát, with a back vowel, e.g. láttuk ‘we saw it’. Note that the first person singular is the same for both. Some of the verb forms with definite objects are similar to the present tense forms: instead of -j-, we find a -t- in the 3SG and the plural forms.

  	indefinite or no object	definite object
  1SG	lát-t-am	lát-t-am
  2SG	lát-t-ál	lát-t-ad
  3SG	lát-ott	lát-t-a
  1PL	lát-t-unk	lát-t-uk
  2PL	lát-ta-tok	lát-t-átok
  3PL	lát-t-ak	lát-t-ák

  Now for a verb with front vowels, like keres, e.g. kerestük ‘we were looking for it’.

  	indefinite or no object	definite object
  1SG	keres-t-em	keres-t-em
  2SG	keres-t-él	keres-t-ed
  3SG	keres-ett	keres-t-e
  1PL	keres-t-ünk	keres-t-ük
  2PL	keres-te-tek	keres-t-étek
  3PL	keres-t-ek	keres-t-ék

• ••• 41 Linking words441 @ 25% 75

  ahol · amikor · azonban · bár · de · ennek ellenére · ha · hogy · mert · mindegy · még · mégis · nos · pedig · persze · például · sőt · talán · tehát · továbbá · tudom · valóban · végül is · általában
  24 words

• ••• 41 Food411 @ 25% 75

  sült
  1 words

  In this lesson, you'll learn the Hungarian words for a number of fruits, vegetables and other foods, as well as the names of some Hungarian dishes.

  As in earlier skills, when talking about something in general, Hungarian differs from English. Where English uses a bare noun, as in Cheese is tasty., in Hungarian you have to use a definite article plus a noun: A sajt finom.

  Another difference between the two languages is that Hungarian sometimes uses a bare singular noun where English would use an article and a noun or a plural: Szőlőt eszem. translates to I am eating grapes.

  Some of the dishes mentioned in the sentences in this skill are difficult to translate, since they are Hungarian specialties. So here is a very short little guide to Hungarian cuisine:

  • gulyás(leves) is a soup flavoured with some paprika with different vegetables and meat; it is soupier than "goulash soup" in other countries

  • lángos is a small, round piece of wheat dough (sometimes with potato as well) with yeast that is fried in oil or baked and eaten with garlic, cheese and/or sour dough

  • lecsó is a vegetable ragout or stew, made with onion, tomato, peppers, and paprika

  • pálinka is a fruit brandy that is often made from apricots (then usually called barack or barackpálinka), plums (szilvapálinka), or other fruit

  • paprikás is a dish made with paprika, onion, garlic and different meats or vegetables, such as chicken, mushrooms, potatoes, or beans; there are many varieties; this dish is sometimes known as "goulash" outside of Hungary

  • pörkölt is a stew usually made with (you guessed it!) paprika, onion, garlic and beef or pork; there are many different varieties, however; this dish is often known as "goulash" outside of Hungary

• ••• 41 Past tense 1402 @ 25% 75

  The past tense in Hungarian is relatively simple (really!). In contrast to English, there is only a single past tense, and it is mostly regular.

  The past is formed by adding a -t with or without a vowel to the verb stem, followed by the personal endings. This is first shown for the indefinite paradigm of lát, a verb with a back vowel.

  • lát-ok → lát-t-am ‘I saw’

  • lát-sz → lát-t-ál ‘you (sg.) saw’

  • lát → lát-ott ‘she/he/it saw’

  • lát-unk → lát-t-unk ‘we saw’

  • lát-tok → lát-ta-tok ‘you (pl.) saw’

  • lát-nak → lát-t-ak ‘they saw’

  For verbs with front vowels, the suffixes are slightly different:

  • keres-ek → keres-t-em ‘I was looking for’

  • keres-el → keres-t-él ‘you (sg.) were looking for’

  • keres → keres-ett ‘she/he/it was looking for’

  • keres-ünk → keres-t-ünk ‘we were looking for’

  • keres-tek → keres-te-tek ‘you (pl.) were looking for’

  • keres-nek → keres-t-ek ‘they were looking for’

  Notice that in the first person singular, the ending is -m for both the indefinite and the definite forms, unlike in the present tense. This makes your life easier (you’ll learn the definite forms soon).

  There is another group of verbs where the past tense singular third person form does not end with -ott -ett or -ött just simply with a -t.

  • talál-ok → talál-t-am ‘I found’

  • talál-sz → talál-t-ál ‘you (sg.) found’

  • talál → talál-t ‘she/he/it found’

  • talál-unk → talál-t-unk ‘we found’

  • talál-tok → talál-ta-tok ‘you (pl.) found’

  • talál-nak → talál-t-ak ‘they found’

  There are a few exceptional stems which look slightly different in the present and the past tense:

  • vagyok, van, ... → _voltam ‘I was’, volt ‘she/he/it was’, ...

  • megyek, megy, ... → mentem ‘I went’, ment ‘she/he/it went’, ...

  • eszem, eszik, ... → ettem ‘I ate’, evett ‘she/he/it ate’, ...

  • iszom, iszik, ... → ittam ‘I drank’, ivott ‘she/he/it drank’, ...

  Even these, as you can see, are somewhat regular. The -sz in verbs like eszik, iszik, vesz, tesz, lesz, disappears in the past tense: evett, ivott, vett, tett, lett.

• ••• 41 Choices 6400 @ 25% 75

  akiknek · akinek · annak · azoknak
  4 words

• ••• 41 Plural Possessions391 @ 25% 75

  The plural of possessed nouns

  You've already learned quite a bit about possession in Hungarian. You might have noticed, however, that the examples so far were missing something, namely
  plurals of possessed nouns.

  While usually plurals of nouns are indicated by the suffix -k (with a vowel preceding it), when we're dealing with a possessed noun, like his bosses, the plural is formed in a different way, with -i. So:

  • Péter főnöke ‘Péter's boss’
  • Péter főnökei ‘Péter's bosses‘

  The great thing about this suffix is that there's no vowel harmony. It's simply -i and remains -i. Thus:

  • Éva asztala ‘Éva's table’
  • Éva asztalai ‘Éva's tables’

  Let's look at the plural forms of the words cipő and asztal that we discussed in the Tips and Notes of Possessives 1. Cipő ‘shoe’ has front vowels and ends in a vowel, so its possessed forms are:

  	Hungarian	English
  1SG	cipő-im	my shoes
  2SG	cipő-id	your (sg.) shoes
  3SG	cipő-i	her/his shoes
  1PL	cipő-ink	our shoes
  2PL	cipő-itek	your (pl.) shoes
  3PL	cipő-ik	their shoes

  asztal ‘table' has back vowels and ends in a consonant, so its possessed forms are:

  	Hungarian	English
  1SG	asztal-aim	my tables
  2SG	asztal-aid	your (sg.) tables
  3SG	asztal-ai	her/his tables
  1PL	asztal-aink	our tables
  2PL	asztal-aitok	your (pl.) tables
  3PL	asztal-aik	their tables

  Ő, Ők

  Be careful, ők gets shortened to ő in some possessive structures, and only the possessive ending shows the possessor:
  

  az ő széke - his/her chair

  az ő székük - their chair

  az ő székei - his/her chairs

  az ő székeik - their chairs

  az ő háza - his/her house

  az ő házuk - their house

  az ő házai - his/her houses

  az ő házaik - their houses

• ••• 41 Pronouns of Goal383 @ 25% 75

  Pronouns of goal

  	Case ending	...me	... you	... him/her
  	- ba - be	belém	beléd	belé
  	- ra -re	rám	rád	rá
  	- hoz -hez -höz	hozzám	hozzád	hozzá

  	Case ending	...us	... you (pl.)	... them
  	- ba - be	belénk	belétek	beléjük
  	- ra -re	ránk	rátok	rájuk
  	- hoz -hez -höz	hozzánk	hozzátok	hozzájuk

• ••• 41 Allative Postpositional Pronouns373 @ 25% 75

  Take some postpositions, add moving towards something and attach some personal endings.

  English	Postposition	...me	... you	... him/her
  (to) beside	mellé	mellém	melléd	mellé
  (to) under	alá	alám	alád	alá
  (to) in front of	elé	elém	eléd	elé
  (to) above	fölé	fölém	föléd	fölé
  (to) behind	mögé	mögém	mögéd	mögé
  towards	felé	felém	feléd	felé
  (to) around	köré	körém	köréd	köré

• ••• 41 Adessive Postpositional Pronouns372 @ 25% 75

  Take some postpositions, and attach some personal endings.

  English	Postposition	... me	... you	... him/her
  beside, next to	mellett	mellettem	melletted	mellette
  under	alatt	alattam	alattad	alatta
  in front of	előtt	előttem	előtted	előtte
  above	fölött	fölöttem	fölötted	fölötte
  behind	mögött	mögöttem	mögötted	mögötte
  after	után	utánam	utánad	utána

• ••• 41 Ablative Postpositional Pronouns371 @ 25% 75

  Take some postpositions, add moving away from something and attach some personal endings.

  English	Postposition	... me	... you	... him/her
  (from) beside	mellől	mellőlem	mellőled	mellőle
  (from) under	alól	alólam	alólad	alóla
  (from) in front of	elől	előlem	előled	előle
  (from) above	fölül	fölülem	fölüled	fölüle
  (from) behind	mögül	mögülem	mögüled	mögüle

• ••• 41 Body Parts192 @ 25% 75

  Body parts that come in pairs - like clothing

  When you talk about paired body parts (eyes, ears, legs), use the singular in Hungarian most of the time.

  Kék a szeme. - His eyes are blue.

  Nagy a füle. - Her ears are big.

• ••• 41 Adverbial Possessives353 @ 25% 75
• ••• 41 Choices 5351 @ 25% 75

  annak · azoknak · ennek · ezeknek
  4 words

  Long forms

  As we saw earlier, usually we can choose between a short form and a long form to show possession:

  the boy's dog = a fiú kutyája / a fiúnak a kutyája

  the girl's cat = a lány macskája / a lánynak a macskája

  However, if you use the possessor with this/that, you have to use the longer form (with the -nak-nek ending)

  this boy's dog = ennek a fiúnak a kutyája

  that boy's dog = annak a fiúnak a kutyája

  this girl's cat = ennek a lánynak a macskája

  that girl's cat = annak a lánynak a macskája

  If the possessor is plural:

  these boys' dog = ezeknek a fiúknak a kutyája

  those girls' cat = azoknak a lányoknak a macskája

  -ja or -juk

  Let's refresh the possessive endings:

  	Hungarian	English
  1SG	-öm, -em, -om, -m	my
  2SG	-öd, -ed, -od, -d	your (sg.)
  3SG	-je, -ja, -e, -a	his/her/its
  1PL	-ünk, -unk, -nk	our
  2PL	-(ö)tök, -(e)tek, -(o)tok	your (pl.)
  3PL	-jük, -juk, -ük, -uk	their

  But we will see that the 3rd person plural behaves strangely.

  Exceptions

  As usual, there are a few exceptions to the general rule. When the possessor is third person plural, the forms change in one of two ways. First, when the possessor is a pronoun, ők ‘they’, the pronoun loses its -k. (This only happens with ők, all other pronouns stay intact.)

  • az ő cipőjük ‘their shoe’

  • az ő asztaluk ‘their table’

  So it looks like a singular possessor, but is still plural. Second, when the possessor is a plural noun, like a lányok, the possessed noun loses its plural ending -(j)uk or -(j)ük

  • a lányok cipője ‘the girls' shoe’

  • a lányok asztala ‘the girls' table'

  How does it work in general?

