Hungarian for Beginners

About the course and the language

Szia, kedves olvas! - Hi, dear reader! This course doesnt follow any book or other external resource. It was prepared by a native speaker, who has no formal knowledge of linguistics at all, therefore the lessons are based on solely his observations and are strongly affected by his logic. That guy is me, and Im switching to first person at this point. Im not trying to cover the origins of the language, many have already prepared much better summaries than I ever could. Also, Im not trying to go too technical concerning grammar because of my lack of education in that area. I dont know the terminology and Im not even convinced if its a good idea to apply western grammar categories to such an obscure language. Summing up, I intend to follow a descriptive approach and target those who are interested in learning the language instead of some abstract theory. As I see it, Hungarian is a language which is hard to describe in a simple way when it comes to specific aspects, but its intuitiveness becomes obvious for those who use it regularly. First of all, it is deeply orthogonal; moving between different parts of speech is trivial (thanks to the language being agglutinative), and youll often find that learning a rule here might help understanding something over there. For the proper description being often cumbersome I advise you to look for patterns instead of trying to learn conjugation tables by heart. Just for a teaser, some features of Hungarian: nearly phonemic orthography, i.e. a strong correspondence between writing and pronunciation two kinds of vowel harmony agglutination, resulting in practically infinite vocabulary and blending different parts of speech an extensive case system with dozens of cases practically free, 'component-based' word order no grammatical gender, not even separate words for 'he' and 'she' two kinds of verb conjugation depending on the object of the sentence, which makes 'I love you' a single word subordinate clauses in IE languages often correspond to structures in adjective position you name it, we have it I hope this mouthwatering list convinces you that mastering this language gives meaning to your life.

Contents
Lesson 1: Hungarian Alphabet, Vowel Harmony, Pronunciation Rules
Alphabet Vowel Harmony Pronunciation

Lesson 2: Short Dialogue, Picking It Apart, Overview, Some Expressions, Grammar Items

The Beginning A Short Dialogue Picking It Apart Overview Vocabulary Vocabulary Vocabulary
Some

Expressions Grammar Items

Lesson 3: Plural & Accusative Case, Vocabulary, Morphology, Subject-Verb-Complement, Using the Substantive, Using Demonstrative Pronouns
Plural & Accusative Case Vocabulary Morphology Subject- Verb- Complement Substantive Demonstrative Pronouns Exercises

Lesson 4: Introduction, Riding through it

Introduction Riding Through It Exercises

Part One - The Basics

Lesson 1: Hungarian Alphabet, Vowel Harmony, Pronunciation Rules
This lesson on spelling and pronunciation might look overwhelming, but dont let that discourage you. You could as well skip its gory depths and train yourself with sound recordings instead. However, I always found it useful to learn similar pronunciation rules for other languages, because my ears can easily deceive me if my brain doesnt tell them what to look out for. Being aware of such rules helped me overcome the bias of my own mother tongue. My advice is to use this knowledge to polish your listening skills, and try to internalise it through practice. Learning the tables by heart would be completely pointless. The first important skill to learn is reading. Since Hungarian is nearly phonemic, mastering its mile long alphabet is essential. The Hungarian language is written with Latin letters. The complete alphabet consists of 44 letters, but four of these (the ones in bold face) only appear in foreign words or names. They are often simply omitted from the list.

The Hungarian Alphabet

Letter a Name a IPA or a b Letter ny Name eny IPA

o o

p q r

p k er

p r

cs

cs

d e f g

dz

dz

dzs

dzs

es

f g

ef g

sz t ty u v w x y z zs

esz t ty u v duplav iksz ipszilon z zs

s t c u u y y v z

gy

gy

h i j k l ly m n

h i j k el ely em en

h i i j k l j m n

Consonants and vowels are traditionally grouped by certain qualities, which are relevant to pronunciation on a practical level.

Classification of Consonants (pairs and pairless 'loners')

Voiced b d dz dzs g gy v z zs Unvoiced p t c cs k ty f sz s Voiced j l ly m n ny r Unvoiced h

Classification of vowels (short-long pairs indicated with dashes)

Front Rounded -, - o-, u- a, Back

Unrounded e, , i-

Some consonants are represented with digraphs, and there is one trigraph. Long consonants are denoted by doubling the letter, or the first character in the case of the aforementioned di- and trigraphs: ggy, ssz, ddzs etc.

Vowel Harmony
Vowels are divided into four categories called depending on the position of the tongue (front or back) and the shape of the lips (rounded or unrounded) during their formation, as seen in the table above.

Words are classified according to their vowels as front (e.g. let, life), back (e.g. lom, dream) or mixed (e.g. hotel). Most of the endings attached during conjugation have a front and a back form (some are even more specialised according to roundedness). Vowel harmony ensures that front words get the front endings and back words the back endings. In the case of mixed words the last vowel has strong impact on the ending, but there are ambiguous cases. For example, the ending of the inessive case is -ban/-ben; adding it to the previous words gives letben, lomban and hotelban or hotelben. It is important to remember that for historical reasons i (and consequently as well) can behave as if it was a back vowel. Hence, the classification of words containing i must be memorised individually. Examples: szv (heart) becomes szvben, but kn (suffering) is knban in inessive case. Typical back/front pairs are a/e, /, o/, /, u/ and /. When roundedness is also considered, o/e/ and a/o/e/ often form such groups.

Pronunciation Rules
Hungarian is a phonemic language, so the basic rule is to read out all the letters as the corresponding sound. Every syllable should be audible, the first being stressed all the time. In the case of composite words the other components are also slightly stressed on their first syllable. The vowels never change, although their length does not always match whats written. On the other hand, the consonants do succumb to some rules, most of which are due to the physiology of speech. Since different languages treat the same consonant combinations in different ways, it is useful to be aware of these rules. The most important rule is that consonants inherit the voicedness of the following consonant unless it is pairless and voiced. Some examples (the changed consonants are in bold face): unvoiced pairs: ezt [st], dobsz [dopso], tlgyfa [tlcf], tvhit [tefhit], vadkan [vtkn], fogdzhat [fogoht], egykor [ckor] voiced pairs: kpzel [kebzl], csontgomb [ondgomb], cukrszda [ukrazd], babusgat [bbugt], rcbl [erbl], lkds [lgd] no change: hatna [htn], kpms [kepma] Next, n becomes m before b, p, f and v: klnbz [kylmbz], sznpad [simpd], rohanva [rohmv], csalnfle [lamfel]. When an sz or a z is followed by an s or a zs, the result is the long version of the latter sound: igazsg [igag] (this is not a zs, but a z followed by an s), egszsg [geeg], hsz zsk [huak] etc. In faster speech sz and z can also assimilate the preceding s and zs in a similar way. An even more important rule is the assimilation of j to the preceding palatal (soft) consonant, making it longer: anyja [], hagyja [h], btyja [bac]. In some cases two consonants melt together to form a third one. These rules must be strictly followed, pronouncing the written consonants separately is outright erroneous:

Written d/t+s

Spoken Examples ccs, cs ftsk [fyyk], gyjtsa [uj], vadsg [vag], szilrdsg [silarag] metsz [m], maradsz [mr]

d/t+sz

cc

gy/ty+s

ccs

egysg [eg]

gy/ty+sz cc

egyszer [r] botja [boc], mrtja [marc]

t+j

tty, ty

d+j

ggy, gy

aludjunk [luunk], kardja [kr]

n+j

nny

menjen [mn]

Important: the assimilations listed in the table above never happen on word boundaries, including compound words. Examples: tjr [atjar], hadjrat [hdjart], hadsereg [htrg] (note the t instead of the ) etc. Finally, certain words have a mute h at the end: ch [tse], dh [dy], juh [ju], mh [me] and some others. When an ending is attached, the h appears in pronunciation: dhs [dyh], mhek [mehk] and so on.

