Hungarian noun phrase
This page is about noun phrases in Hungarian grammar.
Syntax
The order of elements in the noun phrase is always determiner, adjective, noun.Grammatical marking
With a few important exceptions, Hungarian does not have grammatical gender or a grammatical distinction between animate and inanimate.Plurality
Hungarian nouns are marked for number: singular or plural.However, Hungarian uses the plural form sparsely for nouns, i.e. only if quantity is not otherwise marked. Therefore, the plural is not used with numerals or quantity expressions. Examples: öt fiú ; sok fiú ; fiúk.
In phrases that refer to existence/availability of entities, rather than their quantity, the singular is used in Hungarian : Van szék a szobában "There are chairs in the room", Nincs szék a szobában "There aren't chairs in the room". Also, product names are usually written out in the singular, e.g. Lámpa "Lamps".
Hungarian also uses a singular noun when the possessor is plural but the thing possessed is singular, e.g. a fejünk.
The plural noun marker is the suffix -ok//-ek/-ök/-k.
Before [|possessive suffixes], the plural k appears as ai or ei, e.g.:
[|Pairs of body parts]
Hungarian uses paired body parts in the singular, even if the pair is meant together, and even if several people's pairs of body parts are meant. One piece of a pair is described as: "egyik lába". As can be seen, pairs of body parts are considered as one in Hungarian.| láb – leg | Singular possessor | Plural possessor |
| Singular possession | lába lit. "his/her leg" in fact: his/her legs | lábuk lit. "their leg" in fact: their legs |
| Plural possession | lábai his/her legs | lábaik their legs |
Note the number of the noun in the following examples:
| Tánc közben összegabalyodott a lába. | His/her legs got tangled up during the dance. |
| Tánc közben összegabalyodott a lábuk. | Their legs got tangled up during the dance.
|
Apparent plural endings and homonymy
The letter k also occurs at the end of certain words, which thus may appear plural. Examples include emlék, farok, köldök, könyök, sarok, pocok, püspök, érsek, szemöldök, zsák etc. – the name of the mole used to be vakondok but this form took on a plural meaning and the word is mostly used today as vakond.Homonymy may occur between a word in the singular and another in the plural. Examples:
| Homonymous word | Meaning as a singular form | Meaning and parsing as a plural form |
| farok | "tail" | "bottoms", "buttocks" far + ‑ok |
| pacák | "bloke", "chap" | "blots", "blotches" paca + ‑k |
| telek | "lot" | "winters" tél + ‑ek |
Person
Forms for "you"
Beside te, which are used informally, there are polite forms for the second person pronouns: ön and maga. Ön is official and distancing, maga is personal and even intimate and some people think it has rude connotations. See in more detail: T-V distinction for Hungarian.The polite 2nd person forms ön and maga take the grammatical forms of the 3rd person, e.g. for verbs and possessive suffixes. For example, te kérsz, but ön kér or maga kér, just like ő kér.
Impersonal usage
Hungarian does not have a distinct impersonal or generic pronoun, but there are two ways of expressing this:- The 3rd person plural, for example Azt mondják, hogy a lány bolond.
- The phrase az ember, for example Az ember nem is gondolna rá.
