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Basic Phrases #2 · 2021-04-04 ^
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
Basic 1 #2 · 2021-11-16 ^
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
Basic 1 #13 · 2019-02-21 ^
Welcome to the Hungarian course!
In this skill, you'll meet your very 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 don't have to use them. The verb form tells you clearly enough which person and number is indicated. So English How are you? is Hungarian Hogy vagy? or Hogy vagytok?.
Orthography 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 written by doubling them, as in reggel ’morning’, for example.
The spelling of some Hungarian consonants is very different 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 |
Lesson 1
Just like English, Hungarian has a so-called definite article (or definite determiner). Hungarian a and az correspond to English the. So English the boy is Hungarian a fiú. It is easy to figure out whether you have to use a or az: when the following word (usually an adjective or a noun) starts with a vowel, you use az. When it starts with a consonant, you use a.
This is very similar to the indefinite determiner in English: a and an. While it is a boy, it's an apple. In this case, Hungarian is simpler: the indefinite determiner is simply egy.
Be careful not to confuse Hungarian a/az, which is the definite article meaning the, with English a/an, which is the indefinite article, meaning egy!
First Names #2 · 2022-08-29 ^
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
Basic 2 #5 · 2020-12-01 ^
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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Occupations #6 · 2021-01-05 ^
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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Places 1 #13 · 2021-04-04 ^
Postpositions
We'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 , and some of them using postpositions, not prepositions .
We'll learn some words for buildings and some postpositions.
In English, we say behind the house . In Hungarian, we say a ház mögött.
Egy ház mögött állok. — ‘I am standing behind a house.’
Van egy kert a ház mögött. — ‘There is a garden behind the house.’
A tó a nagy ház mögött van. — ‘The lake is behind the big house.’
The order in which words can follow each other is often fixed:
-
- adjective 2. noun: nagy ház
-
- noun 2. postposition: ház mögött
-
- adjective 2. noun 3. postposition: a nagy ház mögött
Meet six postpositions:
-
előtt — ‘in front of’
-
mögött — ‘behind’
-
alatt — ‘under’
-
fölött — ‘above’
-
mellett — ‘next to’
-
között — ‘between’
We will use the suffixes -ban / -ben . These are used for the English preposition "in":
- a táskában — ‘in the bag’
- a könyvben — ‘in the book’
- az épületben — ‘in the building’
In English we make a difference between "in" and "at", in Hungarian, we only use -ban / -ben:
- Iskolában vagy? — ‘Are you at (in ) school?’
- Az iskolában fehér az ablak. — ‘The windows are white in (at ) the school.’
Suffixes are always attached to the noun they refer to, as if they were “glued together”. Postpositions are always "loose " .
nincs
In Hungarian, nem van (side-by-side ) can only be said or written nincs. Compare:
| person |
localising |
feeling bad |
| én |
Nem vagyok otthon. |
Nem vagyok jól. |
| te |
Nem vagy otthon? |
Nem vagy jól? |
| Ön/Maga |
Nincs otthon? |
Nincs jól? |
| ő |
Nincs otthon. |
Nincs jól. |
Word order in questions
Questions have 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.
Exceptions:
When a question word is a part of a "block", like How many cars? How much water? - Then put this "block" before the verb.
Hány autót lát Péter? - How many cars does Péter see?
Mennyi víz van a pohárban? - How much water is in the glass?
Also, miért (why) does not have to be right before the verb.
Miért dolgozol? - Why are you working?
Miért te dolgozol? - Why is it you who is working?
Places 1 #3 · 2022-02-10 ^
Postpositions
We'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 , and some of them using postpositions, not prepositions .
We'll learn some words for buildings and some postpositions.
In English, we say behind the house . In Hungarian, we say a ház mögött.
Egy ház mögött állok. — ‘I am standing behind a house.’
Van egy kert a ház mögött. — ‘There is a garden behind the house.’
A tó a nagy ház mögött van. — ‘The lake is behind the big house.’