  First, we have to make a distinction. Do we have a Possessive sentence, like The boy's dog is black. A fiú kutyája fekete.

  or a To have sentence: The boy has a dog. A fiúnak van egy kutyája.

  So, in total:
  

  	Possessive sentence	To have sentence
  they	-juk	-juk
  	az ő kutyájuk	(nekik) van egy kutyájuk
  	their dog	they have a dog
  plural noun	-ja	-juk
  	a fiúk kutyája, a fiúknak a kutyája	a fiúknak van egy kutyájuk
  	the boys' dog	the boys have a dog
  önök, maguk	-ja	-juk
  	az önök kutyája	önöknek van egy kutyájuk
  	your dog	you have a dog
  not named	-juk	-juk
  	a kutyájuk	van egy kutyájuk
  	(their/your) dog	(they/you) have a dog

  Articles

  One more thing, where Possessive sentence versus a To have sentence makes a big difference.

  Annak a fiúnak a kutyája barna. That boy's dog is black.
  

  (You have to write a kutyája here.)

  Annak a fiúnak van egy kutyája. /Annak a fiúnak van kutyája. That boy has a dog.

  (Here, egy kutyája or kutyája without article is possible.)

• ••• 41 To have 2342 @ 25% 75
• ••• 41 Possessives 2341 @ 25% 75

  Possessive suffixes

  In many languages, you use possessive adjectives to express who a certain object belongs to :

  • my table or her shoe

  Hungarian does not have possessive adjectives like my or her instead possessive suffixes. They are similar to possessive adjectives in that they indicate the person and number of the possessor but they are attached to the noun:

  • az asztalom ‘my table’

  • a cipője ‘her/his shoe’

  The forms are as follows:

  	Hungarian	English
  1SG	-öm, -om, -m	my
  2SG	-öd, -ed, -od, -d	your (sg.)
  3SG	-je, -ja, -a	his/her/its
  1PL	-ünk, -unk, -nk	our
  2PL	-(ö)tök, -(e)tek, -(o)tok	your (pl.)
  3PL	-jük, -juk, -uk	their

  They require vowel harmony so if a noun ends in a vowel... cipő ‘shoe’ has front vowels and ends in a vowel, so its forms are:

  	Hungarian	English
  1SG	cipő-m	my shoe
  2SG	cipő-d	your (sg.) shoe
  3SG	cipő-je	her/his shoe
  1PL	cipő-nk	our shoe
  2PL	cipő-tök	your (pl.) shoe
  3PL	cipő-jük	their shoe

  asztal ‘table' has back vowels and ends in a consonant, so its forms are:

  	Hungarian	English
  1SG	asztal-om	my table
  2SG	asztal-od	your (sg.) table
  3SG	asztal-a	her/his table
  1PL	asztal-unk	our table
  2PL	asztal-otok	your (pl.) table
  3PL	asztal-juk	their table

  Possessors

  Hungarian has two ways of expressing the possessor of something, like the two English constructions a friend's book and a book of a friend.

  Possessors can be in the nominative case, e.g. a lány, or dative, e.g. a lánynak:

  • a lány cipője ‘the girl's shoe’
  • a lánynak a cipője ‘the girl's shoe’

  The constructions can mean the same, but they differ in some ways. The dative (a lánynak) is followed by a ‘the’ , and you have to use the dative in questions with whose:

  • Ez kinek a cipője? ‘Whose shoe is this?’

  whose in this sentence is ki-nek, the dative of ki ‘who’.

  Exceptions

  As usual, there are exceptions to the rule, and they're complicated ! When the possessor is third person plural, the forms change in one of two ways. First, when the possessor is a pronoun, like ők ‘they’, the pronoun loses its -k:

  • az ő cipőjük ‘their shoe’
  • az ő asztaluk ‘their table’

  So it looks like a singular possessor, but it is still plural. Second, when the possessor is a noun in the plural, like a lányok, the possessed noun loses its plural ending -(j)uk or *-(j)ük*:

  • a lányok cipője ‘the girls' shoe’
  • a lányok asztala ‘the girls' table'

  mine, yours, ...

  Hungarian also has possessive pronouns corresponding to mine, yours, etc. They always include the definite article a and are formed as follows:

  	Hungarian	English
  1SG	az enyém	mine
  2SG	a tiéd or a tied	yours (sg.)
  3SG	az övé	hers/his
  1PL	a miénk	ours
  2PL	a tiétek	yours (pl.)
  3PL	az övék	theirs

  You can use these forms in sentences like:

  Ez a cipő az enyém. ‘This shoe is mine.’

  Dropping a vowel

  Some words drop the last vowel in the plural /in the accusative case / in possessive forms. We can call this a "fleeting vowel".

  For example:
  

  étterem - restaurant

  éttermek - restaurants

  éttermet - restaurant (accusative)

  étterme - his/her restaurant

  éttermem - my restaurant

  Here we show the accusative singular and the 3rd person singular possessive forms, the other possessive forms follow the pattern.

  English	HU nominative	accusative	3SG possessive
  restaurant	étterem	éttermet	étterme
  room, hall	terem	termet	terme
  strawberry	eper	epret	epre
  mirror	tükör	tükröt	tükre
  statue	szobor	szobrot	szobra
  monkey	majom	majmot	majma
  tail	farok	farkat	farka
  bush	bokor	bokrot	bokra
  dream	álom	álmot	álma
  (lion) cub	kölyök	kölyköt	kölyke

• ••• 41 Family 1202 @ 25% 75

  Hungarian uses four different words for older/younger brother, older/younger sister, not just brother and sister.
  

  For example:
  A bátyám orvos. My older brother is a doctor.
  

  Hol van az öcséd? Where is your younger brother?

  A húgom óvónő. My younger sister is a kindergarten teacher.
  

  A nővérem mérnök. My older sister is an engineer.

  Hungarian	English
  anya	mother
  apa	father
  testvér	sibling
  báty	older brother
  öcs	younger brother
  nővér	older sister
  húg	younger sister
  nagymama	grandmother
  nagypapa	grandfather
  unoka	grandchild
  nagynéni	aunt
  nagybácsi	uncle
  unokatestvér	cousin
  unokahúg	niece
  unokaöcs	nephew
  férj	husband
  feleség	wife
  após	father-in-law
  anyós	mother-in-law
  sógor	brother-in-law
  sógornő	sister-in-law

• ••• 41 To have 1331 @ 25% 75

  kiknek · kinek · neked · nekem · neki · nekik · nektek · nekünk
  8 words

  In the previous skill, you learned how to express possession in Hungarian. In this skill, you'll learn another way to show possession: how to make sentences which use the verb to have.

  Hungarian does not have a verb that means to have. Instead, Hungarian uses the verb van ‘there is’ with a dative (for the possessor) and a nominative (for the possessed noun):

  • Mary has a car.
  • Marinak van egy autója.

  This construction means something like There is a car to Mary. .

  The possessed noun has a possessive suffix which matches in person and number with the dative possessor. In the above example, Mari is third person singular, so the possessed noun gets ja.

  Dative possessors can be proper names (like Mari), regular nouns, as well as pronouns, of course.

  • Van egy autóm. ‘I have a car.’
  • Nekem van egy autóm. ‘I have a car.’

  Using a pronoun in such cases usually adds some emphasis on the possessor: pronouns are natural in answers to question:

  • Kinek van autója? ‘Who has a car?’
  • Nekem. or Nekem van autóm. ‘I do.’ / ‘I have a car.’

  Remember also that in Hungarian, the question word ki ‘who’ has separate singular and plural forms, so the sentence

  • Kiknek van autójuk? ‘Who has a car?’

  is asking if there are several possessors: in English, this distinction does not exist, and the sentence can be translated with a singular subject.

  Possessed nouns in the plural

  You know that the regular plural suffix in Hungarian is -k. But when a noun is possessed, we use a different suffix: -i.

  • a kertje ‘his/her garden’
  • a kertek ‘the gardens’
  • a kertjei ‘his/her gardens’

  This suffix always follows a possessive (generally ja/je or a_/_e), and precedes the suffix indicating the person and number of the possessor:

  • a kertem ‘my garden’ but a kertjeim ‘my gardens’
  • a házam ‘my house’ but a házaim ‘my houses’
• ••• 41 Possessives 1321 @ 25% 75

  kiknek · kinek
  2 words

  Possessive suffixes

  You use possessive adjectives to express who an object belongs to:

  • my table or her shoe

  Hungarian does not have possessive adjectives like my or her but possessive suffixes. They are very similar to possessive adjectives in that they indicate the person and number of the possessor but they appear attached to the noun:

  • az asztalom ‘my table’

  • a cipője ‘her/his shoe’

  The forms are as follows:

  	Hungarian	English
  1SG	-öm, -om, -m	my
  2SG	-öd, -ed, -od, -d	your (sg.)
  3SG	-je, -ja, -a	his/her/its
  1PL	-ünk, -unk, -nk	our
  2PL	-(ö)tök, -(e)tek, -(o)tok	your (pl.)
  3PL	-jük, -juk, -uk	their

  cipő ‘shoe’ has front vowels and ends in a vowel, so its possessive forms are:

  	Hungarian	English
  1SG	cipő-m	my shoe
  2SG	cipő-d	your (sg.) shoe
  3SG	cipő-je	her/his shoe
  1PL	cipő-nk	our shoe
  2PL	cipő-tök	your (pl.) shoe
  3PL	cipő-jük	their shoe

  asztal ‘table' has back vowels and ends in a consonant, so its possessive forms are:

  	Hungarian	English
  1SG	asztal-om	my table
  2SG	asztal-od	your (sg.) table
  3SG	asztal-a	her/his table
  1PL	asztal-unk	our table
  2PL	asztal-otok	your (pl.) table
  3PL	asztal-uk	their table

  Possessors

  Hungarian has two ways of expressing possession , a bit like the two English constructions a friend's book and a book of a friend.

  Possessors can be nominative, a lány, or dative, e.g. a lánynak:

  • a lány cipője ‘the girl's shoe’
  • a lánynak a cipője ‘the girl's shoe’

  As you can see, the constructions can be the same, but they differ in some ways. The dative (a lánynak) is followed by a ‘the’ and you have to use the dative in questions with whose:

  • Ez kinek a cipője? ‘Whose shoe is this?’

  whose in this sentence is ki-nek, the dative of ki ‘who’.

  Exceptions

  As usual, there are exceptions to the general rule. When the possessor is third person plural, the forms change in one of two ways. First, when the possessor is a pronoun, ők ‘they’, the pronoun loses its -k. (This only happens with ők, all other pronouns stay intact.)

  • az ő cipőjük ‘their shoe’
  • az ő asztaluk ‘their table’

  So it looks like a singular possessor, but it's still plural. Second, when the possessor is a noun in the plural, like a lányok, the possessed noun loses its plural ending -(j)uk or *-(j)ük*:

  • a lányok cipője ‘the girls' shoe’
  • a lányok asztala ‘the girls' table'

  mine, yours, ...

  Hungarian also has possessive pronouns mine, yours. They always include the definite article a :

  	Hungarian	English
  1SG	az enyém	mine
  2SG	a tiéd or a tied	yours (sg.)
  3SG	az övé	hers/his
  1PL	a miénk	ours
  2PL	a tiétek	yours (pl.)
  3PL	az övék	theirs

  You can use these forms in sentences like:

  Ez a cipő az enyém. ‘This shoe is mine.’

