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Hungarian grammar
Hungarian language
Alphabet
cs
dz
dzs
gy
ly
ny
sz
ty
zs
Grammar
Noun phrases
Verbs
T-V distinction
History
Sound correspondences with
other Uralic languages
Other features
Vowel harmony
Orthography
Regulatory body
v
t
e [1]
Hungarian grammar is the grammar of the Hungarian language, which is a Uralic language mainly spoken in
Hungary and in parts of its seven neighboring countries.
Hungarian grammar
Hungarian is an agglutinative language. It uses various affixes, mainly suffixes, to change a word's meaning and
grammatical function. The suffixes are attached according to vowel harmony. The verbs are conjugated according to
definiteness, tense, mood, person and number. The nouns can be declined with 18 case suffixes, most of which
correspond to English prepositions. Hungarian is a topic-prominent language, which means that word order depends
on the topic-comment structure of the sentence (e.g. what aspect is assumed to be known and what is emphasized).
Syntax
Neutral Hungarian sentences have a subjectverbobject word order, like English. Hungarian is a null subject
language, meaning the subject does not have to be explicitly stated. Word order is determined not by syntactic roles,
but rather by pragmatic factors. Emphasis is placed on the word or phrase immediately preceding the finite verb.
A sentence usually consists of four parts: topic, focus, verb and the rest. Any of the four parts may be empty. The
topic and the rest may contain any number of phrases but the focus may contain at most one phrase.
Emphasis
The tables below contain some Hungarian variations of the English sentence "John took Peter two books yesterday."
Besides the verb, the sentence contains four other elements: "John", "Peter", "two books", "yesterday".
Topics
Focus
Jnos
tegnap
Jnos
tegnap kt
knyvet
Verb
The rest
Special meaning
elvitt kt knyvet
Pternek.
Two books were taken by John to Peter yesterday. (It was successfully completed; no
special emphasis.)
vitt
el
Pternek.
It was two books that John took Peter yesterday. (As far as John and yesterday are
concerned, it was exactly two books that he took to Peter.)
Jnos
tegnap
vitt
el
kt knyvet
Pternek.
It was yesterday that John took Peter two books. (John took Peter two books sometime,
but it was done specifically yesterday.)
Jnos
vitt
el
tegnap kt knyvet
Pternek.
Pternek
vitt
el
tegnap Jnos kt
knyvet.
tegnap Pternek
vitt
el
kt knyvet.
John took somebody two books yesterday, but it was specifically Peter to whom he
took them, not anybody else.
Jnos
Kt
knyvet
Two books were taken by John to Peter yesterday. (The action was completed; the
books are at Peter's place now.)
tegnap
Two books were indeed taken by John to Peter. (Perhaps something else was taken to
him, too. However, the two books may not be the most important thing, e.g. John may
have left Peter's documents at home.)
vitt
el
Kt
knyvet
Jnos tegnap
Pternek.
The topic contains a phrase or phrases which the speaker supposes as known and which is used for introducing a
topic that the statement will be about (cf. "as far as X is concerned, ..."). The focus attracts the attention to an
element of the event which is either supposed as unknown or it may be a refutation to a possible opposing belief. It
excludes the validity of the statement for all other individuals in question ("it was X and nothing else that...").
If a focus is present, the verbal prefix will be put after the verb (vitt el instead of elvitt). If there is no verbal prefix,
there may be ambiguity in writing because the phrase preceding the verb may be either a topic or a focus. For
example, in the sentence va szereti a virgokat ("Eve likes flowers"), va may be a topic and the sentence may be
neutral, or va may be a focus and the sentence may emphasise that it's Eve who likes flowers. Example sentences
and their interpretations follow:
Hungarian grammar
Sentence
Interpretation
va szereti a virgokat.
Szereti va a virgokat.
va szereti a virgokat.
va a virgokat szereti.
A virgokat va szereti.
It's Eve that likes flowers (and not someone else, although something else may be liked by someone else).
Morphology
Hungarian is an agglutinative language. Most grammatical information is given through suffixes. For example: "at
the table" = az asztalnl (space relation), "at 5 o'clock" = t rakor (time relation). There is also one grammatical
prefix (leg- for superlatives).
"I" etc.
"me"
etc.