Lesson 2: Short Dialogue, Picking It Apart, Overview, Some Expressions, Grammar Items
The Beginning...

A Short Dialogue
Lets start with a short conversation that touches many aspects of the language, so it will be a relatively long and hopefully rewarding lessonbrace yourself and be strong. Ill always provide a real and a literal translation for longer texts with many unknown expressions, so you can see how the sentences are built up. Hungarian:

- Szia! - Szia! Hogy hvnak? - Pternek. s tged? - n Mrta vagyok. Hogy vagy? - Kszi, ma egsz jl. Honnan jttl? - Debrecenbl. s te hol laksz? - Budapesti vagyok, az I. kerletben lakom. - A Vrban? - Igen. Ha akarod, megmutatom. - St, kvetelem! - Akkor menjnk! English: - Hi! - Hi! Whats your name? - Pter. And yours? - Im Mrta. How are you? - Thanks, Im fine today. Where are you from? - From Debrecen. And you, where do you live? - Im from Budapest, I live in the 1st district. - In the Castle? - Yes. Ill show it if you want. - In fact, I demand! - Lets go then! Literal: - Hi! - Hi! How they-call-you? - Pter(DAT). And you(ACC)? - I Mrta I-am. How you-are? - Thanks, today fairly well. From-where you-came? - From-Debrecen. And you where you-dwell? - Budapest(ADJ) I-am, the 1st in-district I-dwell. - The in-Palace? - Yes. If you-want-it, I-will-show-it. - Nay, I-demand-it! - Then let-us-go!

Picking It Apart
1. Szia. This is an informal greeting along the lines of hello or hi, but it can only be said to one person. When you are addressing a group, you have to use its plural form, sziasztok. In Hungarian there are three levels of formality, which affects only verb forms and greetings. As long as I dont go explicitly into these issues, only informal language will be discussed. Another informal greeting is hell and hellsztok, although hell is not strictly singular as szia.

2. Szia! Hogy hvnak? The simplest way to ask for someones name is the question Hogy hvnak?, literally How do they call you?. The word hogy is the interrogative how and also the connective that. The verb to call is hvni in both of its primary meanings ("call by name" and "call to come"). Infinitive forms in Hungarian always end in -ni. However, dictionaries usually list the 3rd person singular form instead, probably because it gives more hints on conjugation. For each verb that can take an object (i.e. transitive verbs) you need to know 13 forms to be able to use it in present tense indicative. There are 6 indefinite forms (1st, 2nd and 3rd person singular and plural) and 6+1 definite forms (the same six plus the I-you form). Whether you need to use the definite or the indefinite depends on the object of the sentence, which will be explained later. Lets see them with the personal pronouns! On each row the first one is the indefinite form, and the third element of the first row is the I-you form.
hvni - to call n hvok, hvom, hvlak te hvsz, hvod hv, hvja mi hvunk, hvjuk ti hvtok, hvjtok k hvnak, hvjk I call, call it*, call you (singular or plural informal) you (singular informal) call, call it he/she/it calls, calls it we call, call it you (plural informal) call, call it they call, call it

* or him or her or them, any 3rd person object You might notice that even though there is a definite object (you), the indefinite form is used in the question. This is because the definite forms are only used with 3rd person objects. 1st and 2nd person objects are almost always accompanied by an indefinite verb. Ill tell about the exception later. 3. Pternek. s tged? When answering the above question, you have to put the name in dative case. I wont be throwing around names of various cases except for accusative and dative, dont worry. So, the dative case is formed by adding the ending -nak or -nek following the rules of vowel harmony. As was mentioned in lesson 1, vowels are divided in four groups depending on the place of the tongue (front or back) and the shape of the lips (rounded or unrounded) at the time they are formed. There are 14 vowels, 10 of which are short-long pairs, which gives 9 unique sounds altogether: front rounded: -, - front unrounded: e, , i-

back rounded: o-, u- back unrounded: a, I indicated the short-long pairs with dashes. The basic idea of vowel harmony is that words having many vowels from one group take endings with vowels from the same or a close group. Mostly this means front-back correspondence, roundedness comes up much less frequently. The forms an ending can take are fixed. As I said, the dative case (and also the 3rd plural indefinite form of a verb, as you can see above) is formed by adding -nak or -nek, but never -nk or -nk or anything else. Just keep that in mind every time you learn a new ending. All in all, Pter contains two front vowels, therefore it takes the front version of the dative case ending, -nek. Hence Pternek. However, if you were attentive, you could notice that something wrong is going on with hvni: it doesnt get the front ending it deserves. I have very bad news for you if you have skipped the details in the first lesson... The vowel i- is a black sheep in this vocal system, because it can behave as a back vowel when it comes to conjugation. The reason is historical, I wont go into it. The only solution is to learn the stance of every word containing i or by heart. There are no clear rules to separate them. Theres a nice rule of thumb though: most unisyllabic verbs with an i- vowel get back (!) endings. Okay, lets go on. s means and, theres no catch here. Tged is the accusative case of te, i.e. informal singular you. The object of the sentence is always in accusative, except for parts of speech that cant take cases (e.g. the infinitive). Nominals (nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns) can and do. And while were at it, lets see the accusative of the six personal pronouns in one line: engem, tged, t, minket, titeket, ket Just to illustrate how special personal pronouns are, I present them in dative case as well: nekem, neked, neki, neknk, nektek, nekik This is the general way to conjugate them: take the case ending as a stem (how absurd!) and add an ending that looks quite familiar after checking back on verb conjugation, mostly the definite column. This is not just a coincidence. It doesnt always work though and its full of exceptions, so youll end up memorising end forms anyway, but its still good to be aware of the basic idea. 4. n Mrta vagyok. Hogy vagy? Lets introduce the substantive, to be. This is a very special verb, so it is sometimes considered to form a different part of speech by itself. It cant take objects, which means only 6 forms instead of 13 to learn. Thats a nice thing, because otherwise its highly irregular. Well have two other verbs like that in this text, so by the end of the lesson youll know the three worst Hungarian verbs.
lenni - to be n vagyok te vagy I am you (singular informal) are