• ••• 41 Adverbs of place312 @ 25% 75

  mindenfelé · mindenfelől · mindenhol · mindenhonnan · mindenhova · sehol · sehonnan · sehova · semerre · semerről · valahol · valahonnan · valahova · valamerre · valamerről
  15 words

  Words related to location or direction.

  hol family

  	Movement from	Place	Movement to
  every	mindenhonnan	mindenhol	mindenhova
  some	valahonnan	valahol	valahova
  none	sehonnan	sehol	sehova

  merre family

  	Movement from	Place	Movement to
  every	mindenfelől	-	mindenfelé
  some	valamerről	-	valamerre
  none	semerről	-	semerre

  mindenfelől is not a location, it is a directional indicator. The closest translation is ‘from every direction’. mindenhonnan can be translated as ‘from everywhere’.

  • everywhere — mindenhol
  • from everywhere — mindenhonnan

  • to everywhere — mindenhova

  • from every direction — mindenfelől

  • to every direction — mindenfelé

  There is no third option here, since we cannot use a direction as a location.

• ••• 41 Adjective Conjunction302 @ 25% 75

  amilyen · amilyenek · mint · olyan · olyanok
  5 words

  You saw az (a) ... amelyik and ott...ahol earlier.

  Now it's time for another two-part conjunction:
  olyan ... mint / olyan ...amilyen

  For example:

  (Én) olyan vagyok, mint te.
  (Én) olyan vagyok, amilyen te.
  I am like you.

  A kutya olyan, mint a macska.
  A kutya olyan, amilyen a macska.
  The dog is like the cat.
  

  For the plural version, use olyanok ... mint / olyanok ...amilyenek

  A kutyák olyanok, mint a macskák.
  A kutyák olyanok, amilyenek a macskák.
  

  The dogs are like the cats.

• ••• 41 Math552 @ 25% 75

  meg · mínusz · nulla
  3 words

• ••• 41 Directional Conjunction 3291 @ 25% 75

  alatt · alá · alól · elé · elől · előtt · felett · fölé · köré · körül · közé · között · közül · mellett · mellé · mellől · mögé · mögött · mögül
  19 words

  When you combine a demonstrative and a noun like ez a ház ‘this house’ with a postposition like mellett ‘next to‘, the resulting form is like with the case suffixes above:

  e mellett a ház mellett ‘next to this house’

  a fölött a kert fölött ‘above that garden’

  az alatt a fa alatt ‘under that tree’

  You've seen sentences like:

  Annál a banknál állunk, amelyikben sok ember dolgozik. We are standing at the bank, in which a lot of people are working.

  These sentences answer to "Which?"

  Which bank are we standing at? - There, where a lot of people work.
  

  In this skill, we combine these two tricks, the "az alatt a fa alatt" construction with the "Az a ..., amelyik ..." construction, and get:

  A színészek a mögül a függöny mögül jönnek ki, amelyiken egy nagy pillangó van.
  The actors come out from behind the curtain on which there is a large butterfly.

• ••• 41 Directional Conjunction 2282 @ 25% 75

  abba · abban · ahhoz · annál · arra · arról · attól · azokba · azokban · azokhoz · azoknál · azokon · azokra · azokról · azoktól · azon
  16 words

  Demonstrative adjectives and relative pronouns .

  In English you can use that as a relative pronoun, as well as which:
  

  • I like that book which you like too.

  • Szeretem azt a könyvet, amelyiket te is szeretsz.

  The focus in this lesson is on the pair azt — amelyik(et): ‘that one ... which’.

  Demonstratives and relative pronouns can have all kinds of cases:

  • abban ‘in that’ — amelyikben ‘in which’
  • azokból ‘out of those’ — amelyekből or amikből ‘out of which’
  • arról ‘about that’ — amerről ’about which’
  • azokról ‘about those’ — amelyekről ‘about which’ (pl.)

  An example:

  • Azokból jövünk ki, amikből ti is. ‘We are coming out of those, out of which you are coming too.’ or ‘We are coming out of (from ) where you are.’

  Note that translations of the English or Hungarian sentences will not always use the same words.

  Abból eszem, amin nincs kép

  means ‘I eat from that one, on which there is no picture.’ This is not a very natural translation. This could be used where there are some plates and one of them doesn't have a picture on it (while the others do). The Hungarian sentence, above, is fine, but its English translation would be:

  I eat off (of ) the one on which there is no picture.

  Depending on the context, a demonstrative in Hungarian can be translated with (or by ) a demonstrative or with a definite article plus one in English.

  Abból eszem, amin nincs kép. I eat from the one on which there is no picture.

  Here the object is not named: I eat from the one... Abból eszem...

  Abból a tálból eszem, amelyiken nincs kép. I eat from the bowl, on which there is no picture.

  Here the object (the bowl) is named. Abból a tálból eszem....

• ••• 41 Directional Conjunction281 @ 25% 75

  amerre · amerről · arra · arról
  4 words

  You've learned some of the following:

  • onnan ‘from there’ or ‘from that place’
  • ott ‘there’
  • arra ‘in that direction’
  • arról ‘from that direction’ etc.

  These can appear as relative pronouns as well. In the following English sentence, that introduces the relative clause:

  • We are coming from the place that you are coming from.

  or

  • We are coming from where you are coming.

  The first English example might sound a bit awkward, but it will help with understanding the way Hungarian works here:

  • Onnan jövünk, ahonnan ti jöttök. ‘We are coming from (the place) where you are coming from.’

  onnan means ‘from there’ or ’from that place’; the relative pronoun ahonnan means ‘from where’ in exactly the sense highlighted in the above English example. While in the second English example, we can easily drop the ‘from that place’ in the first part of the sentence, Hungarian does not like this: we want to have onnan here as well.

  The gist of this is that we get pairs like onnan ‘from there’ — ahonnan ‘from where’. You'll see some more of these in this lesson:

  • arra ‘in that direction’ — amerre ‘in which direction’
  • arról ‘from that direction’ — amerről ‘from which direction’

  Note how the English pairs have that in the main clause and which in the relative clause... that's the basic pattern!

  Word order

  Consider these sentences:
  

  Ott nincs bank, ahova ezek a turisták mennek.
  Ott ebédelünk, ahonnan a villamos visszajön.
  Ott lakik Péter, ahol Éva dolgozik.
  

  We can see a "Onnan verb1 subject1, ahonnan subject2 verb2". pattern

  If you start with the subject:
  Subject1 onnan verb1, ahonnan subject2 verb2.

  If we have preverbs too:
  Oda megy be Anna, ahonnan Béla kijön.
  or: Anna oda megy be, ahonnan Béla kijön.

  Why? ott/oda/onnan attracts focus, it likes to be directly in front of the verb.
  But ahol/ahova/ahonnan avoids focus. Put the verb further away from them, or at least, do not separate the preverb.

  (Not all the sentences in this skill follow this order, but several of them.)

• ••• 41 Places 2522 @ 25% 75

  Some words in this skill (but not all the words)

  LESSON 1

  "múzeum" =museum

  "szobor" =statue

  "színház" =theater

  "sarok" = corner

  "térkép" =map

  LESSON 2

  "templom" = church

  "iroda" = office

  "mozi"= cinema/ movie theater

  "kocsma" = pub

  "pap" = priest

  "autópálya" = highway, motorway

  LESSON 3

  "gyár" = factory

  "állomás" = station

  "torony" = tower

  "könyvtár" =library

  "kávézó" = café

  "betörő" = burglar

  LESSON 4

  "egyetem" =university

  "posta" = post office

  "börtön" = prison, jail

  LESSON 5

  "rendőrség" = police station

  "parkoló" =parking lot, car park

  "pad" = bench

  "stadion" =stadium

  "temető" = cemetery

• ••• 41 Directions531 @ 25% 75

  arra · arról · előre · erre · erről · felé · felől · hátra · közel · merre · merről
  11 words

  Hungarian has many ways of expressing movement - in several directions!

  You may have already seen the words ide and oda which mean towards here (or hither) and towards there (or thither). English here and there can mean both a location and a direction, whereas Hungarian always makes a difference .

  Motion ONTO A SURFACE is formed using the sublative case -ra/-re, motion AWAY from something by using the delative case -ról/-ről.

  .

  towards something	away from something
  merre ‘where to?’	merről ‘where from?‘
  erre ‘towards here/this’	erről ‘from here/this’
  arra ‘towards there/that‘	arról ‘from there/that’

  Also important are the compass directions north, east, south, and west:

  .

  direction	towards ...	from ...
  észak ‘north’	északra	északról
  kelet ‘east’	keletre	keletről
  nyugat ‘west'	nyugatra	nyugatról
  dél ‘south’	délre	délről

  .

  The same cases are used for left and right: .

  direction	towards ...	from ...
  bal ‘left’	balra	balról
  jobb ‘right’	jobbra	jobbról

• ••• 41 Directional Postpositions 2252 @ 25% 75

  alól · elől · közül · mellől · mögül
  5 words

  You'll see some postpositions you already know but in a different form: direction FROM somewhere.

  The suffixes -ól / -ől / -ül attach to stems like al- el- mög- etc. :

  • alatt ‘below’ --- alól ‘from below’
  • mögött ‘behind’ --- mögül ‘from behind’
  • mellett ‘next to’ --- mellől ‘from next to’
  • között 'between' --- közül 'from between'

  Postpositions come after nouns:

  • a ház mögül ‘from behind the house’

  Here is a chart showing how movement from words originate :

  English	movement to	place	movement from
  beside	mellé	mellett	mellől
  under	alá	alatt	alól
  in front of	elé	előtt	elől
  behind	mögé	mögött	mögül
  between, among	közé	között	közül

• ••• 41 Choices 4251 @ 25% 75

  abból · arról · attól · azokból · azokról · azoktól · ebből · erről · ettől · ezekből · ezekről · ezektől
  12 words

  Using the demonstratives in the elative (ból / ből), delative (ról / ről) and ablative (tól / től) cases, with English nouns...

  When combining a singular demonstrative pronoun (this, that - ez, az ) with these case endings, the -z of the demonstrative (ez, az ) turns into the first consonant of the suffix:

  • ez + ből = ebből ‘out of this’
  • az + ról = arról ’from on top/the surface of that’ or ’about that’

  In the plural (ezek / azok ) , the plural suffix -k remains, so the case suffix is simply added:

  • ezek + től = ezektől ’from these’

  Demonstratives and nouns

  When using a demonstrative with a noun, both the demonstrative and the noun must have plural and case suffixes:

  • ebből a házból ‘out of this house’

  • azoktól a kertektől ‘from those gardens’

  Notice that the suffix on the demonstrative and the suffix on the noun may use different vowels.

  After all, vowel harmony is determined on a word-by-word basis .

• ••• 41 Delative Case482 @ 25% 75

  földről · fűről · miről · vízről
  4 words

  The delative case expresses motion away from the SURFACE of something and its forms are -ról/-ről . In English, you can use the prepositions from or off to translate it.

  • repülőtérről ‘from the airport’

  • pályaudvarról ‘from the train station’

  Tiny tip: Hungarians think of both of these locations as SURFACES . They also think of many Hungarian cities close around Budapest as surfaces. And universities . . .

  The delative is also used more abstractly, with verbs like beszél ‘talk’, where it means about:

  • Az épületről beszélek. ‘I am talking about the building.’

  w

• ••• 41 Elative Case481 @ 25% 75

  amerikából · angliából · bécsből · izraelből · japánból · kairóból · németországból · párizsból · vízből
  9 words

  Another case! The elative case motion out of something. In English, you can translate it with out of.

