Learning Hungarian from English
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akarok · bocsánat · bort · elnézést · estét · hogy · hány éves · ide · igen · jó · jól · kérek · kívánok · köszönöm · menj · menni · nagyon · napot · nem · nincs · oda · paprikást · reggelt · rosszul · sajnos · szeretnék kérni · szia · szépen · szívesen · sört · vagy · vagyok · viszlát · viszontlátásra · vizet · éjszakát
36 words
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.
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
a · ablak · alma · asztal · autó · az · egy · ez · fiú · igen · lámpa · lány · mi · nem · szék · telefon · vagy · és
18 words
Lesson 1
Just like in English, Hungarian has definite articles and an indefinite article.
A and az are like English's the . A fiú = the boy .
If the word starts with a vowel, you use az. For a consonant, you use a.
az alma, a fiú
Hungarian's indefinite article is simpler: the indefinite article a or an is always egy.
egy alma, egy fiú
Don't confuse Hungarian's a / az, the definite article meaning the, with English's a / an, which are the indefinite articles, meaning egy!
Lenni, the verb "to be"
The present tense is :
| SG | PL | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | (én) vagyok ‘I am’ | (mi) vagyunk ‘we are’ |
| 2 | (te) vagy ‘you (sg.) are’ | (ti) vagytok ‘you (pl. ) are’ |
| 3 | (ő) van ‘s/he is’ | (ők) vannak ‘they are’ |
The subject pronouns are in parentheses because they are often dropped , the verb conjugation shows the person.
You are a teacher can be Te tanár vagy. or just Tanár vagy.
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
a neved · hogy hívnak? · jános · kati · lászló · mi a neved · péter · zsuzsa · éva
9 words
Péter, Kati and Éva are common Hungarian names.
There are several ways of asking someone what their name is, here are two .
One is a neved, meaning ‘your name’ . You can ask someone Mi a neved or ‘What is your name?’ — Recall that we don't always say is in Hungarian.
Another is to use hogy hívnak, which is literally ‘How do they call you?’, but it's just another way to say ‘What's your name?’.
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
akkor · alacsony · angol · diák · egyedül · fekete · fiatal · ház · ilyen · játék · ki · kicsi · korán · ma · magas · magyar · milyen · mit · most · már · nagy · orvos · piros · sofőr · szép · tanár · te · én · óra · ön · újra
31 words
The verb lenni ‘to be’
| SG | PL | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | (én) vagyok ‘I am’ | (mi) vagyunk ‘we are’ |
| 2 | (te) vagy ‘you (sg.) are’ | (ti) vagytok ‘you (pl) are’ |
| 3 | (ő) van ‘s/he is’ | (ők) vannak ‘they are’ |
The most important thing to keep in mind is when to use the third person van ‘is’ and vannak ‘are’, and when to leave them out!
These examples will help illustrate the difference.
Én tanár vagyok. meaning ‘I am a teacher.’
Ő tanár. meaning ‘She/he is a teacher.’
In the first sentence above, there is a verb, vagyok, but in the second sentence there is no van.
When expressing what something is like, you do not use van .
The following examples are fine without van or vannak, in fact, you must not use van here :
Az autó piros. ‘The car is red.’
A fiúk tanárok. ‘The boys are teachers.’
Personal pronouns
| SG | PL | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | én ’I’ | mi ’we’ |
| 2 | te ’you (sg.)’ | ti ’you (pl.)’ |
| 3 | ő ’she/he/it’ | ők ’they’ |
But there are many differences between the two languages:
Hungarian has pronouns for the second person singular AND the second person plural: te means ‘you (sg.)’, while ti means ‘you (pl.)’.
Hungarian has no gender: the third person singular pronoun ő means both ‘she’ and ‘he’. Thus a sentence like Ő tanár can mean either ‘She is a teacher’ or ‘He is a teacher’.
Like German, French and Spanish, Hungarian has pronouns that are used when talking formally to someone : ön in the singular and önök in the plural. They're translated as ‘you’ and they are used in formal settings when talking to someone senior, or a stranger, and when being polite.