 van mi vagyunk ti vagytok k vannak

he/she/it is We are You (plural informal) are They are

Since the verbs clearly indicate the subject, you normally dont need to include the subjects explicitly. They can be added for emphasis though. Here I felt it appropriate, because Mrta sort of stresses that Pter has already introduced himself, so its her turn. You should note that the verb is at the end. Actually, the expression Mrta vagyok is indivisible. Any time you use the substantive as X is Y, Y will come before the verb in Hungarian, and they can only move together as far as the word order allows. The subject of the sentence is n, and the predicate is Mrta vagyok as a whole. Switching the order in this case isnt a good idea, unless you want to sound funny. But its definitely not ungrammatical to do so. I think the question Hogy vagy? is quite clear in the light of the above, literally how are you?. 5. Kszi, ma egsz jl. Honnan jttl? Kszi is a very informal way to say thanks. You can also use the less nonchalant ksznm instead, it doesnt make you sound formal at all. In fact, it is appropriate in both formal and informal context. Ma means today, both as an adverb and as a noun, so it can also take cases. Just for practice, the dative case is mnak. This is completely regular: words ending in -a or -e have their last vowels changed to -- and -- when an ending is attachedat least there are only a few endings that dont cause such a change as opposed to the countless ones that do. Egsz primarily means whole as an adjective, but as an adverb its something like fairly. The proper adverbial form of egsz is egszen (-n is the affix to turn most adjectives into the corresponding adverb, and an -a- or an -e- is added as a link vowel for words that dont end in a vowel), but in the case of this specific word it can be dropped when it is used with the meaning fairly. Of course it can mean wholly or completely as well. Jl is well, i.e. the adverbial form of j, good. Its -l ending isnt typical at all, so learn it as an exception. The same applies to bad and badly: rossz, rosszul. Honnan means simply from where generally. Just memorize this form as it is. Jttl is you came. This is our second nasty verb, lets see its present indicative forms:
jnni - to come n jvk I come

te jssz jn mi jvnk ti jttk k jnnek

you (singular informal) come he/she/it comes We come You (plural informal) come They come

6. Debrecenbl. s te hol laksz? Debrecenbl literally means from the inside of Debrecen. In Hungarian you have to use different cases depending on whether you mean from inside, from the vicinity, from the top, from above etc. Now you probably start to see where the huge number of cases comes from. The from inside case is denoted by -bl/-bl. With place names you either associate inside or top, mostly the former (again something to learn by heart). When youre talking about an inside place, you need to use cases that denote to inside, inside and from inside. For the sake of completeness, inside is -ban/-ben and to inside is -ba/-be. Since Debrecen takes inside endings, the expressions to/in/from Debrecen translate as Debrecenbe, Debrecenben, and Debrecenbl, respectively. The word for where is hol. And since we already know from where, honnan, lets also learn to where, hov (or hova, as you please) while were at it. As these have nothing to do with any case endings, they must be learnt as they are. The verb to be resident at is lakni:
lakni - to be resident at n lakom, lakom, laklak te laksz, lakod lakik, lakja mi lakunk, lakjuk ti laktok, lakjtok k laknak, lakjk I reside you (singular informal) reside he/she/it resides We reside You (plural informal) reside They reside

Lets not go into how it can take an object, rather look at the endings. This is a so-called -ik verb, which refers to its 3rd singular ending. These verbs conjugate almost the same way as those

without the -ik ending (whose presence cannot be seen from the infinitive form by the way), except in 1st singular indefinite they mostly have -m instead of -k, and in the presence of a 1st or 2nd person object the -ik ending is dropped (which can be considered a distinct 14th, definite form); thats the exception I was hinting at above. The 1st singular -m ending is often substituted with the ordinary -k in spoken language, but in writing it is considered to be an orthographical error, except for some -ik verbs that must be conjugated with -k in all situations. 7. Budapesti vagyok, az I. kerletben lakom. Budapesti is an adjective formed from Budapest. In the middle of the sentence it would be written with a lowercase b, since its not a proper name any more. The -i affix is used to turn place names into adjectives in general, and it is an excellent way to torture pupils at school for reasons not to be discussed here. By the way, Budapest is a top place, so use the top cases with it. These are: to the top - -ra/-re, on the top - -on/-en/-n/-n and from the top -rl/-rl. To, in and from: Budapestre, Budapesten, Budapestrl. The on the top case is one where roundedness makes a difference, but only for front vowels. This means that words whose last vowel is - or - get -n, while those with e, or i- get -en. Budapest is a mixed word, since it has both front and back vowels, but in this case we are talking about a composite word: Buda+pest, and only the last component counts when it comes to conjugation. Mixed words in general tend to take the back ending, although the last vowel is usually more important than the others. Az is the definite article used before words starting with a vowel. Before a consonant its simply a. There is an indefinite article as well, egy. Incidentally, its also the name of the number one, and it must be pronounced with a long gy. Budapest districts are denoted with Roman numerals. The important part is the dot following it: thats how we indicate ordinal numerals in general. Instead of 1st we write 1. and so on. First is els when written with letters or read out loud. Kerlet means district, but you might have figured that out already. Els is in adjective position, which always precedes the thing whose meaning it elaborates, or to put it in a not so contrived way: it comes first. 8. A Vrban? Vr means castle or palace. You should probably stop and try to form its other cases we already know, just to have some work with this sentence as well. It is also the dictionary form of the verb vrni, to wait. It receives the very same endings as hv, you could probably write down its different forms if you feel diligent today. 9. Igen. Ha akarod, megmutatom. The words for yes and no are igen and nem, respectively. If and then are ha and akkor. They have all fixed forms, and undergo no conjugation. Actually, as a side note, it can be said that in Hungarian any word can behave as a noun, so you can conjugate them in reality. You can say things like in a yes with ease (egy igenben). However, this is not exactly the same yes, all this happens on some meta-level. Confusing philosophical babbling away, we have two new verbs:

akarni - to want n akarok, akarom, akarlak te akarsz, akarod akar, akarja mi akarunk, akarjuk ti akartok, akarjtok k akarnak, akarjk I reside you (singular informal) want he/she/it wants We want You (plural informal) want They want

In this case want has a definite form, because it has an implied object: a hidden clause (no pun intended), which would sound like that I show you when written out.
megmutatni - to show someone something n megmutatok, megmutatom, megmutatlak te megmutatsz, megmutatod megmutat, megmutatja mi megmutatunk, megmutatjuk ti megmutattok, megmutatjtok k megmutatnak, megmutatjk I show you (singular informal) show he/she/it show We show You (plural informal) show They show

This is a so-called prefixed verb, the prefix being meg-. The verb mutatni translates to point or to show, its sort of the continous version of megmutatni . Hungarian doesnt make a distinction between ongoing and completed actions in a way like e.g. Slavic languages do, but these differences are explicitly distributed into separate words, which are normally separate dictionary entries. Prefixes are usually directional, e.g. le- means down or fel- means up: lejnni - come down (on the stairs, in general physically), feljnni - come up (physically, or gaining a better position in a competition etc.) The prefix meg- is a special one, because it doesnt really have separate semantics, but as a rule of thumb you can assume that it makes an action described by the base verb complete: megjnni - to arrive (at last). Not all verbs are turned into a completed action using meg-, unfortunately.