  Its forms are -ból/-ből . Tiny tip: they both have diacritics . Ból is attached to words with back vowels, ből to words with front vowels:

  • a házból ‘out of the house’

  • a kertből ‘out of the garden’

  Now you know three cases (-ba/-be), (-ban/-ben) , and (-ból/-ből) which start with a -b : the inessive (-ban/-ben), the illative (-ba/-be) and the elative (-ból/-ből) .

  What connects these is that they express motion related to the inside of something - into, in, and out of .

• ••• 41 Preverbs 2232 @ 25% 75

  be · el · fel · honnan · ide · innen · ki · le · oda · onnan · vissza · át
  12 words

  More verbs with prefixes.

  Preverbs: simple cases

  Here, you'll learn about a common particle : preverbs, verb modifiers or verbal prefixes (igekötő in Hungarian). Many have a meaning expressing motion towards something : ki ‘towards the outside’, be ‘to ’, le ‘down‘, el ‘away‘, ide ‘towards here‘, oda ‘towards there‘.

  A verb with a modifier usually corresponds to a verb plus an adverb:

  • kimegyek ‘I go out‘

  • bemész ‘you (sg.) go to‘, ‘you (sg.) enter‘

  • elmegy ‘s/he goes away‘

  • leülünk ‘we sit down‘

  • ideültök ‘you (pl.) sit down here‘

  • odaülnek ‘they sit down there‘

  In English, the distinction between a location and a direction is not always explicit: she is running there can mean she is there and she is running or she is moving from here to there by running. Hungarian makes this explicit: the former would be ott fut and the latter, with a verbal modifier or preverb, odafut.

  Word order

  These verbal modifiers can have big effects on word order! As you know by now, word order in Hungarian is much freer than in English, but ...

  in general, a verbal modifier precedes the verb and they're written as one word:

  • Mari bemegy. ‘Mari enters.‘

  However, the modifier can also be separated from the verb:

  • Mari megy be.

  While the sentence still means that Mari goes to something, the information it conveys corresponds more to :

  • Mari megy be. = ‘It is Mari who is going to.’ (not someone else)

  In the above example, Mari is in focus because Mari immediately precedes the verb. This is called the focus position. Whenever there is a focused phrase or word in this position, the particle follows the verb.

  In addition, the particle follows the verb when there is negation or in questions with question words:

  • Nem mész el. ‘You are not going away.‘

  • Ki ül le? ‘Who is sitting down?’

  The phrase that responds to a question word is in focus. The answer to the question Ki ül le? could be:

  • Péter ül le. ‘It is Péter who is sitting down.’ or 'Péter is sitting down.’

  The boldface in the second translation shows stress on the word. Try saying the English answer out loud and you'll hear what this means.

  More on word order

  Hungarian word order is fairly free : the subject does not have to precede the verb and the object - as it mostly does in English.

  Hungarian word order is very strict in one respect: the order of topic, focus and the verb. Focus points out new information in a sentence. The topic of a sentence is what the sentence is about. English usually has

  • subject — verb — object

  word order . Hungarian usually has

  • topic - focus - verb and others

  order.

  • Mari a kertben ül le. ‘Mari is sitting down in the garden.’ Or ‘It's in the garden that Mari is sitting down.’

  • A kertben Mari ül le. ‘Mari is sitting down in the garden.‘ Or ‘It's Mari who is sitting down in the garden.‘

  In both sentences, someone (Mari) is sitting down somewhere (in the garden), but we focus on different parts of the sentence. In the first example, the new or important information is a kertben ‘in the garden’. This is indicated by the word order: a kertben immediately precedes the verb. In English, the word order stays the same, but stress or prominence changes.

  Finally, let's have a look at:

  • Mari leül a kertben. ‘Mari is sitting down in the garden.'

  The subject (Mari ) is the topic, but is not in focus, because the prefix (le ) has taken the focus position. In cases like these, the verbal modifier stays attached to the verb.

  The sentence it corresponds to, in English, will not have prominence, or stress, on any phrase or word.

  w

• ••• 41 Describe 2461 @ 25% 75

  hamis · igaz · kis · nyitva · zárva
  5 words

  Singular or plural adjectives

  Like in English, the adjective precedes the noun it modifies. (This is called an attributive adjective.) In this case, the adjective is not pluralized.

  A piros alma = The red apple.

  A piros almák = The red apples.

  Ezek piros almák =These are red apples.

  Sometimes you see an adjective that comes after the noun. In English, the adjective usually comes after is/are. However, in the Hungarian translation van or vannak is dropped. (This is called a predicative adjective.) In this case the adjective has to be plural when the subject is plural.

  Az alma piros = The apple is red.

  Az almák pirosak = The apples are red.

  Ezek az almák pirosak =These apples are red.

  A német házak szépek. = German houses are beautiful.

  BUT: Be careful, the rule is not about if the adjective is before or after the noun. (Even though sometimes we say it this way because it is an easier explanation.) The real rule about whether it is an attributive adjective or predicative adjective.

  Example: Politicians are rich. "A politikusok gazdagok" and "Gazdagok a politikusok." is the same thing grammatically, just the word order is rearranged.

  Pirosak az almák. Szépek a német házak. These are also correct.

  Milyen or milyenek?

  Milyen and milyenek work the same way as adjectives.

  attributive:

  Milyen autó ez? What kind of car is this?

  Milyen város ez? What kind of city is this?

  Milyen városokat ismersz? What kind of cities do you know?

  Milyen autók ezek? What kind of cars are these?

  predicative:

  Milyenek a brazil sportolók? A brazil sportolók milyenek? What are the Brazilian athletes like?

  Milyenek az orvosok itt? What are the doctors like here?

  Milyen az orvos? What is the doctor like?

  Milyen az a ház? What is that house like?

  Forming plural adjectives

  Add -ak, -ok -ek -ök or -k to the end of the word:

  If the adjective ends with a vowel:

  -K : after ó ő, a, e and the word kicsi. (Note that a e will turn into á é)
  olcsó, olcsók, jó, jók, önző, önzők, sárga, sárgák, fekete, feketék, kicsi, kicsik, gyenge, gyengék, drága, drágák, olcsó, olcsók, szőke, szőkék, csúnya, csúnyák, tiszta, tiszták, hülye, hülyék, furcsa, furcsák,

  -AK: after i, ú, back and mixed vowel words. amerikai, amerikaiak, koreai, koreaiak, kínai, kínaiak... hosszú, hosszúak, lassú, lassúak, szomorú, szomorúak,

  -EK: after after i, ű, front vowel words.
  keleti, keletiek, jókedvű, jókedvűek, keserű, keserűek, könnyű, könnyűek, régi, régiek, nemzeti, nemzetiek, népszerű, népszerűek, gyönyörű, gyönyörűek, nagyszerű, nagyszerűek,

  If the adjective ends with a consonant:

  -AK: most adjectives with mixed and back vowels
  rossz, rosszak, magas, magasak, vékony, vékonyak, piros, pirosak, barátságos, barátságosak, fáradt, fáradtak, sovány, soványak, fontos, fontosak, gyors, gyorsak, új, újak, száraz, szárazak, okos, okosak, hasznos, hasznosak, csinos, csinosak, hatékony, hatékonyak, szomjas, szomjasak, unalmas, unalmasak

  -OK: after -atlan/-talan, nationalities, and a few other mixed/back vowel adjectives
  magyar, magyarok, angol, angolok, orosz, oroszok, olasz, olaszok, holland, hollandok, / nyugtalan, nyugtalanok, sótlan, sótlanok, / fiatal fiatalok, nagy, nagyok, vastag, vastagok, gazdag, gazdagok, boldog, boldogok, szabad, szabadok,

  -EK: all other adjectives with front vowels
  szép, szépek, szegény, szegények, rövid, rövidek, meleg, melegek, hideg, hidegek, nedves, nedvesek, keskeny, keskenyek, széles, szélesek, sekély, sekélyek, mély, mélyek, erős, erősek, híres, híresek, kövér, kövérek, idős, idősek, öreg, öregek, lehetséges, lehetségesek, lehetetlen, lehetetlenek, ügyes, ügyesek, ingyenes, ingyenesek, modern, modernek, üres, üresek, tökéletes, tökéletesek, helyes, helyesek, friss, frissek, beteg, betegek, éhes, éhesek, nehéz, nehezek,

  -ÖK : the words török, görög.
  török, törökök, görög, görögök

• ••• 41 Directional Postpositions222 @ 25% 75

  alá · de · elé · fölé · köré · közé · mellé · mögé
  8 words

  You may have already seen the postpositions alatt ‘under’, fölött ‘above’, mögött ‘behind’ and között ‘between‘.

  They all share the -tt ending, which is an old Hungarian suffix for location.

  To express motion towards a location, we can take their roots and add an -á/-é suffix ,

  alá ‘towards underneath it’
  fölé ‘towards above it’
  mögé ‘towards behind it’
  and közé toward between somethings . . .
  

  Be careful, though: in English, a phrase like behind the house can be both a ház mögött - for where something is happening - or a ház mögé if there is motion involved.

  Look for motion in this lesson !

  English	movement to	place
  beside	mellé	mellett
  under	alá	alatt
  in front of	elé	előtt
  behind	mögé	mögött
  between, among	közé	között

• ••• 41 Choices 3221 @ 25% 75

  abba · ahhoz · arra · azokba · azokhoz · azokra · csak · ebbe · ehhez · erre · ezekbe · ezekhez · ezekre · melyik
  14 words

  Demonstratives in locative cases

  This lesson is about demonstratives (this, that, these, those ) used with : -ba/-be, -hoz/-hez/-ho:z, and -ra/-re.

  These undergo assimilation . The consonant -z in the demonstrative changes to the consonant in the case:

  • ez + -ben = ebben ‘in this one’
  • ez + -hez = ehhez ‘to(wards) this one’
  • az + -ra = arra ‘onto that one’

  This does not happen in the plural, so we get:

  • az + ok + -ra = azokra ‘onto those’

  Demonstratives and nouns

  Attach the ending to BOTH the demonstrative AND the noun:

  • ebben a kertben ‘in this garden’
  • ahhoz az épülethez ‘to that building’
  • azokra a házakra ‘onto those houses’
• ••• 41 Geography 1211 @ 25% 75

  Németországban, Magyarországon

  In Germany is Németországban, but in Hungary is Magyarországon. But why do they have different endings?

  Most towns in Hungary take surface suffixes (-n,-on -en -ön ), while the majority of places outside of Hungary use inside suffixes (-ban, -ben ):

  • Szegedre - Szegeden - Szegedről: to, in, from Szeged

  • Bécsbe - Bécsben - Bécsből: to, in, from Vienna

  • Magyarországra - Magyarországon - Magyarországról: to, in, from Hungary

  • Svédországba - Svédországban - Svédországból: to, in, from Sweden

  Exception to these rules are Hungarian towns that end with : -i, -j, -m, -n, -ny, and -r (unless it is in -vár ... ) ! These take the inside suffixes: Tamásiból, Tokajban, Veszprémben, Debrecenből, Tihanyba, Egerben.

  Takes the -ban-ben case	Takes the -on -en -ön case
  Countries:	Countries:
  Most foreign countries	Magyarország
  (a few islands)	most islands
  Japánban, Kubában	Izlandon, Máltán, Korzikán, Krétán, Madagaszkáron
  -	ending with -föld
  -	Thaiföldön
  Cities/Towns:	Cities/Towns:
  Cities outside Hungary	Most Hungarian towns
  Londonban, Berlinben	Budapesten, Szegeden
  Hungarian cities ending -i, -j, -m, -n, and -ny	In neighboring countries, towns with Hungarian names
  Debrecenben, Veszprémben	Kassán, Aradon (but: Bécsben)

  See also this link: Myhunlang blog: Suffixes / Adverbs of Place

  Irregular towns

  In the case of Pécs and a few other towns there's a third, archaic, suffix in use: Pécsett. Others are Győrött and Székesfehérvárott. But Duo also accepts the regular forms: Pécsen, Győrben, Székesfehérváron.