Determiners
Articles
Hungarian has definite and indefinite articles. The definite article, a, changes to az before a vowel. The indefinite article is egy, an unstressed version of the word for the number "one". Articles are invariableDemonstrative determiners
The demonstrative determiners are ez a/ez az and az a/az az.Numerals
Hungarian numbers follow an extremely regular, decimal format. There are distinct words for 1 to 9, 10, 20, 30, 100, 1000 and 1000000. The tens from 40 to 90 are formed by adding -van/-ven to the digit. When the numbers 10 and 20 are followed by a digit, they are suffixed with -on/-en/-ön/-n. Compound numbers are formed simply by joining the elements together. Examples:- öt
- tíz
- tizenöt
- ötvenöt
- százötvenöt
Suffixes used only on numerals and hány :
- -odik//-edik/-ödik for ordinal numbers, e.g. ötödik
- -od//-ed/-öd for fractional numbers, e.g. ötöd
- -os//-es/-ös for adjectival numbers, e.g. ötös
Quantity expressions
Suffixes used specifically with numerals, hány and other quantity expressions:- -szor/-szer/-ször for how many times, e.g. ötször, sokszor
- -féle and -fajta for "kind of", e.g. ötfajta
- -an/-en/-n for numeric adverbs
Possession
Possessive suffixes
In Hungarian, pronominal possession is expressed by suffixes applied to the noun. The following suffixes are used for singular nouns:| Singular | Plural | |
| 1st person | -om/-am/-em/-öm/-m a házam my house | -unk/-ünk/-nk a házunk our house |
| 2nd person | -od//-ed/-öd/-d a házad your house | -otok//-etek/-ötök/-tok/-tek/-tök a házatok your house |
| 3rd person and 2nd person | -a/-e/-ja/-je a háza his/her/its house a háza your house | -uk/-ük/-juk/-jük a házuk their house a házuk / az önök háza your house. |
The following suffixes are used for plural nouns:
| Singular | Plural | |
| 1st person | -aim/-eim/-im az házaim my houses | -aink/-eink/-ink a házaink our houses |
| 2nd person | -aid/-eid/-id a házaid your houses | -aitok/-eitek/-itok/-itek a házaitok your houses |
| 3rd person and 2nd person | -ai/-ei/-i a házai his/her/its houses a házai your houses | -aik/-eik/-ik a házaik their houses a házaik / az önök házai your houses |
The háza, házai type is used in the 3rd person plural except when no pronoun or only the ő is present before it, e.g. a szülők háza "the parents' house". In other words, the plural -k of the 3rd person suffix is left from the noun if there is a lexical possessor preceding it.
The definite article is usually used. It can be omitted in a poetic or literary style. It may also be omitted at the beginning of the sentence in colloquial speech.
The possessor can be emphasized by adding the subject pronoun, e.g. az én házam. In this case the definite article must be used. For the 3rd person plural, the 3rd person singular pronoun is used, e.g. az ő házuk.
Words with ''-j''
Certain consonant-final stems always use the suffixes with -j for a singular noun with a 3rd person singular possessor, e.g. kalap : kalapja. This group also uses the -j for a singular noun with a 3rd person plural possessor, e.g. kalapjuk. The -j is also inserted for a plural noun, e.g. kalapjaim, kalapjaid, kalapjai, etc.The two most common types are the following:
There is much variance, but in general, the -j variant is usually safer than the variant without -j, except with the specific endings listed above.
Where a form applies the j, the other forms will apply it too. An exception is the uncommon type of barát where the -j type is incorrect with a plural noun: barátja, barátjuk but barátaik, without j. The other most common examples of this type are előd, 'predecessor', and utód, 'successor'. However, there are areas where the -j type is correct for these words too.
Word endings and suffix types
Several endings only allow the variant without -j in both singular and plural, as shown in the charts above. On the other hand, the words that always take the -j variant form a rather small group: only those ending in f or ch.For the other endings, there are no clear-cut rules, but there are some regularities. Words with a long vowel or another consonant preceding the ending consonant often take the -j variant, as well as international words. Vowel-dropping and [|vowel-shortening] stems always use the variant without -j, just like most words using -a as linking vowel.
Apparent possessive suffixes and homonymy
Certain words have endings which are identical with a possessive suffix. Examples:Notes:
- For the szemét → szemet change, see [|Oblique noun stem].
- For the apa → apá, hulla → hullá change, see Oblique noun stem.
- For the plural marked with "" in "your eye", see Pairs of body parts.
- For the different link vowels after words taken as absolute or relative stems, see [|The accusative suffix after other suffixes].
A similar kind of homonymy may arise with [|vowel-dropping] words. Examples:
Note that the first person singular possessive form of hal is not the above halom but exceptionally halam, cf. a link vowel.
Examples:
Finally, another kind of homonymy may arise between a noun with a possessive suffix and a verb: hasad "your stomach " or "it tears/rips", árad "your price" or "it floods", fogad "your tooth" or "he/she/it receives/accepts"/"he/she/it bets".