Case/postposition stem
+personal
suffix
+personal
suffix
Noun
Verb
Typical element
+possessive suffix
Indefinite
present
Definite
present
"myflat
/apartment" etc.
engem
nlam
alattam
laksom
ltok
ltom
te
tged
nlad
alattad
laksod
ltsz
ltod
nla
alatta
laksa
lt
ltja
-a/-e
mi
minket
nlunk
alattunk
laksunk
ltunk
ltjuk
ti
titeket
nlatok
alattatok
laksotok
lttok
ltjtok
-tok/-tek/-tk
ket
nluk
alattuk
laksuk
ltnak
ltjk
-k
Hungarian grammar
Back Front
variant
o e/
a e
u
As it is shown, the members of these pairs/triads mostly agree in height and length but differ in backness. (An
exception is the pair / where (open front unrounded vowel) is categorised as back.)
In the case of o vs. e and and the case of a vs. e there appears a difference in roundedness, too.
Notes:
e is used in 2 of the groups. There are no suffixes which have a/e/. o/e (without ) is very rare, only used for
certain 2nd person plural suffixes.
Where i is used in a suffix, it is usually an invariant suffix. It also occurs once as a front verb suffix (paired with
-ja) and in the irregular forms neki and nekik (see Cases with personal suffixes).
Suffix typology
The suffixes can be categorised into the following phonological types:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Initial consonant and no change depending on the stem ending, e.g. -ban/-ben, -hoz/-hez/-hz
Initial v with complete preservative consonant assimilation, only for -val/-vel and -v/-v
Initial vowel and no change depending on the stem ending, e.g. -ul/-l, -s/-s
Link vowel o/e/ on stems ending with a consonant, with link vowel a for certain back-vowel noun stems, e.g.
-om/(-am)/-em/-m/-m
Link vowel a/e on stems ending with a consonant, e.g. -ak/-ek/-k
Link vowel u/ on stems ending with a consonant, e.g. -unk/-nk/-nk
Link consonant -j on stems ending with a vowel, and on certain stems ending with a consonant, only for
-a/-e/-ja/-je and -uk/-k/-juk/-jk
Invariant, e.g. -kor, -ig
Minor variations:
-on/-en/-n/-n does not use the a link vowel for any nouns
The accusative suffix, -ot/(-at)/-et/-t/-t, does not use a link vowel for stems ending with certain consonants
Note: The long vowels /, / and / are not used as link vowels.
Hungarian grammar
Sample word
Suffix variation
Constant Difference by vowel quality
-ig
Consonant
laks
hz
szem
kr
Vowel
laksig
hzig
szemig
krig
frdig
-ban/-ben
-hoz/-hez/-hz
-om/-am/-em/-m/-m
laksban
hzban
lakshoz
hzhoz
laksunk
hzunk
laksom
szemben
krben
frdben*
szemhez
szemnk
krnk
szemem
frdnk
frdm
frd
krhz
frdhz*
hzam
krm
*: Its suffix may agree with any of the preceding variants, e.g. frdben but autban, frdhz but authoz
and tvhez.
Hungarian grammar
Type I (a/e)
Type II (o/e/)
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
1st person
-am/-em/
-m
-unk/-nk/
-nk
-om/-em/-m/
-m
-unk/-nk/
-nk
2nd person
(informal)
-ad/-ed/
-d
-atok/-etek/
-tok/-tek
-od/-ed/-d/
-d
-otok/-etek/-tk/
-tok/-tek/-tk
-a/-e/
-ja/-je
-uk/-k/
-juk/-jk
-a/-e/
-ja/-je
-uk/-k/
-juk/-jk
In the example rows below the chart proper, the forms for the 1st person singular are given for the three basic
types (back vowel, unrounded front vowel, rounded front vowel).
Within cells, the first row is for stems ending in a consonant and the second for stems ending in a vowel.
There is some variance with verbs (mostly in the 3rd person) but their forms still resemble this pattern.
The hzam, mzem, fldem group has another special feature as well: they always use a link vowel in the
accusative, independently of their endings (e.g. hzat but gzt, mzet but gzt).
This difference often disambiguates meanings, e.g. jttek means "they came" (past) and jttk means "you [pl.]
come" (present).
An extreme example is the longest Hungarian word 'megszentsgtelenthetetlensgeskedseitekrt' (means 'due to
your repeatedly not being possible to be desecrated'. This word contains mass of inflexions, prefix, suffix, etc. The
core of the word is 'szent', meaning "sacred.")
Note: the accusative suffix following the stem or following other suffixes shows the same difference, except for the
six different forms for the six persons:
Type I (a/e)
Type II (o/e/)
ablakot, szemet, gymlcst
(accusative suffixes attached to the stem)
Hungarian grammar
Noun phrase
See Hungarian noun phrase.
Postpositions
As well as the noun suffixes, which are often equivalent to English prepositions, Hungarian also has postpositions.
alatt
under
"Regular"
"Amalgamated" use
postpositional use with personal suffixes
az asztal alatt
under the table
alattam
under me
For the full list of such postpositions, see postpositions with personal suffixes.