So far you have only seen back endings in the verb conjugation tables, except for the obscure jnni. As you can see, the endings are generally well-behaving, so even in spite of its bad reputation, Hungarian language can show some consistency at times. 10. St, kvetelem! St roughly translates as in fact, and its another fixed word. It can only appear this way: at the beginning and followed by a comma (or a little pause in speech). And now, ladies and gentlemen, a front verb:
kvetelni - to demand, to require n kvetelek, kvetelem, kvetellek te kvetelsz, kveteled kvetel, kveteli mi kvetelnk, kveteljk ti kveteltek, kvetelitek k kvetelnek, kvetelik I demand you (singular informal) demand he/she/it demands We demand You (plural informal) demand They demand

Most of the endings are quite predictable from the back ones. The most exotic front-back pair is seen here: -i- vs. -ja/-j-. The special thing about it is that the front version has i as its vowel; i doesnt usually participate in vowel harmony games. 11. Akkor menjnk! And finally, to keep my promise, the third nasty verb has arrived.
menni - to go n megyek te msz megy mi megynk ti mentek I go you (singular informal) go he/she/it goes We go You (plural informal) go

k mennek

They go

The form menjnk is the first person plural imperative form, to translate as let us go. In Hungarian all six (I mean 13) forms have their imperative counterparts (if that sounds a bit unusual to you, it would probably absolutelly thrill you to know that even infinitive can be conjugated). Imperative is indicated by a -j-, but you could as well forget about this for now.

Overview Vocabulary
The words mentioned in this lesson in order of appearance:

Vocabulary
szia sziasztok hell hellsztok hogy hv n te mi ti k s van (lenni) kszi hi (sg.) hi (pl.) hello (sg. or pl.) hello (pl.) how, that (the connective, not the pronoun) to call (I'll be using 3rd person singular forms of verbs in vocabulary lists) I you (sg. informal) he, she, it we you (pl. informal) they and to be thanks

Vocabulary
ksznm ma egsz egszen j jl rossz thank you today whole, fairly entirely, completely, fairly good well bad

rosszul honnan jn (jnni) hol hov lakik budapesti az a egy

badly from where to come where to where to live (somewhere), to reside (at an address) related to Budapest the the a, an, one

Vocabulary
els kerlet vr igen nem ha akkor akar megmutat mutat st kvetel megy (menni) first district castle, to wait yes no if then to want to show (sy. sg.) to be showing (sy. sg.), to point at in fact to demand, to require to go

Some Expressions
Hogy hvnak? X vagyok. X-nek hvnak. Hogy vagy? Honnan jttl? Hol laksz? Whats your name? Im X. My name is X. How are you? Where are you (did you come) from? Where do you live?

X-ben/X-en lakom. Menjnk!

I live in X. Lets go!

Grammar Items

verb conjugation in present indicative vowel harmony some cases:

dative: -nak/-nek to inside: -ba/-be inside: -ban/-ben from inside: -bl/-bl onto: -ra/-re on: -on/-en/-n/-n from the top: -rl/-rl

ordinals in writing are denoted by a dot

Lesson 3: Plural & Accusative Case, Vocabulary, Morphology, Subject-Verb-Complement, Using the Substantive, Using Demonstrative Pronouns
Some Basics

Plural & Accusative Case

Lets leave Pter and Mrta alone now, we know what will happen to them anyway. Instead, Ill try to introduce some basic features and ways to form simple sentences. The very first thing well go through is the plural and the accusative case. When you have a nominal (noun, adjective, numeral, various pronouns), its plural is formed by adding -k. When the stem ends in a consonant, a link vowel is inserted. In some cases the last vowel of the stem (which isnt necessarily the last letter) is also dropped, but this is rare. The link vowel can be a, o, e or , from which o and e are the most prevalent. Roundedness doesnt count

much here despite the four possible forms. Because of the lack of regularity, its best to learn the plurals as if they were separate words. The accusative case is needed when something takes the role of the direct object in a sentence. It is formed by adding -t, and the comments above apply to it too, except that many stems ending in a consonant dont need a link vowel. Fortunately the other cases are attached much more regularly, but the accusative forms should also be memorised separately. To help you in this, Ill always give the plural and accusative forms of nominals in word lists.

Vocabulary
The rule of -a and -e at the end of stems becoming -- and -- is applied consistently. Here are some nominals to start with (-- denotes the unchanged stem):
this that man (strictly an adult male) woman boy girl shop house room table chair car bus big ez az frfi n fi lny bolt hz szoba asztal szk kocsi busz nagy --ek, --t --ok, --t --ak, --t --k, --t --k, --t --ok, --t --ok, --ot --ak, --at szobk, szobt --ok, --t --ek, --et --k, --t --ok, --t --ok, --ot

small nice (referring to looks) ugly healthy sick fast slow what? who?

kicsi szp csnya egszsges beteg gyors lass mi? ki?

--k, --t --ek, --et csnyk, csnyt --ek, --et --ek, --et --ak, --at --ak, --t mik? mit? miket? kik? kit? kiket?

Ez and az have a special behaviour: the ending -z is assimilated to the first consonant of the case ending: into this - ez+be - ebbe, from that - az+bl - abbl etc. As you can see in the list, this doesnt apply to the -t of accusative. And what about the plural of the accusative case? Its very simple: take the plain plural form and add -at/-et, now following vowel harmony: frfiakat, kocsikat, szkeket, azokat, betegeket etc. Two important words: here - itt there - ott Ill also add some verbs to the collection, for the time being with explicit conjugation (always the 6 indefinite forms first and the -lak/-lek one last):
look at nzni nzek, nzel, nz, nznk, nztek, nznek; nzem, nzed, nzi, nzzk, nzitek, nzik; nzlek ltok, ltsz, lt, ltunk, lttok, ltnak; ltom, ltod, ltja, ltjuk, ltjtok, ltjk; ltlak krdezek, krdezel, krdez, krdeznk, krdeztek, krdeznek; krdezem, krdezed, krdezi, krdezzk, krdezitek, krdezik; krdezlek

see

ltni

ask (a question)

krdezni

love

szeretni

szeretek, szeretsz, szeret, szeretnk, szerettek, szeretnek; szeretem, szereted, szereti, szeretjk, szeretitek, szeretik;

szeretlek (I love you) utlok, utlsz, utl, utlunk, utltok, utlnak; utlom, utlod, utlja, utljuk, utljtok, utljk; utllak lk, lsz, l, lnk, ltk, lnek; lm, ld, li, ljk, litek, lik; llek llok, llsz, ll, llunk, lltok, llnak; llom, llod, llja, lljuk, lljtok, lljk; llak lek, lsz, l, lnk, ltek, lnek; lem, led, li, ljk, litek, lik; llek

hate

utlni

sit

lni

stand

llni

live

lni

If you look at the rows of nz and krdez, you should notice two new things: the 2nd person singular ending is -l with a link vowel and the definite forms have -z- instead of -j- in the ending. Thats because of a phonetic rule: if a verb stem ends in an s or z character (i.e. the last consonant is s, sz, z, zs, dz or dzs), the 2nd person singular -sz is changed to an -l, and the -j- of the definite endings disappears and lengthens the last consonant: nz+jk - nzzk.