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bíró · eladó · főnök · katona · munkás · mérnök · művész · művésznő · pincér · politikus · postás · rendező · rendőr · riporter · sportoló · szakács · színész · színésznő · titkárnő · turista · tűzoltó · zeneszerző · zenész · énekesnő · író · óvónő · ügyvéd
27 words
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.
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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Here are the present tense singular (I, you, s/he ) forms .
| 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.
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!
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’ ...
Or when you compare or contrast two phrases (or words), one is in focus and has to come right before the verb.
For example:
The contrast is between a piac mellett ‘next to the market‘ and az áruház mellett ‘next to the department store‘.
almát · autót · buszt · bírót · diákot · eladót · fiatalt · fiút · fát · férfit · gyereket · házat · iskolát · jeget · kenyeret · keveset · kicsit · kit · könyvet · lányt · magasat · mit · nőt · orvost · rendezőt · riportert · semmit · sokat · szállodát · tanárt · telefont · vacsorát · valamit · épületet · írót · ügyvédet
36 words
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 .
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.
If the word ends in a consonant, we USUALLY have to add a vowel before the accusative t -ot / -at / -et / -öt . Which vowel is determined by vowel harmony ! Words with front vowels get a front vowel before the t, words with back vowels get a back vowel. But -r / -l / -n / - ny / - s / -sz / -z / -j / -ly take the -t directly (see below ) .
| back vowels | front vowels |
|---|---|
| a, á | e, é, |
| o, ó | i, í, |
| u, ú | ö, ő |
| ü, ű |
-back vowels usually get -ot
sajt ‘cheese’ -> sajtot
narancs 'orange' -> narancsot
-some words, which you have to memorize, get -at:
ház ‘house’ -> házat
toll 'pen' -> tollat
-front vowels get -et:
szék ’chair’ -> széket
zöldség ’vegetable’ -> zöldséget
round vowel words which have ö / ő / ü / ü in the last syllable get -öt
gyümölcs ’fruit’ -> gyümölcsöt
főnök ’boss’ -> főnököt
When the word ends in -r / -l / -n / - ny / - s / -sz / -z / -j / -ly we USUALLY add the -t directly .
bor ’wine’ -> bort
lány ’girl’ -> lányt
In sentences with a subject, verb and object, Hungarian has very flexible word order. All of the following can be used in certain contexts:
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
Or:
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:
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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ablakok · alacsonyak · almák · asztalok · autók · azok · buszok · bírók · diákok · eladók · ezek · feketék · fiúk · férfiak · főnökök · jók · katonák · kicsik · kik · lámpák · lányok · magasak · mik · milyenek · munkások · mérnökök · művészek · művésznők · nők · pincérek · pirosak · politikusok · postások · repülőgépek · székek · szépek · tanárok · telefonok · vonatok · épületek · órák · újak · üzletek
43 words
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.
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 :
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!
If we want to use these or those as objects, we get:
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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angolok · bankok · fiatalok · folyók · fák · házak · iskolák · kórházak · magyarok · nagyok · orvosok · piacok · pályaudvarok · rendezők · rendőrök · repülőterek · riporterek · régiek · sofőrök · sportolók · szakácsok · szállodák · színészek · színésznők · titkárnők · turisták · tűzoltók · városok · zeneszerzők · zenészek · áruházak · énekesnők · írók · óvónők · ügyvédek
35 words
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.
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 - :
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 !
If we want these and those as direct objects, we get:
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
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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víz
1 words
In this skill you will learn a bunch of new adjectives. We tried to vary the sentence structures to make you practice them. There will be:
This is a [adjective] [noun]. = Ez egy [adjective] [noun].
This is a black car. = Ez egy fekete autó.
This [noun] is [adjective]. Ez a(z) [noun] [adjective].
This car is black. Ez az autó fekete.
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)
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.
plural verbs in the present
"We, you and they " and, vowel harmony.
| 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.