  Articles

  Names of rivers, lakes, islands, hills, mountains, roads, streets, squares, buildings, and institutes tend to have a definite article, even if it's not used in the English translation.

  A Margitsziget
  A Parlament
  A Budai Vár
  A Kékestető
  A Duna
  A Tisza
  A Balaton

  A Margitszigetre megyek. - I am going to Margaret Island.

  A Duna mellett sétálunk. - We are walking next to the Danube.

  City and town names are used without an article.

  Budapesten lakom. - I live in Budapest

• ••• 41 Allative Case 2203 @ 25% 75

  katihoz · péterhez · évához
  3 words

  The allative is a movement case, showing movement TO something. In English, it can be translated with up to but not in . The allative requires vowel harmony - with a special quirk: there are two front suffixes, based on whether the vowels in the noun are rounded, like ö and ü, or not, like e.

  a házhoz ‘to the house’ a kerthez ‘to the garden’ a tükörhöz ‘to the mirror’

  Here, you'll use these forms with some of the preverbs you have already learned.

• ••• 41 Sublative Case 2202 @ 25% 75

  földre · fűre · vízre
  3 words

  More sublative case: motion onto something . It corresponds to the preposition onto and requires vowel harmony:

  a házra = onto the house , a tetőre = onto the roof

  Here, you'll find sentences using "separable " verbs, from the lesson on "Preverbs" , like felszállni ‘to get on’ . For example :

  • Felszállok a vonatra. ‘I get on the train.’

  Sometimes, Hungarian is more explicit than English , in expressing this kind of motion. For example, - Mari leül a székre means Mari sits down onto the chair - which sounds a bit odd in English.

  The important point is that ra and -re express the direction of the motion onto - which also includes surfaces like "walls " and trees .

• ••• 41 Illative Case 2201 @ 25% 75

  Here are more sentences using the illative case (plus some preverbs you learned recently). It is used to show motion to something and it corresponds to English to and implies "into " :

  a házba ‘to the house’

  It will not come as a surprise to you that the illative suffix is also subject to vowel harmony:

  a kertbe ‘to the garden'

• ••• 41 Preverbs191 @ 25% 75

  be · el · fel · ide · ki · le · oda · vissza · át
  9 words

  Preverbs: simple cases

  In Hungarian: preverbs, verbal modifiers or verbal prefixes (igekötő in Hungarian) are very common . These modifiers USUALLY mean motion TOWARD something: ki ‘toward the outside’, be ‘toward the inside’, le ‘down‘, el ‘away‘, ide ‘toward here‘, oda ‘toward there‘.

  In the simplest cases, a verb with a preverb corresponds, in English, to a verb plus an adverb :

  • kimegyek ‘I go out‘

  • bemész ‘you (sg.) go to‘, ‘you (sg.) enter‘

  • elmegy ‘s/he goes away‘

  • leülünk ‘we sit down‘

  • ideültök ‘you (pl.) sit down here‘

  • odaülnek ‘they sit down there‘

  In English, the distinction between a location and a direction is not always explicit: she is running there can mean she is there and she is running or she is moving from here to there by running. Hungarian makes this explicit : the former meaning would be ott fut and the latter, with a verbal modifier or preverb, odafut (runs over to there... ) .

  Word order

  These verbal modifiers can have big effects on word order! Word order, in Hungarian, is much freer than in English, but there are some restrictions .

  In general, a verbal modifier precedes the verb and they are written as one word:

  • Mari bemegy. ‘Mari enters.‘

  However, the modifier can also be separated from the verb:

  • Mari megy be.

  While this still means that Mari enters , the information it conveys is more like :

  • Mari megy be. = ‘It is Mari who enters.’ (not someone else)

  Mari is in focus because Mari immediately precedes the verb. Whenever there is a focused word or phrase , the particle follows the verb - and is detached .

  Important ! The particle follows the verb when there is negation or in questions with question words:

  • Nem mész el. ‘You do not go away.‘

  • Ki ül le? ‘Who is sitting down?’

  The phrase that corresponds to that question word, in an answer, is also always in focus. The answer to the question Ki ül le? could be:

  • Péter ül le. ‘It is Péter who is sitting down.’ or 'Péter is sitting down.’

  The boldface in the second English translation indicates stress on the word. Say the English answer out loud and you'll hear what this means.

  More on word order

  Hungarian word order is very strict in another respect: the order of topic, focus (new information) and the verb. English generally has

  • subject — verb / predicate — direct object

  but Hungarian generally has

  • topic - focus - verb - others

  order.

  There can be more than one topic!

  • Mari a kertben ül le. ‘Mari is sitting down in the garden.’ or ‘It's in the garden that Mari is sitting down.’

  • A kertben Mari ül le. ‘Mari is sitting down in the garden.‘ or ‘It's Mari who is sitting down in the garden.‘

  In both sentences, that someone (Mari) is sitting down somewhere (in the garden) is conveyed, but Hungarian focuses on different parts of the sentence. In the first example, the new information is a kertben ‘in the garden’. This is indicated by the word order: a kertben immediately precedes the verb. In English, the word order stays the same, but stress or prominence changes. Compare It's in the garden ... and It's Mary ....

  You can also have an unfocused sentence:

  • Mari leül a kertben. ‘Mari is sitting down in the garden.'

  This is a neutral sentence. The subject (Mari ) is the topic, but not in focus (the "le " keeps it from being immediately before the verb ) , and neither is a kertben. And, the corresponding sentence, in English, does not have any particular stress on any phrase or word.

  Word order is a complicated matter in Hungarian. For a longer explanation, see this forum post:

  On Emphasis and Word Order in Hungarian

  https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/18806754

• ••• 41 Allative Case 1183 @ 25% 75

  vízhez
  1 words

  The allative is a movement case, expressing movement TO something. In English, it can be translated with up to - but not in !

  It also requires vowel harmony, and there are two front suffixes, based on whether the vowels in the noun are rounded, like ö and ü, or not (like e ) .

  a kerthez - ‘up to the garden’

  a tükörhöz - ‘up to the mirror’

  a házhoz - ‘up to the house’

• ••• 41 Sublative Case 1182 @ 25% 75

  The sublative case indicates motion ONTO something. It corresponds to the English preposition onto and needs vowel harmony:

  a házra ‘onto the house’
  a tetőre ‘onto the roof’
  

  and it can be a vertical surface or even a tree!

  a falra = on(to) the wall
  a fára = in(to) the tree

• ••• 41 Illative Case 1181 @ 25% 75

  vízbe
  1 words

  The illative case is used to show MOTION into something and it's like English into or to :

  a házba ‘to the house’

  The illative suffix also requires vowel harmony:

  a kertbe ‘into the garden'

  It's easy to confuse the illative case (into ) -ba / -be * with the inessive case -ban/-ben* , in , so be on the alert !

• ••• 41 Animals342 @ 25% 75

  hova · ide · oda
  3 words

  We often make general statements like :

  Lions are carnivores.

  In English, we can use a word without an article, like lions above, to express a general statement.

  In Hungarian, general statements are expressed slightly differently. But sometimes we don't use the verb to be and, when talking about the properties of a third-person subject, in Hungarian, we need an article.

  Thus the English sentence above becomes:

  Az oroszlánok húsevők. = literally ‘the lions carnivores’ , translated: the lions are carnivores . . .

  or

  Az oroszlán húsevő. = both "the lion is a carnivore " and "lions are carnivores " ! . . .

  The same is true with negation.

  Dolphins are not fish.

  becomes

  A delfinek nem halak. = lit. ‘the dolphins not fish’

  w

• ••• 41 Ordinal Numbers162 @ 25% 75

  első · harmadik · harmincadik · hatodik · hatvanadik · hetedik · hetvenedik · huszadik · hányadik · kilencedik · kilencvenedik · második · negyedik · negyvenedik · nyolcadik · nyolcvanadik · századik · tizedik · ötvenedik · ötödik
  20 words

  Ordinal numbers (like first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, etc. ) are formed by using the number , itself , and -adik, -edik, and -ödik . The choice depends on vowel harmony.

  If the number has a long vowel in the last syllable (like kettő, hét, négy, tíz or húsz), the vowel shortens:
  

  tíz becomes tizedik ‘tenth’ (and négy -> negyedik, hét -> hetedik)

  In három, the á shortens, and the o disappears, so we get harmadik ‘third‘.

  And, like in English, second, is not derived from two (we don't use twoth!):

  második ‘second’

  (más = ‘different’ but also, ‘another‘)

  En	Hu
  first	első
  second	második
  third	harmadik
  fourth	negyedik
  fifth	ötödik
  sixth	hatodik
  seventh	hetedik
  eighth	nyolcadik
  ninth	kilencedik
  tenth	tizedik
  eleventh	tizenegyedik
  twelfth	tizenkettedik
  thirteenth	tizenharmadik
  fourteenth	tizennegyedik
  fifteenth	tizenötödik

  Note that 11th, 12th, 21st, 22nd, 31st, 32nd (and so on) do not contain the words "első" and "második",
  we say tizenegyedik, tizenkettedik, huszonegyedik, huszonkettedik, harmincegyedik, harminckettedik instead.

  Hányadik?

  English does not have a word for "how manyeth" but Hungarian does. Hányadik? You can use this if you expect an ordinal number as an answer.
  

  Hányadik emeleten laksz? - A harmadik emeleten lakom.
  

  Hányadik megállóban szállunk le? - A kilencedik megállóban.

• ••• 41 Choices two161 @ 25% 75

  abban · alatt · annál · azokban · azoknál · azokon · azon · e · ebben · előtt · ennél · ezekben · ezeken · ezeknél · ezen · fölött · körül · között · mellett · melyik
  20 words

  Demonstratives

  In English, demonstratives are : this, that, these, those, and so on. In Hungarian, ez and az are this and that.

  The plurals are mostly regular:

  ez + -ek = ezek ‘these’

  az + -ok = azok ‘those’

  ez + -ek + -ben = ezekben ‘in these’

  But... : When the singular demonstratives ez and az are followed by a case suffix like -nak/-nek (dative), -ban/-ben (inessive), -nál/-nél, etc., the -z assimilates to the first consonant of the suffix:

  ez + -ben = ebben ‘in this’

  az + -nál = annál ‘at that’

  ez + -nek = ennek

  Demonstratives + nouns

  When using a demonstrative with a noun, both the demonstrative AND the noun have to have the plural and the case suffixes on BOTH :

  (ez + ben )

  ebben a házban ‘in this house’

  (ezek + ben )

  ezekben a házakban ‘in these houses’

  azoknál a kerteknél ‘by those gardens’

  Demonstratives and postpositions

  Hungarian gets a bit more complicated when you combine a demonstrative and a noun like ez a ház ‘this house’ with a POSTposition like mellett ‘next to‘ : if the postposition starts with a consonant, the z disappears, and we get a , e instead of az, ez:

  e mellett a ház mellett ‘next to this house’

  a fölött a kert fölött ‘above that garden’

  ez alatt a fa alatt ‘under this tree’

  az alatt a fa alatt ‘under that tree’

• ••• 41 Colors153 @ 25% 75

  Hungarian has its own rules regarding colors, for example, two different words for red.