Possessive construction with 2 nouns
There are 2 possible forms for a possessive construction with 2 nouns. In both of them the noun which is possessed takes the 3rd person possessive suffix.- The possessor is an unsuffixed noun, e.g. István lakása
- The possessor is a noun suffixed with -nak/-nek and the possessed noun is preceded by a/az, e.g. Istvánnak a lakása
If the 3rd person plural possessor is a lexical word, not a pronoun, the possession will be marked like the 3rd person singular: a szülők lakása . In other words, the plurality of the 3rd person plural possession is only marked once: either on the possessor or on the possession, cf. az ő lakásuk.
Possessive pronouns
The following pronouns are used to replace singular nouns:The following pronouns are used to replace plural nouns:
-é/-éi to replace possessed noun
The suffixes -é/-éi are used to express possession when the noun is not stated:- Istváné: "Istvan's", for singular noun: "the thing belonging to Istvan",
- Istvánéi: "Istvan's", for plural noun: "the things belonging to Istvan".
The suffixes are also used to form the question word kié.
Positional suffixes
Hungarian follows a strict logic for suffixes relating to position. The position can be "in", "on" or "by". The direction can be static, movement towards or movement away. Combining these gives 9 different options.| Interior | Surface | Adjacency | |
| Static position | in lakásban in the flat/apartment | on lakáson on the flat/apartment | by, at lakásnál by/at the flat/apartment |
| Movement towards | into lakásba into the flat/apartment | onto lakásra onto the flat/apartment | to lakáshoz to the flat/apartment |
| Movement away | out of lakásból out of the flat/apartment | off lakásról off the flat/apartment | from lakástól from the flat/apartment |
Note 1: -nál/-nél is also used with the meaning "at the home of".
Note 2: -ban/-ben is sometimes pronounced without the final n, this however, carries a connotation of rural or unsophisticated speech.
Town/city names
For town/city names, the rules for selecting the right group are as follows:- Towns outside the historical Kingdom of Hungary use the -ban/-ben group
- Most towns within Hungary use the -on/-en/-ön/-n group
- Approx. fifty towns within Hungary use the -ban/-ben group
- *This group includes all town names ending in -n, -ny and -város, most with -m, -i and some with -r. For example, Sopronban, Debrecenben; Gárdonyban; Dunaújvárosban; Esztergomban, Komáromban, Veszprémben; Zamárdiban; Egerben, Győrben
Differentiating place names with suffix groups
The difference of the two suffix group may carry a difference in meaning:| "Interior" cases: inessive, illative, elative | "Surface" cases: superessive, sublative, delative |
|
- Tajvanon means "on Taiwan" but Tajvanban is "in Taiwan" – Note: Tajvanon may also refer to the country
- Tolnán means "in Tolna" but Tolnában is "in the county of Tolna" – Note: Tolnában may also refer to the town
- Velencén means "in the Hungarian town of Velence" but Velencében is "in the Italian city of Venice " – Note: Velencében may also refer to the Hungarian town
Insider and outsider usage
In some cases, the local usage is encouraged based on traditional usage in literature and linguistic history, e.g. Csíkszeredában as well as Nagyszombatban. In other cases, the "outsider" usage is considered more received or even normative, for example:
| General/ outsider usage | Sátoraljaújhelyen | Balmazújvárosból |
| Insider usage | Sátoraljaújhelyben | Balmazújvárosról |
Cases and other noun suffixes
A note on terminology
The concept of grammatical cases was first used in the description of Ancient Greek and Latin grammar, which are fusional languages. Over the centuries the terminology was also used to describe other languages, with very different grammatical structures from Indo-European languages. Some linguists believe that the concept does not fit agglutinative languages very well. Rather than using the "case" paradigm and terminology for describing Hungarian grammar, they prefer to use the terms " suffixes" and "endings". Despite these opinions, nowadays the term "case" is used by most Hungarian linguists.The criterion for an ending to be a case is that a word with that ending can be a compulsory argument of a verb. This difference is usually unimportant for average learners of the language.