The order in which words can follow each other is often fixed:
-
- adjective 2. noun: nagy ház
-
- noun 2. postposition: ház mögött
-
- adjective 2. noun 3. postposition: a nagy ház mögött
Meet six postpositions:
-
előtt — ‘in front of’
-
mögött — ‘behind’
-
alatt — ‘under’
-
fölött — ‘above’
-
mellett — ‘next to’
-
között — ‘between’
We will use the suffixes -ban / -ben . These are used for the English preposition "in":
- a táskában — ‘in the bag’
- a könyvben — ‘in the book’
- az épületben — ‘in the building’
In English we make a difference between "in" and "at", in Hungarian, we only use -ban / -ben:
- Iskolában vagy? — ‘Are you at (in ) school?’
- Az iskolában fehér az ablak. — ‘The windows are white in (at ) the school.’
Suffixes are always attached to the noun they refer to, as if they were “glued together”. Postpositions are always "loose " .
nincs
In Hungarian, nem van (side-by-side ) can only be said or written nincs. Compare:
| person |
localising |
feeling bad |
| én |
Nem vagyok otthon. |
Nem vagyok jól. |
| te |
Nem vagy otthon? |
Nem vagy jól? |
| Ön/Maga |
Nincs otthon? |
Nincs jól? |
| ő |
Nincs otthon. |
Nincs jól. |
Word order in questions
Questions have 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.
Exceptions:
When a question word is a part of a "block", like How many cars? How much water? - Then put this "block" before the verb.
Hány autót lát Péter? - How many cars does Péter see?
Mennyi víz van a pohárban? - How much water is in the glass?
Also, miért (why) does not have to be right before the verb.
Miért dolgozol? - Why are you working?
Miért te dolgozol? - Why is it you who is working?
Places 1 #2 · 2020-12-10 ^
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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Verbs 1 : Present Single #9 · 2021-04-04 ^
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‘.
Accusative 1 #6 · 2021-02-28 ^
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
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 :
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
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
-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
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,
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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Plurals and Accusative 1 #8 · 2021-01-25 ^
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’ |
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Plurals and Accusative 2 #6 · 2021-03-20 ^
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
Nationality #6 · 2020-12-01 ^
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).
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Adjectives 1 #2 · 2021-04-04 ^
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.
Verbs 2 Present Plural #2 · 2021-04-04 ^
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)
Definite conjugation #9 · 2021-04-04 ^
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.
Date and Time #3 · 2022-07-08 ^
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 |
Pronominal Objects #2 · 2022-02-10 ^
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, (magát, magukat), 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. |
Pronominal Objects #9 · 2022-01-10 ^
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. |
Choices 1 #9 · 2022-07-08 ^
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]
Numbers 1 #5 · 2021-02-11 ^
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.
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 .
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Inessive Case #6 · 2021-11-16 ^
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.
Inessive Case #7 · 2022-02-10 ^
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.
Superessive Case #8 · 2021-02-23 ^
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
Superessive Case #13 · 2022-02-10 ^
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
Adessive Case #4 · 2021-11-16 ^
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’
Adessive Case #6 · 2022-02-10 ^
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’
Household #2 · 2022-02-10 ^
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
Clothing #10 · 2022-01-11 ^
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.)
Clothing #9 · 2022-02-10 ^
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.)
Colors #2 · 2022-02-10 ^
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.
Colors #2 · 2021-11-16 ^
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.
Choices two #5 · 2021-11-16 ^
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’
Ordinal Numbers #2 · 2021-11-16 ^
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.
Animals #3 · 2019-11-28 ^
When talking about animals and their characteristics, we often make general statements like the following.
Lions are carnivores.
In English, it is possible to use the plural of a word without an article, like lions above, to express such a generic statement.
In Hungarian, generic statements are expressed slightly differently. As we've learned before, when talking about the properties of a third-person subject, we cannot use the verb to be. In addition, in Hungarian, we need an article. The English sentence above becomes:
Az oroszlánok húsevők. = literally ‘the lions carnivores’
or
Az oroszlán húsevő.
The same is true with negation. The English sentence
Dolphins are not fish.
becomes
A delfinek nem halak. = lit. ‘the dolphins not fish’
Illative Case 1 #6 · 2021-11-16 ^
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 !