Morphology
There is some terminology I need to establish before going on. Hungarian words are formed by taking a stem and adding various suffixes at the end. These suffixes can be classified in three groups, which I will call affixes, attributes and endings from now on. I just made up these terms, so dont look for them out in the wild. An affix is a suffix that changes the essential meaning of the word, creating a new dictionary entry; its usually referred to as derivational suffix. One example is -sg/-sg, which is analogous to English -ness: sick - beteg, sickness - betegsg. There are countless affixes in Hungarian, thats why the borderline between different parts of speech is rather faint. An attribute is a property of the concept described by the word, which doesnt affect the essential meaning but refines it. Plurality (the -k above) is such an attribute. The owner is another one (my table is still a table, but its special in some way), which Ill cover later. In the case of verbs the most important attributes are those of past tense and imperativeness, which are mutually exclusive, as youll see later. Finally, the ending is a momentary property which has more to do with the role of a word in the sentence than its actual meaning. In the case of nominals these are case endings (e.g. -ban/-ben), and for verbs its the ending that determines person, number and definiteness (-ok, -sz etc.). Just think about it, in the expression in my house the preposition doesnt change the fact that we are talking about my house.

Why the distinction? I think it is much easier to get the hang of Hungarian morphology if you are aware of the basic idea: the components come in an order of decreasing importance, where importance means the extent to which they determine the meaning of the word. So the general form of words is base+affix(es)+attribute(s)+ending (the base+affixes part is what we usually refer to as stem). As you can see, there can only be one ending, and it is always at the very end, without ambiguity. This also explains why plural accusative has the -t at the very end: because plurality is a permanent attribute, while accusativity is just a case.

Simple Subject- Verb- Complement Sentences

With that cleared up, and having got rid of the less determined students, we can try to create some short sentences.
Budapestre megyek. Jn a busz. A szobban lk. Egy szken lk. Nagy hzban lek. A boltbl jvk. Ltok egy lnyt. Ltom a lnyt. Ltok egy szp lnyt. Im going to Budapest. The bus is coming. Im sitting in the room. Im sitting on a chair. I live in a big house. I come from the shop. I see a girl. I see the girl. I see a pretty girl.

As you can see, the subject is generally implied. Adding n explicitly would mean emphasising it; well get to that later. It might be apparent that expressions are extended leftwards: hz - nagy hz, lny - szp lny. This is an essential rule concerning word order, basically the opposite of what we see in morphology: the most important things come later. An adjective never follows its subject. Also, these expressions cannot be exploded, they will move around unchanged. More on that later, when we discuss word order in depth. The other interesting phenomenon is the choice between definite and indefinite forms. The rule is very simple: if the direct object is definite and 3rd person, i.e. it has a definite article or its a name, you need to use the definite form. In any other case (indefinite object or the complete lack of an object) the verb is indefinite. Despite this atypical simplicity among Hungarian grammatical rules, most foreigners have trouble picking the right form. Dont worry much about that at this point, this is fortunately something that wont hinder understanding. However, such an error will

give away your foreign identity even if you happen to have a perfect pronunciation and get everything else right.

Using the Substantive

Many language courses start with sentences like This is X, X is Y. etc. I started with other verbs for a reason: substantive is always a special case with its own little quirks. Lets see two sentences multiplied by six:
Beteg vagyok. Beteg vagy. () beteg. Betegek vagyunk. Betegek vagytok. (k) betegek. Im sick. Youre sick. (informal sg.) He/she/it is sick. We are sick. You are sick. (informal pl.) They are sick. Im in the room. Youre in the room. (informal sg.) He/she/it is in the room. Were in the room. Youre in the room. (informal pl.) They are in the room.

A szobban vagyok. A szobban vagy. A szobban van. A szobban vagyunk. A szobban vagytok. A szobban vannak.

As you can see, the 3rd person forms are left out in the first run. The rule is the following: when you describe a property, the 3rd person substantive (van, vannak) must be omitted. In this case the substantive only plays a secondary role, and its closely related to the property it assigns to the subject; this is also apparent through the fact that the number of the word describing the property matches that of the subject. On the other hand, in the second run the substantive is used with its primary meaning, i.e. describing a situation (of existence, sort of)in the room is not a property of the subject, but that of the situation the sentence tells about. In that case the substantive is always explicit. The property doesnt have to be something described with an adjective:

Frfi vagyok. Frfi vagy. () frfi. Frfiak vagyunk. Frfiak vagytok. (k) frfiak.

Im a man. Youre a man. (informal sg.) Hes a man. We are men. You are men. (informal pl.) They are men.

So the rule is not to worry when the substantive is connected to the situation. On the other hand, when it is used to describe the subject in some way, you have to a) make sure the subject and the property are in the same number and b) there is no verb at all when the subject is 3rd person.

Using Demonstrative Pronouns

Turning back to ez and az, i.e. the demonstrative pronouns, there are two things to keep in mind. By Hungarian logic they make their object definite, therefore you need to add a definite article right after them. Examples:
ez a hz az az asztal ez a frfi az a n this house that table this man that woman this Pter (e.g. if there are more Pters in a group were talking about), or this Pter guy that pretty girl this fast car

ez a Pter

az a szp lny ez a gyors kocsi

The second important rule is that they are in the same case and number as the nominal they are referring to. The previous list in plural: ezek a hzak, azok az asztalok, ezek a frfiak, azok a nk, ezek a Pterek, azok a szp lnyok, ezek a gyors kocsik

Or accusative: ezt a hzat, azt az asztalt, ezt a frfit, azt a nt, ezt a Ptert, azt a szp lnyt, ezt a gyors kocsit Or with -ban/-ben: ebben a hzban, abban az asztalban, ebben a frfiban, abban a nben, ebben a Pterben, abban a szp lnyban, ebben a gyors kocsiban No matter how many extra complements (adjectives, adverbs etc.) you add to the expression, they will always go between ez/az (the beginning) and the main word (the end), and they never take the the case of the whole expression, e.g.: Hungarian: ebben a sokak ltal vek ta hevesen tmadott knyvben English: in this book, which has been fiercely attacked by many for years Literal: in-this the manies by years since fiercely attacked in-book This is an illustration of what I wrote in the introduction about English clauses slipping into adjective position in Hungarian. It could be phrased as a clause, but it wouldn't sound as natural as this one. You can see the definite article immediately following ebben, and also the -ben ending at both ends of the expression. ltal and ta, which I translated as by and since, respectively, are socalled postpositions. These are basically case endings which are attached to the word with a space. Apart from being a separate word, they absolutely behave like case endings in every other respect. Even if having to remember to add the same case in such distant places seems redundant, it makes sense to distinguish between them occasionally:
Ez a hzban van. Ebben a hzban van. This is in the house. He/she/it is in this house.

In the first sentence ez is the subject, while in the second the subject is only implied. When we have an explicit subject, forgetting the case from ez/az doesnt create such ambiguity, just sounds incorrect.

Exercises
Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) A kocsi gyors. 2) A lny itt van. 3) Szp vagy. 4) Nzek egy asztalt. 5) Nzem a szket. 6) Egszsgesek vagyunk. 7) Mit ltsz?