  Piros, sometimes, for things that are not human or are unemotional: piros labda (ball), piros paradicsom (tomato), piros jelzőlámpa (traffic lights).
  

  And vörös, sometimes, for living or emotional objects : vörös haj (hair), vörös zászló (flag - but not in piros, fehér, zöld [Hungary's flag's colors ] ) , vörös róka (red fox), vörös bor (red wine), vörös csillag (red star). Better just to memorize . . .

  Orange: the fruit itself is narancs but its color is narancssárga.

• ••• 41 Clothing152 @ 25% 75

  Dressing up

  One way to say what someone is wearing is to say:

  A férfin pulóver van.

  literally: There is a sweater on the man.
  

  meaning: The man is wearing a sweater.
  

  You've already learned the superessive case: -on/-en/-ön. In this skill, you'll get to use it a lot!

  Another way is to use the -ban/-ben ending:

  A férfi pulóverben van.

  Literally The man is in a sweater.
  

  again, that is, ‘the man is wearing a sweater’.

  Clothing that comes in pairs, - like body parts, too !

  With shoes (or socks, boots...) we usually use the singular when we talk about one pair of shoes.
  For example: Cipőben vagyok. 'I am wearing shoes'
  (Literally: I am in a shoe )

  If you need to talk about one shoe - not a pair - you can say:

  egy fél pár cipő (literally: a half pair of shoes.)

• ••• 41 Household302 @ 25% 75

  Remember that Hungarian does not always use the verb *lenni * (to be ) when English does.

  Ez egy szép ajtó. ’This is a nice door.’

  You do have to use van and vannak, though, when you translate sentences about existence, like There is an apple on the table or There are some apples on the table. ,
  and when you talk about location -where something is.

  Van a polcon egy alma.

  ‘There is an apple on the shelf.’ or 'On the shelf, there is an apple ' .

  Ők a házban vannak.

  ‘They are in the house.’

  Postpositions

  Hungarian mostly has postpositions, as opposed to prepositions. You will find some of these in this section.

  We say under the picture in English but in Hungarian the noun comes first: a kép alatt.

  In English the word between comes before the noun(s):

  between the houses

  In Hungarian, the order changes:

  a házak között

• ••• 41 Adessive Case143 @ 25% 75

  víznél
  1 words

  The adessive case expresses a spatial relation like by or next to. Like other cases, it needs vowel harmony and can appear as -nál (back vowels) and -nél (front vowels). Hint: both forms have a diacritic (accent ) .

  English	Hungarian
  the table	az asztal
  by the table	az asztalnál
  the shop	az üzlet
  by the shop	az üzletnél

  -Nál and -nél approximate English prepositions by or next to .

  Vowel harmony has exceptions that you need to memorize when you come across them. The word for bridge ,híd , for example, takes the suffix -nál:

  hídnál ‘by the bridge’

• ••• 41 Superessive Case142 @ 25% 75

  The superessive case is one that expresses a spatial relation. As with the inessive , the superessive usually conforms to an English preposition and has forms based on vowel harmony.

  It's easy for English speakers, as it sounds like the preposition ‘on’! -n/-on/-en/ön

  English	Hungarian
  the ship	a hajó
  on the ship	a hajón
  the sidewalk	a járda
  on the sidewalk	a járdán
  the table	az asztal
  on the table	az asztalon
  the airplane	a repülőgép
  on the airplane	a repülőgépen
  the ground	a föld
  on the ground	a földön

  Using the suffixes -n/-on/-en/ön is like using the English preposition on, but after the word.

  If a word ends in a vowel (except for “a” and “e”) you can add the ending “-n” directly .

  If the word ends in “-a” or “-e” it gets the “-n” but “-a” becomes “-á” and “-e” becomes “-é”.

  For words ending in a consonant you also have to consider vowel harmony. Words containing only back vowels (or dominantly back vowels), like asztal, we add “-on”asztal-on. You will meet an exceptional vowel, the ”back -i”, like we had in “iszik”. The ‘-í’ in ‘híd’ (= bridge) behaves as a back vowel, so we will say ‘a hídon’ (= on the bridge). Memorization is our only recourse .

  However, for words with only front vowels, the suffix is sometimes -en and sometimes -ön. As in verb conjugations, “-ön” is used if the last syllable contains -ö/-ő/-ü/-ű, like föld meaning ‘floor, ground, Earth’, it becomes földön ‘on the ground’.

  For other front vowels (-e/-é/-i/-í) add “-en”, like szék, which becomes széken.
  

  When to use it?

  1: Express that “something is ON something”:

  The cat sits on the car. = A macska az autón ül.

  The coat is on the bag. = A kabát a táskán van.

  The apple is on the table. = Az alma az asztalon van.

  I live on a hill. = Egy hegyen élek.

  The book is on the floor. = A könyv a földön van.

  Compare with -ban/-ben: doboz = box

  The pen is in the box. = A toll a dobozban van.

  The pen is on the box. = A toll a dobozon van.

  2: Express being somewhere, regardless of the preposition used in English, if that place is:
  any means of transport: busz (bus), villamos (tram), vonat (train), hajó (ship) (but not a car!)
  an open space: piac (market), utca (street), tér (square), pályaudvar (train station), repülőtér (airport), járda (sidewalk), udvar (yard)
  an event: kiállítás (exhibition), megbeszélés (meeting)
  or an exception… see this list: posta (post office), folyosó (corridor), menza (canteen), egyetem (university)
  

  I am on the bus. = A buszon vagyok.

  Are you at the market? = A piacon vagy?

  We are not running on the sidewalk. = Nem a járdán futunk.

  3: Do you remember the days of the week? We added this same suffix to them (except for vasárnap, which doesn’t get any suffix).

  • hétfő-n ‘on Monday’
  • kedd-en ‘on Tuesday’
  • szerdá-n ‘on Wednesday’
  • csütörtök-ön ‘on Thursday’
  • péntek-en ‘on Friday’
  • szombat-on ‘on Saturday’
  • vasárnap ‘on Sunday’

  Also two seasons nyár ( = summer) and tél (= winter) get the same suffix:

  nyáron = in summer
  télen = in winter

• ••• 41 Inessive Case141 @ 25% 75

  vízben
  1 words

  Hungarian has more cases than other European languages, but they are less scary than you might think.

  Many languages, like English, use prepositions to express spatial concepts, Hungarian uses case suffixes.

  English	Hungarian
  the shop	az üzlet
  in the shop	az üzletben
  the hotel	a szálloda
  in the hotel	a szállodában

  Using the suffix -ban/-ben is like using the English preposition in, but AFTER the word and attached .

  When -ban and when -ben? The vowels in the stem determine the vowels in the suffix :

  Front vowels	Back vowels
  i/í	u/ú
  ü/ű	o/ó
  e/é
  ö/ő	a/á

  Since üzlet has front vowels, the vowel in the suffix has to be a front vowel: we put -ben.

  In szálloda, we have back vowels, so we choose -ban.

• ••• 41 Numbers 1133 @ 25% 75

  egy · harminc · hat · hatvan · hetven · hány · három · hét · húsz · kevés · kilenc · kilencven · mennyi · negyven · nyolc · nyolcvan · négy · rizs · sok · száz · tíz · öt · ötven
  23 words

  Counting

  Numbers are quite different from most other European languages (if you speak some Finnish or Estonian, you might recognize some ):

  egy

  kettő (két ) two has a usage rule explained below

  három

  négy

  öt

  hat

  hét

  nyolc

  kilenc

  tíz

  From ten to one hundred, we have the following:

  tíz húsz harminc negyven ötven hatvan hetven nyolcvan kilencven száz

  As you can see, from 40-90, you use the forms above and add -van or ven (like English -ty).

  Putting these together is orderly.

  sixty-one = hatvanegy

  ONLY with tíz and húsz do you add an infix between them and the vowel is shortened:

  eleven = tizenegy

  twelve = tizenkettő

  twenty-three = huszonhárom etc.

  Higher numbers work the same way:

  one hundred twenty three = százhuszonhárom

  Alert: the diacritics are lost when combined (the vowels are shortened ) ...

  Kettő or két?

  In Hungarian, there are two words for the number 2: kettő and két. This works the same way for the others ending in 2, too: 12 is tizenkettő or tizenkét, 42 is negyvenkettő or negyvenkét and so on .

  What is the difference? Use két as an adjective to modify a noun or adjective .

  Use kettő only by itself, only when we are talking about the number "2 " .

  Example: Kettő meg kettő az négy. Two plus two is four.

  Két alma. Two apples. Két asztal. Two tables. Két szép gyerek. Two beautiful children.

  But, Két sounds very similar to hét (seven), so to avoid confusion and emphasize that you are talking about two, we sometimes use kettő in front of a noun. Kettő alma, kettő asztal.

  But do not use két by itself.

  Numbers and plurals

  Hungarian and English differ in how they use plurals . In Hungarian, plural nouns that follow a number are in the singular.

  • Engl. five students
  • Hung. öt diák

  Rather than using the plural, diákok (students ), we use the singular if a number word precedes it : öt diák.

  And, the verb, in Hungarian, is in the third person singular form, NOT the plural.

  • Engl. five students run one student runs
  • Hung. öt diák fut egy diák fut . . .

  The number word rule applies for "kevés" and "sok" too.

  • Kevés férfi énekel. — ‘Few men sing.’

  • Sok orvos beszél angolul. — ‘Many doctors speak English.’

  Numbers as Adjectives

  Where to put the adjective, and is it supposed to be in the plural ? In the example két szép gyerek ‘two beautiful children’ - if an adjective precedes a plural noun, it stays in the singular , and numbers precede adjectives .

  • négy kicsi macska — ‘four small cats’

  • öt magas fiú — ‘five tall boys’

  w

• ••• 41 Choices 1131 @ 25% 75

  egyik · is · melyik · milyen · miért · másik · sem
  7 words

  van and nincs

  Remember van? It's the third person singular of the verb ‘to be’, but sometimes, we don't use it . It IS used in sentences which translate into English as :

  • there is / there are ...
  • ... is here
  • ... is there, etc.

  Very important! When we negate van, it turns into nincs

  • Van itt madár. ‘There are birds here.’
  • Nincs itt madár. ‘There are no birds here.’

  So, van has a double role: it can mean there is, or is !

  Nincs also has a double role: it can mean there is no, or is not

  How do you decide which ? Does the noun have a definite or an INdefinite article ? (if there is No article it's the indefinite . )

  Van itt egy (indefinite ) hajó. = There is a ship here.
  

  A (definite ) hajó itt van = The ship is here.

  Similarly for nincs:

  Nincs itt (no article ) hajó. = There is no ship here.

  A (definite ) hajó nincs itt. =The ship is not here.

  Demonstratives (this, that):

  If you want to talk about this house or that house, so when this/that modifies the noun after it, use

  • ez a ház ‘this house’
  • az a ház ‘that house’
  • ez az alma 'this apple' and
  • az az alma ‘that apple’

  They consist of ez ‘this’ plus the definite article a; or az ‘that’ and a. But the definite article needs a -z if the following word begins with a vowel:

  But, if you want a "standalone" this or that, you only need "ez" or "az":
  

  Ez egy ház. This is a house.

  Az egy asztal. That is a table.

  Az... amelyik

  This is about identifying something or someone and saying something about them. How it works : Az... aki /Az .... amelyik / Az... ami

  In the plural: Azok... akik /Azok .... amelyek / Azok... amik

  The girl who is sitting over there is a student. Az a lány, aki ott ül, egy diák. Or, with a different word order: Az a lány (egy) diák, aki ott ül.