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.
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)
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 ) :
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.
idén · jövőre · néha · tavaly · végre
5 words
In this unit, you'll learn how to express date and time. You'll learn a few past tense expressions (more on that later), the days of the week, and months.
In the past tense you can mostly use the same verb endings as before, but... in the verb endings, a -t- indicates that it is in the past tense:
| csinál ‘to make/do’ | |
|---|---|
| 1SG | csinál-t-am ‘I made’ |
| 2SG | csinál-t-ál ‘you (sg.) made’ |
| 3SG | csinál-t ‘he made’ |
| 1PL | csinál-t-unk ‘we made’ |
| 2PL | csinál-t-atok ‘you (pl.) made’ |
| 3PL | csinál-t-ak ‘they made’ |
You'll learn more about the past tense later !
As in many languages, you can use the present tense to talk about things in the future. It is fine to say.
to mean ‘I will go tomorrow.’
The word nap means both ‘day’ and ‘sun’ in Hungarian. But it only shows up in one of the week's days :
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 :
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.
In Hungarian, the names of the months are similar to the names of the months in many other European languages, including English.
To say that something happened in a certain month, Hungarian uses the case suffix -ban or -ben:
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:
But, there are two different case-suffixes to mark what's happening during a season:
A tiny tip: none of these endings have a diacritic (accent mark)
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 |
egyik · is · melyik · milyen · miért · másik · sem
7 words
van and nincs
Remember van? It's the third person singular of the verb ‘to be’, but sometimes, we don't use it . It IS used in sentences which translate into English as :
Very important! When we negate van, it turns into nincs
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
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.
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]
egy · harminc · hat · hatvan · hetven · hány · három · hét · húsz · kevés · kilenc · kilencven · mennyi · negyven · nyolc · nyolcvan · négy · rizs · sok · száz · tíz · öt · ötven
23 words
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 ) ...
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.
Hungarian and English differ in how they use plurals . In Hungarian, plural nouns that follow a number are in the singular.
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.
The number word rule applies for "kevés" and "sok" too.
Kevés férfi énekel. — ‘Few men sing.’
Sok orvos beszél angolul. — ‘Many doctors speak English.’
Where to put the adjective, and is it supposed to be in the plural ? In the example két szép gyerek ‘two beautiful children’ - if an adjective precedes a plural noun, it stays in the singular , and numbers precede adjectives .
négy kicsi macska — ‘four small cats’
öt magas fiú — ‘five tall boys’
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abban · alatt · annál · azokban · azoknál · azokon · azon · e · ebben · előtt · ennél · ezekben · ezeken · ezeknél · ezen · fölött · körül · között · mellett · melyik
20 words
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
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’
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’
első · harmadik · harmincadik · hatodik · hatvanadik · hetedik · hetvenedik · huszadik · hányadik · kilencedik · kilencvenedik · második · negyedik · negyvenedik · nyolcadik · nyolcvanadik · századik · tizedik · ötvenedik · ötödik
20 words
Ordinal numbers (like first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, etc. ) are formed by using the number , itself , and -adik, -edik, and -ödik . The choice depends on vowel harmony.
If the number has a long vowel in the last syllable (like kettő, hét, négy, tíz or húsz), the vowel shortens:
tíz becomes tizedik ‘tenth’ (and négy -> negyedik, hét -> hetedik)
In három, the á shortens, and the o disappears, so we get harmadik ‘third‘.
And, like in English, second, is not derived from two (we don't use twoth!):
második ‘second’
(más = ‘different’ but also, ‘another‘)
| En | Hu |
|---|---|
| first | első |
| second | második |
| third | harmadik |
| fourth | negyedik |
| fifth | ötödik |
| sixth | hatodik |
| seventh | hetedik |
| eighth | nyolcadik |
| ninth | kilencedik |
| tenth | tizedik |
| eleventh | tizenegyedik |
| twelfth | tizenkettedik |
| thirteenth | tizenharmadik |
| fourteenth | tizennegyedik |
| fifteenth | tizenötödik |
Note that 11th, 12th, 21st, 22nd, 31st, 32nd (and so on) do not contain the words "első" and "második",
we say tizenegyedik, tizenkettedik, huszonegyedik, huszonkettedik, harmincegyedik, harminckettedik instead.