However, it is useful to know that only actual cases can follow other suffixes of the word and the other noun endings can only be added to absolute stems. For example, lakás-om-mal exists, but *lakás-om-ostul doesn't.
Case endings
Assimilation works with -val/-vel and -vá/-vé: the initial sound of these suffixes will change to the preceding sound, if it is a consonant other than v, e.g. lakás + -val appears as lakással.Accusative suffix
After -l, -r, -j, -ly, -n, -ny, -s, -sz, -z and -zs, the accusative suffix is usually added directly to the noun rather than using a link vowel, e.g. lakást. For the other consonants, a link vowel is used.| -l, -r, -j, -ly, -n, -ny, -s, -sz, -z, -zs | asztalt, embert, bajt, súlyt, telefont, lányt, lakást, buszt, pénzt, rizst etc. |
| Other consonants | darabot, lábat, ebet, köböt padot, holdat, ebédet, ködöt etc. |
The accusative suffix after other suffixes
As shown in the above chart, -ot//-et/-öt/-t is the accusative suffix for nouns with no other suffix. However, if the accusative suffix is added to a relative stem, that is, to a noun which already has another suffix, -at/-et is used. Examples:| Absolute stem with accusative | Relative stem with accusative | |
| Back | ablakot | ablakomat ablakokat ablakaimat |
| Front | gyümölcsöt | gyümölcsömet gyümölcsöket gyümölcseimet |
Sometimes the quality of the link vowel of the accusative can differentiate between otherwise homonymous words:
| Homonymous word in the nominative | The word as an absolute stem with accusative | The word as a relative stem with accusative |
| fánk | fánkot : fánk + -ot | fánkat : fa + -nk + -at |
| sütőtök | sütőtököt : sütőtök + -öt | sütőtöket : sütő + -tök + -et |
Accusative without marking
The accusative can be expressed without the -t morpheme after the first and second person singular possessive suffixes. For example:- Látom a kalapod'. or Látom a kalapodat. "I see your hat."
- Látod a kalapom'. or Látod a kalapomat. "You see my hat."
The third case where the accusative remains unmarked is the infinitive, e.g. Szeretek kirándulni.
Apparent accusative endings and homonymy
The letter t also occurs at the end of certain words which thus may appear accusative. Examples include eset, falat, hét, kabát, kert, kötet, lakat, lapát, part, párt, sajt etc.Telling them apart:
Homonymy may also arise between accusative nouns and verbs, e.g. választ may mean "answer" or "s/he chooses/elects" and nevet may mean "name" or "s/he laughs".
The accusative of terem is termet instead of the regular teremet. On the other hand, teremt means "s/he creates". Termet is another homonymy as it may be another word in the nominative. – This latter bunch of examples shows eloquently that knowing stem types and recognizing them are essential for interpreting a Hungarian word correctly.
Other noun endings
Notes:- For more examples of the endings, refer to the article List of grammatical cases.
- The special status of the genitive case can be illustrated with the following example: "the key of the flat/apartment" is a lakás kulcsa or a lakásnak a kulcsa. The case marking is on the possessed object rather than the possessor.
Incorrect classifications
| Suffix | Meaning | Example | Meaning of the example | "Case" name |
| en | briefly | "Modal-essive case" #1 | ||
| lakásilag | as far as a flat/apartment is concerned | "Modal-essive case" #2 | ||
| szor | three times | "Multiplicative case" |
Slight noun irregularities
''a/e/o/ö'' lengthening before suffixes
Words ending in a, e, o or ö become lengthened before most suffixes:The asterisk means that almák/körték and almám/körtém can be suffixed further, e.g. almákat, almáknak etc., almámat, almádat, almáját etc., almáimat, almáidat, almáit etc., almámnak, almádnak, almájának etc.
Those cases with small letters can be formed, but they are not meaningful, unless figuratively.
The suffix -ként is an exception as it doesn't lengthen the a/e, e.g. almaként, körteként. Compounds don't lengthen the vowel, either, e.g. almalé, körtelé.