8) Ez itt egy bolt. 9) Kik vannak ott? 10) Utllak titeket. 11) Ltlak. 12) A n krdezi a fit. 13) Ezek a szobk nagyok. 14) A buszok csnyk. 15) Betegek vagytok?

Exercise B: Translate to Hungarian:

1) That chair is there. 2) The woman is sitting there. 3) The girls like the boys. 4) This room is small. 5) I see the house and the shop. 6) Do you live here? 7) Where does the man stand? 8) Who do they see? 9) We are sick. 10) I ask you. 11) Hes looking at a table. 12) These buses are fast. 13) I love cars. 14) The boy lives there. 15) These girls are nice.

Exercise C: Translate to English:

1) Budapestre jnnek a fik. 2) Ebbl a szobbl ltjuk a nagy boltot. 3) Ma menjnk Londonba! 4) Szeretitek a nagy hzakat? 5) Itt llok ebben a kicsi szobban.

Exercise D: Translate to Hungarian:

1) You came from Berlin? (foreign cities all get in endings) 2) I see the cars from this room. 3) There they are coming. 4) Im sitting on the slow bus. 5) We live in a nice house.

Solutions
Solution of Exercise A:
1) The car is fast. 2) The girl is here. 3) You are nice/pretty. 4) Im looking at/watching a table. 5) Im looking at/watching the chair.

6) We are healthy. 7) What do you see? 8) This (thing) here is a shop. 9) Who are there? (pl.) 10) I hate you. (pl.) I hate you all. 11) I see you. (sg.) 12) The woman asks the boy. 13) These rooms are big. 14) The buses are ugly. 15) Are you sick/ill? (pl.)

Solution of Exercise B:
1) Az a szk ott van. Ott van az a szk. Ott az a szk. (the last one is somewhat colloquial) 2) A n ott l. Ott l a n. 3) A lnyok szeretik a fikat. 4) Ez a szoba kicsi. Kicsi ez a szoba. 5) Ltom a hzat s a boltot. 6) Itt lsz/laksz? 7) Hol ll a frfi? A frfi hol ll? 8) Kit ltnak? 9) Betegek vagyunk. 10) Krdezlek. 11) Egy asztalt nz. Nz egy asztalt. 12) Ezek a buszok gyorsak. Gyorsak ezek a buszok. 13) Szeretem a kocsikat. 14) A fi itt l/lakik. Itt l/lakik a fi. 15) Ezek a lnyok szpek. Szpek ezek a lnyok.

Solution of Exercise C:
1) The boys come to Budapest. 2) We see the bug shop from this room. 3) Lets go to London today! 4) Do you like big houses? (pl.) 5) Im standing here in this small room.

Solution of Exercise D:
1) Berlinbl jttl? 2) Ltom a kocsikat ebbl a szobbl. Ebbl a szobbl ltom a kocsikat. 3) Ott jnnek. 4) A lass buszon lk. lk a lass buszon. 5) Egy szp hzban lakunk/lnk.

Lesson 4: Introduction, Riding through it

The world is mine Introduction

This lesson will mainly focus on expressing possession in Hungarian, but some other features might creep in accidentally in the process. Lets create a little context to relate to: a short introduction. Hungarian: Garami Zoltnnak hvnak, 27 ves vagyok. Sopronban lek kis csaldommal. Felesgem Anna, kt vvel fiatalabb nlam. Van egy hromves kislnyunk is: Ildik. Hzillatunk mg nincs, de mindenkppen szeretnnk egy kutyt. A szleim a fvrosban lnek, s mg mindketten dolgoznak. Apm jsgr, desanym kertsz. Egy hgom is van. t Katalinnak hvjk, s egyelre a szleinknl lakik. Egyetemre jr, s mostanban a diplomamunkjn dolgozik. English: My name is Garami Zoltn, Im 27 years old. I live in Sopron with my little family. My wife is Anna, shes two years younger than me. We also have a three-year-old daughter: Ildik. We have no pets yet, but we'd definitely like to have a dog. My parents live in the capital, and they both still work. My father is a journalist, my mother is a gardener. I have a younger sister too. Her name is Katalin, and she lives with our parents for the time being. Shes a student (lit. shes attending university), and shes currently working on her (undergraduate) thesis. Literal: Garami Zoltn(DAT) they-call-me, 27 yeary I-am. In-Sopron I-live little with-my-family. Mywife Anna, she two with-year younger at-me. Is a three-year-old our-little-girl too: Ildik. Ourdomestic-animal still is-not, but definitely we-would-like a dog(ACC). The my-parents the incapital they-live, and still all-two-ly they-work. My-father journalist, my-mother gardener. A my-younger-sister too is. Her(ACC) Katalin(DAT) they-call-it, and for-the-time-being the at-ourparents she-resides. Onto-university she-is-going, and lately the on-her-undergraduate-thesis sheworks.

Riding Through It
1. Garami Zoltnnak hvnak, 27 ves vagyok. An important thing to see here is that Hungarian names start with the family name(s) and end with the given name(s). Only the last word is conjugated. To say someone is X years old we use the word ves, which comes from v, year, by adding the s affix (with a possible link vowel of a, o, e or ) which turns a noun into an adjective with a descriptive meaning. The number always comes before this word, since its in adjective position with respect to ves. The substantive is used for characterisation, so the usual rules apply, as seen in all the 6 person-number combinations:

27 ves vagyok. 27 ves vagy. 27 ves. 27 vesek vagyunk. 27 vesek vagytok. 27 vesek.

Im 27. Youre 27. (inf. sg.) He/she/it is 27. Were 27. Youre 27. (inf. pl.) They are 27.

27 should be read as huszonht. Ill get to the numbers later. 2. Sopronban lek kis csaldommal. You could probably guess that Sopron is an in place too, just as Debrecen. Kis is just a form of kicsi which can be used in adjective position (but not in predicate position like this house is small, ez a hz kicsi). Here you can see a new case, which usually translates to English as with. The ending is -val/vel, but the -v- assimilates to the preceding letter if its consonant, making it longer. If the consonant was long, the -v- disappears completely. In this case its appended to the word csaldom, my family, so the -v- turns into an -m-. This is the most important way to express possession: by means of an attribute. The stem is csald, family, and the attribute meaning my takes the form -om in this case. In general it depends on the person and number of the possessor and obeys vowel harmony rules. Lets see a reference with examples: Stem ending in a vowel: back: --m, --d, --ja, --nk, --tok, --juk front (unrounded/rounded): --m, --d, --je, --nk, --tek/--tk, --jk The preceding vowel is lengthened if it is -a or -e, as usually. Also, some words ending in -/- have this vowel changed to -a-/-e- when a 3rd person possessive attribute is added. Examples (left column: nominative, plural, accusative; right column: my, your, his/her/its, our, your, their):
crate tale lda, ldk, ldt mese, mesk, mest ldm, ldd, ldja, ldnk, ldtok, ldjuk mesm, mesd, mesje, mesnk, mestek, mesjk erdm, erdd, erdje (erdeje), erdnk, erdtk, erdjk (erdejk)

forest erd, --k, --t

time door word

id, --t, --k ajt, --t, --k sz, szavak, --t

idm, idd, ideje, idnk, idtk, idejk ajtm, ajtd, ajtaja, ajtnk, ajttok, ajtajuk szavam, szavad, szava, szavunk, szavatok, szavuk