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.
hova · ide · oda
3 words
be · el · fel · ide · ki · le · oda · vissza · át
9 words
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... ) .
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:
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 is in focus because Mari immediately precedes the verb. Whenever there is a focused word or phrase , the particle follows the verb - and is detached .
Important ! The particle follows the verb when there is negation or in questions with question words:
Nem mész el. ‘You do not go away.‘
Ki ül le? ‘Who is sitting down?’
The phrase that corresponds to that question word, in an answer, is also always in focus. The answer to the question Ki ül le? could be:
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.
Hungarian word order is very strict in another respect: the order of topic, focus (new information) and the verb. English generally has
but Hungarian generally has
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:
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
abba · ahhoz · arra · azokba · azokhoz · azokra · csak · ebbe · ehhez · erre · ezekbe · ezekhez · ezekre · melyik
14 words
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:
This does not happen in the plural, so we get:
Attach the ending to BOTH the demonstrative AND the noun:
alá · de · elé · fölé · köré · közé · mellé · mögé
8 words
You may have already seen the postpositions alatt ‘under’, fölött ‘above’, mögött ‘behind’ and között ‘between‘.
They all share the -tt ending, which is an old Hungarian suffix for location.
To express motion towards a location, we can take their roots and add an -á/-é suffix ,
alá ‘towards underneath it’
fölé ‘towards above it’
mögé ‘towards behind it’
and közé toward between somethings . . .
Be careful, though: in English, a phrase like behind the house can be both a ház mögött - for where something is happening - or a ház mögé if there is motion involved.
Look for motion in this lesson !
| English | movement to | place | |
|---|---|---|---|
| beside | mellé | mellett | |
| under | alá | alatt | |
| in front of | elé | előtt | |
| behind | mögé | mögött | |
| between, among | közé | között |
hamis · igaz · kis · nyitva · zárva
5 words
be · el · fel · honnan · ide · innen · ki · le · oda · onnan · vissza · át
12 words
More verbs with prefixes.
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.
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:
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 :
In the above example, Mari is in focus because Mari immediately precedes the verb. This is called the focus position. Whenever there is a focused phrase or word in this position, the particle follows the verb.
In addition, the particle follows the verb when there is negation or in questions with question words:
Nem mész el. ‘You are not going away.‘
Ki ül le? ‘Who is sitting down?’
The phrase that responds to a question word is in focus. The answer to the question Ki ül le? could be:
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.
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
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:
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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amerikából · angliából · bécsből · izraelből · japánból · kairóból · németországból · párizsból · vízből
9 words
földről · fűről · miről · vízről
4 words
abból · arról · attól · azokból · azokról · azoktól · ebből · erről · ettől · ezekből · ezekről · ezektől
12 words
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:
In the plural (ezek / azok ) , the plural suffix -k remains, so the case suffix is simply added:
When using a demonstrative with a noun, both the demonstrative and the noun must have plural and case suffixes:
ebből a házból ‘out of this house’
azoktól a kertektől ‘from those gardens’
Notice that the suffix on the demonstrative and the suffix on the noun may use different vowels.
After all, vowel harmony is determined on a word-by-word basis .
alól · elől · közül · mellől · mögül
5 words
You'll see some postpositions you already know but in a different form: direction FROM somewhere.
The suffixes -ól / -ől / -ül attach to stems like al- el- mög- etc. :
Postpositions come after nouns:
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 |
arra · arról · előre · erre · erről · felé · felől · hátra · közel · merre · merről
11 words
amerre · amerről · arra · arról
4 words
You've learned some of the following:
These can appear as relative pronouns as well. In the following English sentence, that introduces the relative clause:
or
The first English example might sound a bit awkward, but it will help with understanding the way Hungarian works here:
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:
Note how the English pairs have that in the main clause and which in the relative clause... that's the basic pattern!