Otherwise, this rule extends to all nouns and adjectives, e.g. Coca-Cola → Coca-Colát, Coca-Colának etc.
Short o and ö endings only occur with foreign words since Hungarian or Hungarianized words lengthen these vowels at the end of the word, e.g. euró, metró, videó, sztereó, fotó, diszkó etc.
''a'' link vowel
Certain back-vowel nouns, e.g. ház, always use the vowel a as a link vowel where the link vowel is usually -o/-e/-ö, except with the superessive case -on/-en/-ön/-n.The link vowel -o//-e/-ö occurs with the following suffixes:
- -ok//-ek/-ök/-k for noun plurals, e.g. házak
- -om//-em/-öm/-m for 1st singular possessive, e.g. házam
- -od//-ed/-öd/-d for 2nd singular possessive, e.g. házad
- -otok//-etek/-ötök/-tok/-tek/-tök for 2nd plural possessive, e.g. házatok
- -ot//-et/-öt/-t for accusative case, e.g. házat
- -onként//-enként/-önként/-nként, e.g. házanként
- -ostul//-estül/-östül/-stul/-stül, e.g. házastul
- -odik//-edik/-ödik for ordinal numbers, e.g. nyolcadik
- -od//-ed/-öd for fractional numbers, e.g. nyolcad
- -os//-es/-ös for adjectival numbers, e.g. nyolcas
- -onta//-ente/-önte for distributive occasions, e.g. nyaranta
- -ott//-ett/-ött/-t for position
The case of nyúl is similar except that it becomes short in the plural as a noun and remains long as a verb. Beside árak árok also exists. Finally, beside vágyak, vágyok may also occur as a verb although it is expressed as vágyom in standard Hungarian.
Oblique noun stem
Some nouns have an alternative stem which is used with certain suffixes. This is most commonly derived from the main stem by shortening or elision of the final vowel. A few nouns insert the letter "v" to derive the oblique stem.It is used with the following suffixes:
Note: as with other nouns, the plural and the possessive forms are independent of cases so they can take the suffixes of other cases than the nominative: hetek|ből, dolgom|hoz, dolgaimhoz etc. The forms in the latter five rows cannot have more suffixes attached.
Stem with -on/-en/-ön/-n
For -on/-en/-ön/-n, the vowel-shortening base uses the nominative stem, e.g. héten, but the other types use the oblique stem, e.g. dolgon, tavon, as it is shown in the examples above.Also, the back-vowel nouns which use an a link vowel have o as the link vowel instead, e.g. házon.
As noted above, when it is added to tíz and to húsz to form compound numbers, e.g. tizenegy, huszonegy, these vowel-shortening bases use the oblique stem.
Differentiating ''-an/-en'' from ''-on/-en/-ön/-n''
The suffix -an/-en, used with numbers and adjectives, is not to be confused with the above suffix -on/-en/-ön/-n. Their vowel can only be a or e, even on words which would normally use o or ö: cf. ötön and öten, haton and hatan.Order of noun suffixes
Where more than one type of noun suffix occurs, the plural suffix is first. The possessive suffix follows this and the case suffix is last.Pronominal forms
Demonstrative pronouns
The demonstrative pronouns are ez and az. They can take the full range of case endings. For most suffixes, preservative consonant assimilation occurs.Subject and object pronouns
Pronouns exist in subject and object forms.Because the verb suffix is marked for both subject and object, the pronouns are not usually used, i.e. it is a pro-drop language. The pronouns are used for contrast or emphasis or when there is no verb.
Hence, the English pronoun "you" can have no fewer than thirteen translations in Hungarian.
Cases with personal suffixes
For the other forms which are listed above as cases, the equivalent of a pronoun is formed using a stem derived from the suffix, followed by the personal suffix. For example, benned or for emphasis tebenned has the stem benn- which is derived from the front variant of the position suffix -ban/-ben.Note: When the stem ends in a long vowel, the 3rd person singular has a ∅ suffix.
maga and ön do not use these forms. They are conjugated like nouns with the case suffixes, e.g. magában, önben.