  The bridge that is between the mountains is big. Az a híd, amelyik a hegyek között van, nagy. / Az a híd nagy, amelyik a hegyek között van.

  The bridges (that are ) between the mountains are big. Azok a hidak, amelyek a hegyek között vannak, nagyok. / Azok a hidak nagyok , amelyek a hegyek között vannak.

  The one who is sitting over there is a student. Az, aki ott ül, egy diák. / Az (egy) diák, aki ott ül.

  The one (that is ) between the mountains is big. Az, ami a hegyek között van, nagy. / Az nagy, ami a hegyek között van.

  The ones (that are ) between the mountains are big. Azok, amik a hegyek között vannak, nagyok. / Azok nagyok, amik a hegyek között vannak.

  When the subject is named, use amelyik, , and ami, if the subject is not named. And aki for people.

  Alert ! sentence fragments

  Some exercises use fragments. They start with a lowercase letter, and there's no period at the end.

  For example: "aki a fa alatt ül" is "who sits under the tree"

  ... as a part of a longer sentence, "Az a lány, aki a fa alatt ül, magas." The girl who is sitting under the tree is tall.

  Survival tips for this skill

  Az a könyv hosszú, amelyik az új televízió mellett van.
  Azok a hidak nagyok, amelyek a hegyek között vannak.
  Azok a könyvek drágák, amelyek híresek.
  Az a hegy magas, amelyik a híres város mellett áll.
  Azok a televíziók rosszak, amelyek az ablak mellett
  vannak.
  Az a sportoló fiatal, amelyik a híd alatt úszik.
  Az a híd széles, amelyik a mély folyó fölött áll.
  Az a televízió drága, amelyik az új asztal mellett áll.
  

  Looking at these sentences, the word order follows a pattern.
  

  singular:
  Az a [thing] [adjective], amelyik [other parts] [verb]
  

  plural:
  Azok a [thing] [adjective], amelyek [other parts] [verb]

• ••• 41 Pronominal Objects122 @ 25% 75

  engem · ismerlek · látlak · minket · nézlek · szeretlek · titeket · téged · várlak · őket · őt
  11 words

  Accusative pronouns

  You know how to form the accusative (direct object) of a noun. But, pronouns have special forms (like they do in English!).

  Person/Number	Nominative	Accusative
  1SG	én ‘I’	engem ‘me’
  2SG	te ‘you (sg.)’	téged ‘you (sg., obj.)’
  3SG	ő ‘he/she’	őt ‘him/her’
  1PL	mi ‘we’	minket ‘us’
  2PL	ti ‘you (pl.)’	titeket ‘you (pl., obj.)’
  3PL	ők ‘they’	őket ‘them’
  formal2SG	Ön ‘you’	Önt ‘you’
  formal2PL	Önök ‘you’	Önöket ‘you’

  When the direct object is a personal pronoun, the situation is a bit more complicated.

  Whether the verb is in the definite or indefinite depends on the person of the pronoun. When the object is őt or őket, (the third person singular and plural pronoun ), the verb is ALWAYS in the definite conjugation:

  • Én látom őt. ‘I see her/him.’
  • Ti látjátok őket. ‘You guys see them.’
  • Mari látja őt. ‘Mari sees her/him.’

  When the object is the first person, engem ‘me’ or minket ‘us’, the verb is ALWAYS in the indefinite conjugation:

  • Mari lát engem. ‘Mari sees me.’
  • Ti láttok minket. ‘You guys see us.’
  • A fiúk látnak engem. ‘The boys see me.’

  Summary:

  Use indefinite conjugation if the object is: téged, titeket, engem, minket

  Use definite conjugation if the object is: őt, őket, Önt, Önöket, magamat, magadat, egymást

  One extra ending:

  When the object is the second person, téged ‘you (sg.)’ and titeket ‘you (pl.)’, we have to take the subject into account. With third person subjects, we use the indefinite conjugation:

  • Mari lát téged. ‘Mari sees you (sg.).’
  • A fiúk látnak titeket. ‘The boys see you guys.’

  When the subject is the first person singular, we encounter a verb form (lak / lek ) we have only seen before in the expression szeret-lek ‘I love you’:

  • Én látlak téged. ‘I see you (sg.).’
  • Én kereslek titeket. ‘I am looking for you guys.’

  This table shows this complicated system (don't worry about the gaps). The bold forms indicate the indefinite conjugation, and the italic ones indicate the definite conjugation. Bold and italic indicates the -lak/-lek ending.

  subject → object	1	2	3
  1		Én látlak téged.	Én látom őt/őket.
  2	Te látsz engem.		Te látod őt/őket.
  3	Ő lát engem.	Ő lát téged.	Ő látja őt/őket.

• ••• 41 Date and Time112 @ 25% 75

  idén · jövőre · néha · tavaly · végre
  5 words

  In this unit, you'll learn how to express date and time. You'll learn a few past tense expressions (more on that later), the days of the week, and months.

  In the past tense you can mostly use the same verb endings as before, but... in the verb endings, a -t- indicates that it is in the past tense:

  	csinál ‘to make/do’
  1SG	csinál-t-am ‘I made’
  2SG	csinál-t-ál ‘you (sg.) made’
  3SG	csinál-t ‘he made’
  1PL	csinál-t-unk ‘we made’
  2PL	csinál-t-atok ‘you (pl.) made’
  3PL	csinál-t-ak ‘they made’

  You'll learn more about the past tense later !

  As in many languages, you can use the present tense to talk about things in the future. It is fine to say.

  • Holnap megyek. (literally ’tomorrow I go’)

  to mean ‘I will go tomorrow.’

  The days of the week

  The word nap means both ‘day’ and ‘sun’ in Hungarian. But it only shows up in one of the week's days :

  • hétfő ‘Monday’
  • kedd ‘Tuesday’
  • szerda ‘Wednesday’
  • csütörtök ‘Thursday’
  • péntek ‘Friday’
  • szombat ‘Saturday’
  • vasárnap ‘Sunday’

  If you speak a Slavic language, some of these might sound familiar to you! To express that something happens on a certain day, Hungarian uses a case-suffix which is also used for some of the seasons :

  • hétfő-n ‘on Monday’
  • kedd-en ‘on Tuesday’
  • szerdá-n ‘on Wednesday’
  • csütörtök-ön ‘on Thursday’
  • péntek-en ‘on Friday’
  • szombat-on ‘on Saturday’
  • vasárnap ‘on Sunday’

  As in the plural, the vowel in the suffix depends on the vowels in the stem, so we get -on,-en, or -ön .

  Note that there is an exception: vasárnap - 'Sunday' and ‘on Sunday’ For Sunday, we don't use any ending.

  The months

  In Hungarian, the names of the months are similar to the names of the months in many other European languages, including English.

  • január ‘January’
  • február ‘February’
  • március ‘March’
  • április ‘April’
  • május ‘May’
  • június ‘June’
  • július ‘July’
  • augusztus ‘August’
  • szeptember ‘September’
  • október ‘October’
  • november ‘November’
  • december ‘December’

  To say that something happened in a certain month, Hungarian uses the case suffix -ban or -ben:

  • január-ban ‘in January’
  • szeptember-ben ‘in September’

  The seasons

  While English uses in or during to express that something is happening in a season, Hungarian is a bit different. The seasons, first of all are the following:

  • tavasz ‘spring’
  • nyár ’summer’
  • ősz ‘autumn’
  • tél ‘winter’

  But, there are two different case-suffixes to mark what's happening during a season:

  • tava-sszal ’in spring’
  • nyár-on ‘in summer’
  • ős-szel ‘in autumn’
  • tél-en ‘in winter’

  A tiny tip: none of these endings have a diacritic (accent mark)

  Back to past tense

  There are 5 different past tense verbs in this skill,

  "volt" "született" "csinált" "találkozott" "beszélt"

  We discussed "csinált", now here are the past tense indefinite conjugations for the other four:

  	van
  1SG	voltam
  2SG	voltál
  3SG	volt
  1PL	voltunk
  2PL	voltatok
  3PL	voltak

  	születik
  1SG	születtem
  2SG	születtél
  3SG	született
  1PL	születtünk
  2PL	születtetek
  3PL	születtek

  	találkozik
  1SG	találkoztam
  2SG	találkoztál
  3SG	találkozott
  1PL	találkoztunk
  2PL	találkoztatok
  3PL	találkoztak

  	beszél
  1SG	beszéltem
  2SG	beszéltél
  3SG	beszélt
  1PL	beszéltünk
  2PL	beszéltetek
  3PL	beszéltek

• ••• 41 Definite conjugation111 @ 25% 75

  The definite conjugation is a bit of Hungarian that we don't have in English !

  In sentences with an "accusative " (a direct object), the conjugation depends on whether that object is "definite " or not. The forms we have learned so far are in the indefinite conjugation.

  When a direct object is definite, the verb must be in the definite conjugation !

  (i) Lát-ok egy kutyá-t.

  (ii) Lát-om a kutyá-t.

  In (i), the object is indefinite, ’a dog’. In (ii), it is definite, ’THE dog’. In (ii), the verb changes to látom. The ending -om is in the definite conjugation.

  (iii) Látom .

  (iii) means ‘I see IT .’ The definite conjugation is only used with a definite direct object, so there is an object - even if you don't see it !

  Plus, vowel harmony!

  Here are the definite verb forms of hallani ‘to hear’, szeretni ‘to like/love’ and keresni ‘to be looking for’.

  	SG	PL
  1	hallom ‘I hear it’	halljuk ‘we hear it’
  2	hallod ‘you hear it’	halljátok ‘you (pl) hear it’
  3	hallja ‘s/he hears it’	hallják ‘they hear it’

  	SG	PL
  1	szeretem ‘I love it’	szeretjük ‘we love it’
  2	szereted ‘you love it’	szeretitek ‘you (pl) love it’
  3	szereti ‘s/he loves it’	szeretik ‘they love it’

  	SG	PL
  1	keresem ‘I am looking for it’	keressük ‘we are looking for it’
  2	keresed ‘you are looking for it’	keresitek ‘you (pl) are looking for it’
  3	keresi ‘s/he is looking for it’	keresik ‘they are looking for it’

  Important ! the -j- does not always appear in the definite conjugation. And, when the j follows -s, -z, -sz, or -zs, the consonant is doubled and loses the -j- (ss, zz, ssz, zzs ) :

  • keres + jük = keressük ‘we look for it’
  • hoz + ja = hozza ‘s/he brings it’
  • (meg)vesz + jük = (meg)vesszük ‘we buy/take it’

  Verb prefixes

  Another thing to keep in mind for this lesson is that many Hungarian verbs come with a verbal particle, as :

  meg-látogatja ‘s/he visits’ (with a definite object!)

  This particle/prefix attaches to the front of the verb, but in questions - or when the sentence is stressing information about a subject or an object - it is detached and follows the verb .

  (v) Ki látogatja meg Pétert? ‘Who visits Péter?’

  (vi) Péter látogatja meg Zsuzsát. ‘PETER is visiting Zsuzsa.‘

  The Hungarian word order in (vi) stresses PETER: you are stressing that the sentence is about Peter, not about someone, or something else.

• ••• 41 Verbs 2 Present Plural101 @ 25% 75

  plural verbs in the present

  "We, you and they " and, vowel harmony.