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.)
abba · abban · ahhoz · annál · arra · arról · attól · azokba · azokban · azokhoz · azoknál · azokon · azokra · azokról · azoktól · azon
16 words
Demonstrative adjectives and relative pronouns .
In English you can use that as a relative pronoun, as well as which:
I like that book which you like too.
Szeretem azt a könyvet, amelyiket te is szeretsz.
The focus in this lesson is on the pair azt — amelyik(et): ‘that one ... which’.
Demonstratives and relative pronouns can have all kinds of cases:
An example:
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....
alatt · alá · alól · elé · elől · előtt · felett · fölé · köré · körül · közé · között · közül · mellett · mellé · mellől · mögé · mögött · mögül
19 words
When you combine a demonstrative and a noun like ez a ház ‘this house’ with a postposition like mellett ‘next to‘, the resulting form is like with the case suffixes above:
e mellett a ház mellett ‘next to this house’
a fölött a kert fölött ‘above that garden’
az alatt a fa alatt ‘under that tree’
You've seen sentences like:
Annál a banknál állunk, amelyikben sok ember dolgozik. We are standing at the bank, in which a lot of people are working.
These sentences answer to "Which?"
Which bank are we standing at? - There, where a lot of people work.
In this skill, we combine these two tricks, the "az alatt a fa alatt" construction with the "Az a ..., amelyik ..." construction, and get:
A színészek a mögül a függöny mögül jönnek ki, amelyiken egy nagy pillangó van.
The actors come out from behind the curtain on which there is a large butterfly.
meg · mínusz · nulla
3 words
amilyen · amilyenek · mint · olyan · olyanok
5 words
You saw az (a) ... amelyik and ott...ahol earlier.
Now it's time for another two-part conjunction:
olyan ... mint / olyan ...amilyen
For example:
(Én) olyan vagyok, mint te.
(Én) olyan vagyok, amilyen te.
I am like you.
A kutya olyan, mint a macska.
A kutya olyan, amilyen a macska.
The dog is like the cat.
For the plural version, use olyanok ... mint / olyanok ...amilyenek
A kutyák olyanok, mint a macskák.
A kutyák olyanok, amilyenek a macskák.
The dogs are like the cats.
vele · veled · velem · veletek · velük · velünk
6 words
kiknek · kinek
2 words
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 |
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:
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:
whose in this sentence is ki-nek, the dative of ki ‘who’.
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.)
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*:
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.’
kiknek · kinek · neked · nekem · neki · nekik · nektek · nekünk
8 words
In the previous skill, you learned how to express possession in Hungarian. In this skill, you'll learn another way to show possession: how to make sentences which use the verb to have.
Hungarian does not have a verb that means to have. Instead, Hungarian uses the verb van ‘there is’ with a dative (for the possessor) and a nominative (for the possessed noun):
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.
Using a pronoun in such cases usually adds some emphasis on the possessor: pronouns are natural in answers to question:
Remember also that in Hungarian, the question word ki ‘who’ has separate singular and plural forms, so the sentence
is asking if there are several possessors: in English, this distinction does not exist, and the sentence can be translated with a singular subject.
You know that the regular plural suffix in Hungarian is -k. But when a noun is possessed, we use a different suffix: -i.
This suffix always follows a possessive (generally ja/je or a_/_e), and precedes the suffix indicating the person and number of the possessor:
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 |
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:
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:
whose in this sentence is ki-nek, the dative of ki ‘who’.
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:
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*:
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.’
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 |
annak · azoknak · ennek · ezeknek
4 words
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
Let's refresh the possessive endings:
| Hungarian | English | |
|---|---|---|
| 1SG | -öm, -em, -om, -m | my |
| 2SG | -öd, -ed, -od, -d | your (sg.) |
| 3SG | -je, -ja, -e, -a | his/her/its |
| 1PL | -ünk, -unk, -nk | our |
| 2PL | -(ö)tök, -(e)tek, -(o)tok | your (pl.) |
| 3PL | -jük, -juk, -ük, -uk | their |
But we will see that the 3rd person plural behaves strangely.