Stand-alone postpositions
The following postpositions differ from the above in that they are never suffixed with personal endings:
Spatial postpositions
t "over/across"
Time postpositions
Other postpositions
ta "since"
keresztl "through/via"
tl "beyond"
Derived postpositions
Certain standard postpositions are derived from a noun + 3rd person singular possessive suffix + case ending, e.g.
apm rvn "by the help of my father". See their list here.
This internal structure affects how they are used with pronominal forms (see above).
Case requirements
Most postpositions govern the nominative case; the exceptions are listed below. (The genitive case below means that
morphologically speaking, they can either take the nominative or the dative suffix, see Other noun endings.)
Hungarian grammar
genitive
valami /
ellenre (despite), folyamn (during), jvoltbl (thanks to), kedvrt (for the sake of), kvetkeztben (due to),
valaminek mentn (along), rszre (for), rvn (by/through/via), szmra (for/to), tjn (via)
superessive
valamin
alul (under/below), t (through/over), bell (inside), fell/fll (over/above), innen (this way from X),
keresztl (across), kezdve (from X on), kvl (outside/except), tl (beyond)
sublative
valamire
allative
adessive
valaminl
ablative
valamitl
instrumental-comitative valamivel
Adverb derivation
The suffix -an/-en/-n is used to form adverbs of manner from adjectives. -l, -lag/-leg and -ul/-l are also used to
derive adverbs from some adjectives.
There is also a suffix, -va/-ve, which is used to derive adverbs from verbs. Its nearest English equivalent is the -ing
form functioning as a participle (rather than a noun). Example:
szva jtt ide. ("He came here swimming.")
Such participles (note the adverbial usage) are referred to by term adverbial participle (distinguished from
adjectival participle).
Use of adverbs
In Hungarian adverbs can be used predicatively with van. Examples: Korn van. ("It's early.") Nyitva van. ("It's
open.")
Degree adverbs
Some degree adverbs are formed from adjectives. The suffixes which are used are ones which are usually used on
nouns:
-on/-en/-n/-n, e.g. nagyon ("very")
-v/-v, e.g. kiss ("somewhat, to some extent"), elgg ("quite, fairly")
Hungarian grammar
Word elements
Prefix
Base
Comparative
Superlative
leg-
Complete form
Meaning
Adjective Suffix
stem
Exaggerated legesleg-
magas
magas
tall/high
-abb
magasabb
taller/higher
-abb
legmagasabb
tallest/highest
-abb
Notes:
1. Back-vowel adjectives use a as link vowel (as in magasabb), while front-vowel ones use e (e.g. hidegebb
"colder"). The only exception is nagy ("big"), which uses o as link vowel instead of a: nagyobb, legnagyobb,
legeslegnagyobb.
2. The exaggerated measure is used for stressing the superlative adjective.
Verb
See Hungarian verbs
Expressing time
Many expressions of time use the case endings and postpositions which are also used for position, e.g.:
There are also some which are used only for time, e.g.:
-kor - at what time, e.g. kilenckor ("at nine"), karcsonykor ("at Christmas")
-onta/-ente/-nte - every ..., e.g. naponta ("daily")
mlva (postposition) - in ... time, e.g. 2 ht mlva ("in 2 weeks' time")
There are 2 ways of expressing how long ago something happened:
3rd singular possessive suffix with past tense, e.g. 10 ve kltztt el. ("He moved away 10 years ago.")
-val/-vel + ezeltt with past tense, e.g. 10 vvel ezeltt kltztt el. ("He moved away 10 years ago.")
Hungarian grammar
These are abbreviated in movie programmes as n9, f9 and h9 (with the initial letters of the fraction names).
The times in between these are expressed in relation to the next or previous quarter hour, e.g.:
8.20 - negyed kilenc mlt t perccel (literally "past 8.15 by 5 minutes")...
...or fl kilenc lesz tz perc mlva (literally "it will be 8.30 in 10 minutes' time")
8.25 - fl kilenc lesz t perc mlva (literally "it will be 8.30 in 5 minutes' time")
These are different when they refer to a time in the past or future:
8.20-kor - negyed kilenc utn t perccel (literally "after 8.15 by 5 minutes")
8.25-kor - fl kilenc eltt t perccel (literally "before 8.30 by 5 minutes")
Duration structures
For a period of time extending up to the present:
3rd singular possessive ending with present tense, e.g. 3 ve lakom itt. ("I've lived here for 3 years.")
3rd singular possessive ending with negative past tense, e.g. 10 ve nem lttam. ("I haven't seen him for 10
years.")