Stem ending in a consonant: back unrounded: --am, --ad, --(j)a, --unk, --atok, --(j)uk back rounded: --om, --od, --(j)a, --unk, --otok, --(j)uk front unrounded: --em, --ed, --(j)e, --nk, --etek, --(j)k front rounded: --m, --d, --(j)e, --nk, --tk, --(j)k Suprisingly, its easy to decide which of the four to use for any given word. The 1st person singular form must have the same link vowel as the simple plural of the stem. Also, the stem changes the same way as with the plural form. Examples:
castle damage sun, day mud blood dagger stallion cleverness, mind earth, territory bush vr, --ak, --at kr, --ok, --t nap, --ok, --ot sr, sarak, sarat vr, --ek, --t tr, --k, --t mn, --ek, --t sz, eszek, szt/eszet fld, --ek, --et bokor, bokrok, bokrot vram, vrad, vra, vrunk, vratok, vruk krom, krod, kra, krunk, krotok, kruk napom, napod, napja, napunk, napotok, napjuk saram, sarad, sara, sarunk, saratok, saruk vrem, vred, vre, vrnk, vretek, vrk trm, trd, tre, trnk, trtk, trk mnem, mned, mnje, mnnk, mnetek, mnjk eszem, eszed, esze, esznk, eszetek, eszk fldem, flded, fldje, fldnk, fldetek, fldjk bokrom, bokrod, bokra, bokrunk, bokrotok, bokruk

Basically it can be said that you can construct this possessed form by taking the nominative plural form, chopping off the -k and adding: -m, -d, -/-ja/-je, +nk, -tok/-tk, +k

The + signs mean that you must change the last vowel to u or following vowel harmony if it was a link vowel. In 3rd person singular the -ja/-je ending is added only if there was no link vowel before the -k of the plural form (i.e. it comes right after the possibly lengthened last vowel of the stem). This approach handles most of the irregularities as well, as seen above (even oddities like sz), so youll only need to know the correct plural forms (which must be memorised anyway, because there is no general rule to form them properly). The only tough point is the -j- appearing in 3rd person at times. I cant see any meaningful rule to that, and some words sound good both with and without it. This is like plural and accusative: you have to read and listen to Hungarian a lot to get the hang of it. You can also see a striking similarity with definite conjugation: vr: vrom, vrod, vrja, vrjuk, vrjtok, vrjk (I wait it, you wait it...) kr: krom, krod, kra, krunk, krotok, kruk (my damage, your damage...) Basically the difference is the link vowels, except for 1st and 2nd person plural (where, on the other hand, the possessive ending is the same as the indefinite verb conjugation, vrunk and vrtok). And, if you remember, something very similar to these endings (especially the possessive attributes) also appears when you conjugate the personal pronouns, just to recap with -nak/-nek (dative): nekem, neked, neki, neknk, nektek, nekik There are slight differences, but it is generally good to be aware of this pattern. All in all, csaldommal is built up as csald+(o)m+val. As you can see, the attribute (possession) comes before the ending (case). 3. Felesgem Anna, kt vvel fiatalabb nlam. Wife is felesg. As the first part of the sentence is a characterisation, van is omitted. Kt is two in adjective position. On the other hand, its independent or predicate form is kett. Such a distinction doesnt exist for any other number, dont worry. When making a comparison, the unit is in the -val/-vel case. The word for young is fiatal, and its comparative form is fiatalabb, i.e. younger. Ill cover the comparative and other levels of gradation later to prevent this lesson from getting too long, but you can remember that the -bb attribute is used to form it. Nlam is n in the -nl/-nl case, which roughly means by, and it is used where English would put than. More on this later. 4. Van egy hromves kislnyunk is: Ildik. The word for three is hrom. To form the adjective meaning X-year-old just take the number and append ves if its one of the 20 simple numbers (1-10, 20, 30, ..., 100 or 1000). For every other number (or even the simple ones if they are written in numeric form) they are written as two separate words: huszonht ves. Dont use dashes or any kind of punctuation here. Hungarian doesnt have a separate word for daughter and son. We express these concepts by saying someones girl and someones boy (here I used kislny, little girl, but it isnt necessary to add kis-). Actually, fi can receive possessive attributes in two different ways:

son: fiam, fiad, fia, fiunk, fiatok, fiuk boyfriend: fim, fid, fija, fink, fitok, fijuk There isnt such a distinction for girls. There is a separate word for girlfriend: bartn, literally friendwoman, bart+n. It doesnt necessarily refer to a spouse, it can be used for female friends as well. Is simply means too or also, and it must always immediately follow the word it refers to. Back on the main track, this is something that would be expressed with the verb have in English. Hungarian doesnt have such a word. Instead, we use the substantive combined with a possessive attribute, and also the dative case comes into the picture. Xs Y or Y of X is expressed as X Y-ja or X-nek az Y-ja in Hungarian, i.e. the possession (Y) gets the attribute explained above depending on the person and number of X, and the possessor (X) is either unchanged (except if its k, they, see below) or is put in dative case (-nak/-nek) and the possession gets a definite article. There is a major difference: in the latter case the two components can move around independently in the sentence (although generally the possessor comes first), while the first one is rigid, only the extensions of the possession can go in between. Also, the dative construct is not really used when the possessor is a personal pronoun.
dog - kutya, kutyk, kutyt a kutym (az n kutym) a kutyd (a te kutyd) a kutyja (az kutyja) a kutynk (a mi kutynk) a kutytok (a ti kutytok) a kutyjuk (az kutyjuk) nekem a kutym neked a kutyd neki a kutyja neknk a kutynk nektek a kutytok nekik a kutyjuk my dog your dog (inf. sg.) his/her/its dog our dog your dog (inf. pl.) their dog

Note again that k becomes , despite the fact that this is theoretically the nominative case. Dont worry about the difference between the nominative and dative possessor, it doesnt matter at this point. Just be aware of it and learn to recognise both structures. Here are some variations for Petis dog was born last year (tavaly is last year and szletett is the past tense of szletik, to be born): Peti kutyja tavaly szletett. Tavaly szletett Peti kutyja. Petinek a kutyja tavaly szletett. Petinek tavaly szletett a kutyja. A kutyja Petinek tavaly szletett. A kutyja tavaly szletett Petinek.