Exceptions
As usual, there are a few exceptions to the general rule. When the possessor is third person plural, the forms change in one of two ways. First, when the possessor is a pronoun, ők ‘they’, the pronoun loses its -k. (This only happens with ők, all other pronouns stay intact.)
az ő cipőjük ‘their shoe’
az ő asztaluk ‘their table’
So it looks like a singular possessor, but is still plural. Second, when the possessor is a plural noun, like a lányok, the possessed noun loses its plural ending -(j)uk or -(j)ük
a lányok cipője ‘the girls' shoe’
a lányok asztala ‘the girls' table'
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 |
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.)
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 |
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 |
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
| 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
| 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 |
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:
The great thing about this suffix is that there's no vowel harmony. It's simply -i and remains -i. Thus:
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 |
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
akiknek · akinek · annak · azoknak
4 words
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.
sült
1 words
In this lesson, you'll learn the Hungarian words for a number of fruits, vegetables and other foods, as well as the names of some Hungarian dishes.
As in earlier skills, when talking about something in general, Hungarian differs from English. Where English uses a bare noun, as in Cheese is tasty., in Hungarian you have to use a definite article plus a noun: A sajt finom.
Another difference between the two languages is that Hungarian sometimes uses a bare singular noun where English would use an article and a noun or a plural: Szőlőt eszem. translates to I am eating grapes.
Some of the dishes mentioned in the sentences in this skill are difficult to translate, since they are Hungarian specialties. So here is a very short little guide to Hungarian cuisine:
gulyás(leves) is a soup flavoured with some paprika with different vegetables and meat; it is soupier than "goulash soup" in other countries
lángos is a small, round piece of wheat dough (sometimes with potato as well) with yeast that is fried in oil or baked and eaten with garlic, cheese and/or sour dough
lecsó is a vegetable ragout or stew, made with onion, tomato, peppers, and paprika
pálinka is a fruit brandy that is often made from apricots (then usually called barack or barackpálinka), plums (szilvapálinka), or other fruit
paprikás is a dish made with paprika, onion, garlic and different meats or vegetables, such as chicken, mushrooms, potatoes, or beans; there are many varieties; this dish is sometimes known as "goulash" outside of Hungary
pörkölt is a stew usually made with (you guessed it!) paprika, onion, garlic and beef or pork; there are many different varieties, however; this dish is often known as "goulash" outside of Hungary
ahol · amikor · azonban · bár · de · ennek ellenére · ha · hogy · mert · mindegy · még · mégis · nos · pedig · persze · például · sőt · talán · tehát · továbbá · tudom · valóban · végül is · általában
24 words
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 |
első · elsőt · ezreket · ezret · harmadik · harmadikat · harmincadikat · harmincat · hat · hatodik · hatodikat · hatot · hetedik · hetet · huszonötödiket · huszonötöt · hármat · három · kecskét · kettőt · kilenc · kilencet · másodikat · negyediket · nyolc · nyolcadikat · nyolcat · négyet · szeretjük · százat · ötvenediket · ötvenet · ötödik · ötödiket · ötöt · újságot
36 words
autókat · erőseket · férfiakat · gyerekeket · görögöket · imádják · kutyákat · magyarokat · nagyokat · nehezeket · nőket · ruhákat · székeket · szépeket · tisztákat · tisztát · virágokat
17 words
akit · amit · azokat · azt · borokat · ezeket · ezt · fiúkat · fiút · házakat · kenyereket · kenyeret · kutyát · lányokat · lányt
15 words
említi · említjük · gondolja · gondoljuk · gondolom · hisszük · hiszem · hiszi · kérdezi · kérdeznek · válaszolja · válaszoljátok · válaszolom
13 words
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.