For a period of time in the past, present or future:
accusative with dynamic verbs, e.g. 2 rt segtnk. ("We're helping for 2 hours."), 2 rt fogunk segteni ("We're
going to help for 2 hours."), 2 rt segtettnk. ("We helped for 2 hours.")
-ig with stative verbs, e.g. 5 vig laktam Londonban. ("I lived in London for 5 years."), Egy percig sem maradok
itt! ("I won't stay here even for a minute!")
These two structures are often interchangeable.
The -ra/-re structure also exists, but it's rarely used in this sense since it may be ambiguous with the "by (before)"
meaning. For example Hrom napra ment el. ("He left for three days.") Then again: Hrom napot/napig volt
tvol. ("He was away for three days.") the above suffixes appear.
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Hungarian grammar
Negation
Verbs are negated with nem, except in the subjunctive when ne is used.
Double or multiple negative is mandatory with negative pronouns (like nobody, nothing, never, nowhere), see the
article "Double negative" about Hungarian.
Questions
Question words
ki? is the basic question word for a person (cf. "who?") and mi? is the basic question word for a thing (cf. "what?").
Where meaningful, these can take the full range of case and noun suffixes, e.g. kit?, miben?, mikpp? mi + rt ("for
the purpose of") gives the question word mirt? ("why?").
milyen? is used to ask for a description. It can be used to ask about a whole noun phrase, e.g. Milyen a tanrod?
("What's your teacher like?") or as a determiner, e.g. Milyen lakst akarsz? ("What kind of flat do you want?").
Although there is no case suffix -lyan/-lyen, this ending also occurs in ilyen ("this kind of"), olyan ("that kind of"),
valamilyen ("some kind of") and semmilyen ("no kind of").
The strict three-way distinction in direction which occurs in the positional suffixes also occurs in the question words:
hol? ("where?"), hova? /hov? ("where to?") and honnan? ("where from?").
hny? is used to ask questions about numbers (cf. "how many?") and mennyi? about quantities (cf. "how much?").
Where meaningful, these can take the full range of case and noun suffixes, e.g. hnnyal?, hnykor?, mennyibe?,
mennyirt? hny? can also take the full range of suffixes used for numbers and quantity expressions, e.g. hnyadik?,
hnyas?
Yes/no questions
Yes/no questions are expressed by intonation not by any modification to syntax or morphology.
A short positive answer to a yes/no question is often given by repeating the verb particle (or the full verb, if it has no
particle) rather than by using the words Igen ("Yes"). Examples:
Elment? El. ("Has he left? He has.", literally "[He] away-went? Away.")
Ltta a filmet? Ltta. ("Did he see the film? He did.", literally "[He] saw the film? [He] saw.").
The negative answer to a yes/no question may include the word Nem ("No") or the negation of the requested part of
the sentence or both.
Elment?
Nem. (this option may sound rude) / Nem ment el. / Nem, nem ment el. ("No, he hasn't left.")
Tag questions
Tag questions are made by adding ugye to the beginning or end of a statement. E.g. Elment, ugye? or Ugye elment?
("He has left, hasn't he?"). The latter form more strongly suggests the positive answer.
11
Hungarian grammar
References
"The Hungarian Language: A Short Descriptive Grammar" [2] by Beta Megyesi (PDF document)
Keresztes, Lszl (1999). A practical Hungarian grammar (3rd, rev. ed.). Debrecen: Debreceni Nyri Egyetem.
ISBN 963-472-300-4.
Trkenczy, Mikls (2002). Practical Hungarian grammar: [a compact guide to the basics of Hungarian
grammar]. Budapest: Corvina. ISBN 963-13-5131-9.
Trkenczy, Mikls (1999). Hungarian verbs and essentials of grammar: a practical guide to the mastery of
Hungarian (2nd ed.). Budapest: Corvina; Lincolnwood, [Ill.]: Passport Books. ISBN 963-13-4778-8.
Rounds, Carol (2001). Hungarian: an essential grammar. London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-22612-0.
Hungarian Language Learning References [3] (including the short reviews of three of the above books)
Noun Declension Tables - HUNGARIAN. Budapest: Pons [4]. Klett [5]. ISBN 978-963-9641-04-4
Verb Conjugation Tables - HUNGARIAN. Budapest: Pons [6]. Klett [7]. ISBN 978-963-9641-03-7
Gyakorl magyar nyelvtan - A Practical Hungarian Grammar [8], Akadmiai Kiad Budapest 2009 ISBN
978-963-05-8703-7
External links
http://www.magyarora.com
Magyar Nyelvtan [9]
References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
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License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
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