Suffixes that use a back vowel stem:
| Suffix | Stem | -am/-m | -ad/-d | -a/-ja | -unk/-nk | -atok/-tok | -uk/-juk | Meaning |
| -NÁL/-nél | nál- | nálam | nálad | nála | nálunk | nálatok | náluk | by/at me etc. |
| -RÓL/-ről | ról- | rólam | rólad | róla | rólunk | rólatok | róluk | off me etc. about me etc. |
| -RA/-re | rá- | rám | rád | rá | ránk | rátok | rájuk | onto me etc. |
| -HOZ/-hez/-höz | hozzá- | hozzám | hozzád | hozzá | hozzánk | hozzátok | hozzájuk | to me etc. |
| -on/-en/-ön/-n | rajt- | rajtam | rajtad | rajta | rajtunk | rajtatok | rajtuk | on me etc. |
Suffixes that use a front vowel stem:
| Suffix | Stem | -em/-m | -ed/-d | -e/-je | -ünk/-nk | -etek/-tek | -ük/-jük | Meaning |
| -val/-VEL | vel- | velem | veled | vele | velünk | veletek | velük | with me etc. |
| -tól/-TŐL | től- | tőlem | tőled | tőle | tőlünk | tőletek | tőlük | from me etc. |
| -ÉRT | ért- | értem | érted | érte | értünk | értetek | értük | for me etc. |
| -nak/-NEK | nek- | nekem | neked | neki | nekünk | nektek | nekik | to me etc. |
| -ban/-BEN | benn- | bennem | benned | benne | bennünk | bennetek | bennük | in me etc. |
| -ból/-BŐL | belől- | belőlem | belőled | belőle | belőlünk | belőletek | belőlük | out of me etc. |
| -ba/-BE | belé- | belém | beléd | belé | belénk | belétek | beléjük | into me etc. |
No personal forms exist for the other suffixes: -vá/-vé, -ig, -ként, -ul/-ül, -képp, -stul/-stül, -onként//-enként/-önként/-nként, -ott//-ett/-ött/-t, -onta//-ente/-önte, -kor. Their personal variants can be only paraphrases.
Postpositions with personal suffixes
Most postpositions are combined with personal suffixes in a similar way, e.g. alattad.Note: The personal forms of stand-alone postpositions are paraphrases, e.g. rajtam túl "beyond me", hozzám képest "as compared to me".
Personal suffixes at the end of postpositions:
| -am/-em -m | -ad/-ed -d | -a/-e -ja/-je | -unk/-ünk -nk | -atok/-etek -tok/-tek | -uk/-ük -juk/-jük |
See also the section.
Note:
- In the same way as for the cases with personal suffixes, when the postposition ends in a long vowel, the 3rd person singular has a ∅ suffix.
- Postpositions in bare forms are capitalized.
Postpositions with three-way distinction
Postpositions without three-way distinction
Derived postpositions with possessive suffixes
These below are declined like words with possessive suffixes plus cases:Részére and számára are often interchangeable. To express sending or giving something, usually részére is preferred. On the other hand, to express the affected party of some perception or judgement, only számára can be used, as well as when expressing goal, objective, intention, or other figurative purposes.
Placeholders in Hungarian
Duplication with demonstrative determiners
When the noun has a plural suffix, a "case" suffix or a postposition, this is duplicated on the demonstrative. As with the demonstrative pronouns, for most suffixes, preservative consonant assimilation also occurs. Examples:| Basic form with definite article | With demonstrative determiner |
| a lakások | ezek a lakások |
| a lakást | ezt a lakást |
| a lakásban | ebben a lakásban |
| a lakással | ezzel a lakással |
| a lakás alatt | ez alatt a lakás alatt |
As peripheral phenomena, there also exist non-duplicating forms, like e, ezen, eme, azon and ama, but they are poetic or obsolete. For example: e házban = eme házban = ebben a házban. Ezen and azon are used before vowel-initial words, e.g. ezen emberek = ezek az emberek. The duplicating forms are far more widespread than these.