Illative Case 1 #2 · 2022-02-10 ^
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 !
Sublative Case 1 #2 · 2022-02-10 ^
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
Sublative Case 1 #2 · 2021-04-04 ^
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
Allative Case 1 #6 · 2021-04-04 ^
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’
Allative Case 1 #4 · 2022-02-10 ^
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’
Preverbs #6 · 2021-04-04 ^
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:
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:
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
Illative Case 2 #2 · 2021-11-16 ^
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'
Illative Case 2 #5 · 2022-02-10 ^
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'
Sublative Case 2 #2 · 2021-11-16 ^
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 .
Sublative Case 2 #5 · 2022-02-10 ^
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 .
Allative Case 2 #7 · 2021-11-16 ^
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.
Allative Case 2 #2 · 2022-02-10 ^
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.
Geography 1 #2 · 2022-02-10 ^
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
Geography 1 #2 · 2021-03-30 ^
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
Choices 3 #3 · 2021-11-16 ^
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’
Directional Postpositions #8 · 2021-11-16 ^
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 |
|
Adjectives 2 #12 · 2021-04-04 ^
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
Preverbs 2 #8 · 2021-04-04 ^
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:
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:
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
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.
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Elative Case #6 · 2021-11-16 ^
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:
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 .
Delative Case #11 · 2021-02-21 ^
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.
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.’
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Ablative Case #1 · 2021-02-28 ^
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!
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.
Ablative Case #8 · 2022-02-10 ^
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!
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.
Choices 4 #8 · 2021-03-30 ^
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:
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 .
Directional Postpositions 2 #8 · 2021-03-29 ^
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 |
Directions #4 · 2021-11-16 ^
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 |
Places 2 #7 · 2021-03-26 ^
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
Directional Conjunction #5 · 2021-03-30 ^
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.)
Directional Conjunction 2 #6 · 2021-04-04 ^
Demonstrative adjectives and relative pronouns .
In English you can use that as a relative pronoun, as well as which:
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....
Directional Conjunction 3 #9 · 2020-11-04 ^
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.
Adjective Conjunction #3 · 2020-12-10 ^
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.
Adverbs of place #3 · 2020-11-05 ^
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’.
There is no third option here, since we cannot use a direction as a location.
Adverbs of place #2 · 2022-02-10 ^
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’.
There is no third option here, since we cannot use a direction as a location.
Possessives 1 #5 · 2020-11-05 ^
Possessive suffixes
You use possessive adjectives to express who an object belongs to:
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.’
To have 1 #5 · 2020-11-05 ^
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’
Family #6 · 2020-11-26 ^
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 |
Possessives 2 #4 · 2021-03-18 ^
Possessive suffixes
In many languages, you use possessive adjectives to express who a certain object belongs to :
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 |
Choices 5 #4 · 2020-12-20 ^
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.)
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
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.)
Body Parts #2 · 2022-02-10 ^
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.
Ablative Postpositional Pronouns #7 · 2020-12-24 ^
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 |
Adessive Postpositional Pronouns #10 · 2021-01-29 ^
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 |
Adessive Postpositional Pronouns #6 · 2022-02-10 ^
Adessive Postpositional Pronouns
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 |
Allative Postpositional Pronouns #6 · 2021-01-30 ^
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 |
Allative Postpositional Pronouns #10 · 2021-11-16 ^
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 |
Pronouns of Source #2 · 2020-11-04 ^
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 |
|
Pronouns of Position #2 · 2020-11-04 ^
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 |
|
Pronouns of Goal #11 · 2020-11-04 ^
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 |
|
Plural Possessions #4 · 2021-11-16 ^
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
Past tense 1 #10 · 2021-01-31 ^
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.
Food #5 · 2018-10-25 ^
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
Past tense 2 #3 · 2018-10-25 ^
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 |
Verb practice #2 · 2018-10-25 ^
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!
Quoting #3 · 2018-10-25 ^
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.’
Possession Object #2 · 2021-04-01 ^
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.
90 skills with tips and notes