Tavaly szletett Petinek a kutyja. Tavaly szletett a kutyja Petinek. These are all equivalent, putting emphasis on tavaly. More on word order in a future lesson. By the way, szletik is the kind of -ik verb that must be conjugated with -k instead of -m in 1st singular indefinite all the time. 5. Hzillatunk mg nincs, de mindenkppen szeretnnk egy kutyt. Hzillat is literally domestic animal. You might notice the adjective hzi in it, which is constructed by adding the already known -i affix to hz. llat means animal. Mg usually translates as yet, still, so far and the like. Nincs is the next nasty surprise of the substantive: negation. Negation in general means adding a nem before the part of the sentence to be negated. The exceptions are van and vannak. Their negated forms are nincs and nincsenek, respectively: nem vagyok, nem vagy, nincs, nem vagyunk, nem vagytok, nincsenek When the substantive is used for characterisation, nem must precede the whole predicate, and the substantive changes its place: nem vagyok beteg, nem vagy beteg, () nem beteg, nem vagyunk betegek, nem vagytok betegek, (k) nem betegek Things aren't always this simple though, Ill get back to some subtleties of characterisation in the discussion of word order. The second part of the sentence is relatively straightforward, literally but wed definitely like a dog, which sounds a bit clumsy in English to me, but thats life. Mindenkppen is definitely, literally by all means and szeretnnk is the conditional form of szeretnk, we like. Conditional will be discussed later, but at this point you might just remember that it is indicated by an attribute which takes the form -na, -ne (or -n-, -n- if its followed by an ending). 6. A szleim a fvrosban lnek, s mg mindketten dolgoznak. Starting with the easier part, fvros means capital, literally main city or head city (f+vros). Szleim means my parents, parent being szl. This is the first case when we have two attributes at the same time: plurality and possession. The basic rule of morphology doesnt tell you what to do in this case. And anyway, no matter how hard you look, you wont find the -k of the plural anywhere. To cut the story short, when there is a possessor, the plurality of the possession is denoted by inserting an -i- in the middle of the possessive attribute, just before the first consonant (the ghost j doesnt count here). Plurality also tones down the diversity of the vowels. Here are the plurals of the previous examples: ldim, ldid, ldi, ldink, lditok, ldik (my crates, your crates...) mesim, mesid, mesi, mesink, mesitek, mesik erdim, erdid, erdi, erdink, erditek, erdik idim, idid, idi, idink, iditek, idik ajtim, ajtid, ajti, ajtink, ajtitok, ajtik

szavaim, szavaid, szavai, szavaink, szavaitok, szavaik vraim, vraid, vrai, vraink, vraitok, vraik kraim, kraid, krai, kraink, kraitok, kraik napjaim, napjaid, napjai, napjaink, napjaitok, napjaik saraim, saraid, sarai, saraink, saraitok, saraik vreim, vreid, vrei, vreink, vreitek, vreik treim, treid, trei, treink, treitek, treik mn(j)eim, mn(j)eid, mn(j)ei, mn(j)eink, mn(j)eitek, mn(j)eik eszeim, eszeid, eszei, eszeink, eszeitek, eszeik fldjeim, fldjeid, fldjei, fldjeink, fldjeitek, fldjeik bokraim, bokraid, bokrai, bokraink, bokraitok, bokraik You can see that id and ajt have their last vowels restored in plural. The conjugation of szl is simply irregular, you have to remember that - becomes -e- in plural possessive forms: sg.: szlm, szld, szlje, szlnk, szltk, szljk pl.: szleim, szleid, szlei, szleink, szleitek, szleik You might have noticed that szl, parent has the same base asszletik , to be born. The common stem isszl, to give birth. The - affix turns it into literally someone who gives birth. By Hungarian logic even fathers are involved in this process... Jumping to the second half of the sentence. Mindketten means both of us/you/them. The verb to work is dolgozik:
dolgozni - to work n dolgozom, dolgozom, dolgozlak te dolgozol, dolgozod dolgozik, dolgozza mi dolgozunk, dolgozzuk ti dolgoztok, dolgozztok k dolgoznak, dolgozzk

I work

you (singular informal) work he/she/it works we work you (plural informal) work they work

7. Apm jsgr, desanym kertsz. We have only vocabulary here. jsgr and kertsz are journalist and gardener, respectively. We normally dont distinguish between genders when talking about professions (except for one or two), but sometimes you can add -n to make it obvious that youre talking about a female, e.g. jsgrn (but kertszn sounds rather funny to me, to be honest).

Father is apa, mother is anya. By prefixing them with des-, literally sweet, you make it explicit that youre referring to biological parents: desanya, desapa. 8. Egy hgom is van. Hg means younger sister. The other siblings are: nvr - elder sister, cs - younger brother and bty - elder brother. Theres also a word for brother in general: fivr (lit. boy/son-blood). In the case of sister you need to use nvr (lit. woman-blood). It is useful to know their possessive forms, because there are some irregularities here:
hg, --ok, --ot hgom hgod hga hgunk hgotok hguk hgaim hgaid hgai hgaink hgaitok hgaik nvr, --ek, --t nvrem nvred nvre nvrnk nvretek nvrk nvreim nvreid nvrei nvreink nvreitek nvreik bty, -ok, --ot btym btyd btyja btynk btytok btyjuk btyjaim btyjaid btyjai btyjaink btyjaitok btyjaik cs, --k, --t csm csd ccse csnk cstek ccsk ccseim ccseid ccsei ccseink ccseitek ccseik

Nvr means nurse as well. In the case of bty, the plural forms can also have bty- instead of btyja- as an alternative stem. 9. t Katalinnak hvjk, s egyelre a szleinknl lakik. Egyelre is just a sophisticated way to say mg, Id translate it as for the time being. And to recap, -nl/-nl means by or at when it comes to places. 10. Egyetemre jr, s mostanban a diplomamunkjn dolgozik. Egyetem means university, and its obvious from the sentence that its a top place. Jr is a general version of to go. The difference between megy and jr is that the former refers to a single occasion, and the latter is a habit, a regular action. Also, jr can be definite as opposed to megy. Mostanban means recently, nowadays, coming frommost, now. Undergraduate thesis is called diplomamunka in Hungarian, and we work on it.

Exercises

Exercise A: Translate to English:

1) Van egy szp hzunk. 2) Nincs btyja. 3) Most a szobdba msz. 4) Hogy hvjk a szleiket? 5) Mg nem ltom a buszomat. 6) Ennek a lnynak van egy szp kutyja. 7) A kocsinkban lnk. 8) Itt van a bartod. 9) Ez az n szobm. 10) Hrom nvrem van.

Exercise B: Translate to Hungarian:

1) Our parents live here. 2) I want their dog. 3) My little sister is nice. 4) I dont see you yet. 5) That man there is my friend. 6) You are my blood. 7) They have a nice day. 8) Do you come from your house? 9) I hate your ugly car. 10) Where is our bus?

Exercise C: Write about yourself

I know this is evil. However, if you have absorbed everything so far, you should be able to say basic things about your family, where you live and what you do.

Solutions
Solution of Exercise A:
1) We have a beautiful house. 2) He does not have an older brother. 3) You go into your room now. 4) How are their parents called? 5) I do not see my bus yet. 6) This girl has a beautiful dog. 7) We sit in our car. 8) Here is your friend. 9) This is my room. 10) I have three sisters.

Solution of Exercise B:
1) Itt lnek a szleink. A szleink itt lnek. 2) A kutyjukat akarom. 3) A hgom kedves. 4) Mg nem ltlak. 5) Az az ember ott a bartom.

6) Az n vrem vagy. A vrem vagy. 7) Szp napjuk van. 8) A hzadbl jssz? 9) Utlom a csnya kocsidat. 10) Hol a buszunk?