  • Csinálni means ‘to make’ or ‘to do’. It has a back vowel (á). Its forms are :

  	csinálni ‘to make/do’	suffix (ending)
  1SG	csinál-ok ‘I make’	-ok
  2SG	csinál-sz ‘you make’	-sz
  3SG	csinál ‘s/he makes’	(null - no ending)
  1PL	csinál-unk ‘we make’	-unk
  2PL	csinál-tok ‘you make’	-tok
  3PL	csinál-nak ‘they make’	-nak

  We also have front vowel verbs.

  	pihenni ‘to rest’	suffix (ending)
  1SG	pihen-ek ‘I rest’	-ek
  2SG	pihen-sz ‘you rest’	-sz
  3SG	pihen ‘s/he rests’	(null)
  1PL	pihen-ünk ‘we rest’	-ünk
  2PL	pihen-tek ‘you rest’	-tek
  3PL	pihen-nek* they rest’	-nek

  This table summarizes the suffixes based on vowel harmony:

  	front suffixes	back suffixes
  1SG	-ök /-ek	-ok
  2SG	-sz	-sz
  3SG	(null)	(null)
  1PL	-ünk	-unk
  2PL	-tek /-tök	-tok
  3PL	-nek	-nak

  But -ik-verbs !

  Here's another kind of verb: the -ik-verb! Its name comes from the third person singular ending , -ik, instead of (null ) no-ending like regular verbs.

  • játsz-ik ‘s/he plays’, ‘s/he is playing’
    
  • esz-ik ‘s/he eats’, ‘s/he is eating’
    

  Another difference between an -ik verb and a regular verb is that the first person singular can (but doesn't have to ) end in -m -even without a definite object.

  • játsz-om ‘I play‘, ‘I am playing’
  • esz-em ‘I eat’, ‘I am eating’

  In many grammar books, you might only find the -m ending , but today, many speakers alternate between using -m or the usual -k . Duo accepts either !

  Some other -ik-verbs are: dolgozik ‘works’, eszik ‘eats’, iszik 'drinks’, játszik 'plays’, úszik ‘swims’.

  There's no way to tell if a verb is an -ik verb except memorization.

  Subjects

  Hungarian is a null subject language, you don't always need a subject . Examples :

  They are going home. Hazamennek.

  Both mean the same, but in the Hungarian there is no they - you have to figure it out from the verb's ending .

  Hungarian has more pronouns than English :

  	Singular	Plural
  1st	én	mi
  2nd	te	ti
  3rd	ő	ők

  Note that you can be singular or plural, te is second person singular, ti second person plural. When you see a sentence like : Are you going home? , it can be translated into Hungarian as either the singular or the plural.

  Hungarian has a few MORE pronouns for "YOU " They are used to address someone formally - like French vous, Spanish usted and German Sie - and many other languages, too .

  These pronouns are ön (singular) and önök (plural), AND maga (singular) and maguk (plural). One thing to keep in mind when using these pronouns is that they behave like third person pronouns (like Spanish usted/ustedes) . So when using ön, the verb will look like it has a third person subject !

  Ön eszik. You are eating (formal, singular)

  Ő eszik He/She is eating.

  Te eszel. You are eating (informal, singular)

• ••• 41 Adjectives 192 @ 25% 75

  víz
  1 words

  In this skill you will learn a bunch of new adjectives. We tried to vary the sentence structures to make you practice them. There will be:

  • This is a [adjective] [noun]. = Ez egy [adjective] [noun].

  • This is a black car. = Ez egy fekete autó.

  • This [noun] is [adjective]. Ez a(z) [noun] [adjective].

  • This car is black. Ez az autó fekete.

  What is the difference between idős, öreg and régi?

  Use idős and öreg for people, and régi for objects.

  Ez egy régi ház. This is an old house.

  A nagymamám öreg. My grandmother is old.

  A nagymamám idős. My grandmother is elderly.

  Idős is more like elderly, it is more polite to say, while saying öreg is less polite - in some situations.

  “Régi” has a special meaning when used for people :

  egy régi barátom = an old friend of mine . We have been friends for a long time. The friend is not necessarily old .

  egy öreg / idős barátom = an old friend of mine (the friend is actually old)

  What is the difference between kicsi and kis?

  Immediately before a noun (or before another adjective that refers to the same noun) we can use either kis or kicsi.

  egy kicsi ház = egy kis ház = a small house

  egy kis piros labda = egy kicsi piros labda = a small red ball

  And, kis- can be used to form compound words: kislány (little girl) kismacska (little cat).

  But, AFTER the noun, only kicsi works ! You’re making a statement , you're forming a sentence.

  A ház kicsi. = The house is small.

  Ez a kék autó kicsi. = This blue car is small.

  Az a piros labda kicsi. = That red ball is small.

  But * A ház kis. would be wrong.

• ••• 41 Nationality91 @ 25% 75

  Plural adjectives

  In Hungarian adjectives have plural forms .

  In English you say The women are German, with the word German being the same form for both singular and plural. In Hungarian the adjective has to be plural as well:

  A nők németek.

  Have a look at the Tips and Notes section of the skill Plurals 1 to refresh your memory about how to form plurals of nouns.

  Adjectives are a bit different. The plural suffix will be -ak when an adjective consists of mixed back vowels and neutral vowels like e, i. Look at the following words:

  amerikai + -k = amerikaiak ‘Americans’

  kanadai + -k = kanadaiak ‘Canadians’

  egyiptomi + -k = egyiptomiak ‘Egyptians’

  If an adjective ends in a consonant, you can rely on what you learned in Plurals 1:

  brazil + -k = brazilok ‘Brazilians’

  japán + -k = japánok ‘Japanese’ (plural)

  In Hungarian you don't have to capitalize words referring to nationalities, but in English you do.

  When talking about Brazil, be careful :

  brazil = Brazilian (nationality of a person)

  Brazília = Brazil (the country)

  van in Hungarian

  Remember that the third person forms of to be do not always appear. When we talk about the subject and use adjectives, there is no verb in the Hungarian sentence.

  In

  A nők németek.

  there is no verb. You can't omit it in English, of course!

  Generic statements

  You will come across general statements. Those are sentences that express something that is true in general, for example the following:

  Dogs have four legs.

  This means that In general, dogs have four legs. There is an important difference between such statements in English and Hungarian. In English you don't have to use an article for the subject in those sentences, in Hungarian you usually do. Compare the following:

  Dutch people are tall. A hollandok magasak.

  In Hungarian, you can't say Hollandok magasak to mean Dutch people are tall, you have to add the definite article a(z).

  w

• ••• 41 Plurals and Accusative 281 @ 25% 75

  angolok · bankok · fiatalok · folyók · fák · házak · iskolák · kórházak · magyarok · nagyok · orvosok · piacok · pályaudvarok · rendezők · rendőrök · repülőterek · riporterek · régiek · sofőrök · sportolók · szakácsok · szállodák · színészek · színésznők · titkárnők · turisták · tűzoltók · városok · zeneszerzők · zenészek · áruházak · énekesnők · írók · óvónők · ügyvédek
  35 words

  Plural

  We've learned how to form and use the direct object accusative -t . But, so far, all our examples have been singular.

  The plural is formed by adding -k, sometimes , though, it needs a vowel.

  Let's take the demonstrative adjectives ez ‘this’ and az ’that’ first.

  • ez ’this’ -> ezek ’these’
  • az ’that’ -> azok ’those’

  Which vowel ? Vowel harmony will tell you ! Ez has a front vowel, and az has a back vowel.

  front vowels	back vowels
  i, í, ü, ű	u, ú
  e, é, ö, ő	o, ó
  	a, á

  So, the vowel before the plural ending -k will also be front or back. So we get ezek and azok.

  If a word ends in a (or e), like alma ‘apple’, the "a ", before the plural ending, lengthens - :

  • alma ‘apple’ -> almák ‘apples’

  in the Plural AND in the accusative (direct object )

  When words are plural AND accusative, we have to arrange the plural's -k and the accusative's -t . If both are there, we need a vowel between the -k and the -t !

  • alma + -k (plural) + -t (accusative) -> almá+k+at = almákat ‘apples (obj.)'

  If we want these and those as direct objects, we get:

  • ez ‘this’ -> ezek ‘these’ -> ezeket ’these (d. obj.)’
  • az ‘that’ -> azok ‘those’ -> azokat ‘those (d. obj.)’

  Contrast and word order

  Hungarian word order is less free in sentences that express a contrast.

  The judge is looking for lawyers and finds actors.

  Here, there is one subject, namely judge.

  But there are two different verbs, is looking for and finds and each of these have their own object, lawyers and actors.

  When contrasting two verbs and objects like this, they have to show the same word order: and the objects must come in front of their respective verbs:

  A bíró ügyvédeket keres és színészeket talál.

  w&a

• ••• 41 Plurals and Accusative 171 @ 25% 75

  ablakok · alacsonyak · almák · asztalok · autók · azok · buszok · bírók · diákok · eladók · ezek · feketék · fiúk · férfiak · főnökök · jók · katonák · kicsik · kik · lámpák · lányok · magasak · mik · milyenek · munkások · mérnökök · művészek · művésznők · nők · pincérek · pirosak · politikusok · postások · repülőgépek · székek · szépek · tanárok · telefonok · vonatok · épületek · órák · újak · üzletek
  43 words

  Plurals

  You just learned how to spot, form and use the accusative case. , but so far only in the singular.
  

  Remember the plural of Hungarian nouns is formed with the -k, often preceded by a vowel.

  Let's take the demonstrative determiners (demonstrative adjectives ) ez ‘this’ and az ’that’ first.

  • ez ’this’ -> ezek ’these’
  • az ’that’ -> azok ’those’

  Which vowel ? Remember vowel harmony ? Ez has a front vowel, and az has a back vowel.

  front vowels	back vowels
  i, í, ü, ű	u, ú
  e, é, ö, ő	o, ó
  	a, á

  Thus the vowel before the plural ending -k will be front or back. So we get ezek and azok.

  Tricky ! When a word ends in a vowel, like a or e, for example alma ‘apple’, the vowel lengthens :

  • alma ‘apple’ -> almák ‘apples’

  Plural and accusative

  When words are both plural and in the accusative, we have to arrange the plural -k and the accusative -t . Note that if both are there, we will need a vowel between the -k and the -t!

  • alma + -k (plural) + -t (accusative) -> almá+k+at = almákat ‘apples (obj.)'

  If we want to use these or those as objects, we get:

  • ez ‘this’ -> ezek ‘these’ -> ezeket ’these (obj.)’
  • az ‘that’ -> azok ‘those’ -> azokat ‘those (obj.)’

  Sneak preview: definite conjugation

  You'll learn the definite conjugation soon, but here's a little primer.

  Tricky ! When an object in the accusative is definite, the form of the verb changes slightly.

  Important: Definite phrases have a definite article a or az ‘the’ , or demonstratives like ez ‘this‘ or az ‘that‘, or there will be someone's name(s) .

  So when you see apples, you say:

  Látok almákat ‘I see apples’ Látsz almákat ‘you (sg.) see apples’

  Almákat is indefinite. *Látok * is in the indefinite .
  

  When you want to say I see those, which is now definite (because of the demonstrative adjective 'azok ' , you say:

  Látom azokat ‘I see those’ or Látod azokat ‘you (sg.) see those’

  You can also use látom, without an object, to say ‘I see it ’. In this lesson, you'll see a few examples of the definite conjugation .

  	SG
  1	hallom ‘I hear it’
  2	hallod ‘you hear it’

  	SG
  1	keresem ‘I am looking for it’
  2	keresed ‘you are looking for it’

  w

• ••• 41 Pronouns311 @ 25% 75

  vele · veled · velem · veletek · velük · velünk
  6 words