Hungarian noun phrase

Grammatical gender Hungarian does not have grammatical gender and uses a single third‑person singular pronoun ("he, she, it") which does not distinguish gender or animacy; this uniformity extends to verb conjugation and related forms. Grammatical distinction between animate and inanimate things The kinds of grammatical distinctions present between animate and inanimate things are corresponding to English's, although it appears different because - contrary to Hungarian - in English the distinction can only be explicit. Also just like in English definite article may refer to a non-sentient, or inanimate thing rather to a sentient thing • When it comes to living beings for example - it works the same way just like in English - "the wolf" is used instead of "wolf" only, likewise "John" is used instead of "the John" However, there are arguably wrong practices in Hungarian language: • The words "this", and "that" ("", and "") are often used to refer to people instead of "she", and "he" ("") word • Interestingly the "" word is often used to refer to inanimate things (just like in English "they", and "their" are used to inanimate things sometimes arguably wrong) • People are often referred to putting the definitive article "", or "" right before their names • For example, such a weird sentence in English would be similar to "I tell you that the John is absent" Plurality Generally speaking, Hungarian words can either be singular or plural. Unlike in the English language, there are no countable or uncountable plural cases. However, in Hungarian there are possessed and not possessed plural cases. Since the possessor may also be plural, the plural case is marked with either or both of two possible marks: • k • i Neither i, nor k marks are the complete mark itself, but the main part of the mark. • Every other vowel, or consonant around these are procedural • The presence of such additional consonant, or vowel are pronounced in its entirety, and either has, or has nothing to do to the meaning The k mark k mark is for nouns, verbs, and adjectives • Adjectives are in case that they are used predicatively (see adjective marking) • There are many verb exceptions (some example are -ik verbs, and certain indefinite conjugations) So very basically k mark is used to mark • for verbs: the number of actors • for both nouns, and adjectives • the plurality of things • the plurality of a single thing's possessors • the plurality of multiple thing'''s' possessors''' k mark is also used specifically for proper nouns specifically with vowel "é" right before it, and that means a group of people related to that proper name. It is possible... • ...to refer to a family using the family name itself, or a family member's name • ...to refer to a team using a member's name from the team • ...to refer to a faction using one of its member's name • etc... • For example "Boldizsáréknál ma lecsó volt vacsorára" means "Boldizsár's family (, or team) had ratatouille for dinner today (, or they had it in his house, or at his place)" The i mark Contrary to English, Hungarian language tells the kind of plural case apart when multiple objects are possessed by something using i instead of k mark For example, in Hungarian language... • ...in case of "dogs" the k mark is used • ...in case "his dogs" the i mark is used So very basically a noun's, or an adjective's count is marked with the i mark, but only when it is possessed by something • This renders the k mark in the same noun, or adjective to mark the count of its possessors if the possessor is plural • Note that verbs can not be possessed so the i mark is not for verbs • For verbs there is going to be ni suffix (no longer a mark) which is going to cast the verb into a special type of verb that can be used in place of a noun, although its plurality must be singular implicitly, but maybe infinitive verbs can be considered as the "possessed" verbs in Hungarian language • Verbs used as nouns specifically with the s verb mark (or according to some "-ás", "-és" verb suffixes) can be possessed, and marked with the i mark when such nouns are plural Plural mark generally For both marks a different vowel may be present right before it • Even in case of the i mark: it makes the i often pronounced as "yee" or "" despite letter j is not written In case the addition of a new vowel would result in way too many vowels in the same place, the words last vowel (last by that time) is changed instead of a new vowel added • In case the root word only consists of two vowels, no vowel is taken away, or changed, except "é" is added between i, and the last vowel • Hungarian people often refers to Europe as "Eu" , or the female Greek name "Io" are susceptible to such pronunciation • Which vowel to put before either of the two marks is based on vowel harmony, that is demonstrated with underlines in the next examples The addition, or change of a vowel is necessary when i mark is used, but conventional to the usage of the k mark In case of i: the i part of the word is emphasized with an additional vowel right before the i because it changes its meaning. i alone at the end of a noun, or even at the end of an adjective would mean "from there", "at there" rather than the thing was possessed, and plural • For example, root word "" (meaning "corner") with i: • "" means "polar", or "from the pole", or "at the corner" (also - "polar" not so much, but the others) • "" means "her, his, its corners" (also - it is less common) • note that "" logically also means "from her, his, its corners", but it is uncommon to be meant that way because that meaning is rather expressed explicitly • Also note that from the word the vowel is even missing before the i mark, although means "her, his, its corner" singular • Consonant clutters that are easy to pronounce (e.g.: "rk" ) are often more advantageous to pronounce compared to them with a vowel between generally speaking in Hungarian language, although , and are intelligible, and even used often In case of k: the additional vowel conventionally makes the word easier to be pronounced, and it does not create ambiguity • For example + k = • Unlike i, k may even change the last vowel when it would not result in ambiguity, for example: "tree" is "", and "trees" are "" in Hungarian language Before specifically the k mark often n is put instead of a vowel, in which case meaning is changed • For example + nk = • Although in this case k is still plurality marker, but it marks the '''possessor's''' plurality • It is worth mentioning that in this case written n right before k is pronounced Before k mark t may be present with a vowel between t, and k without the root word ending with t by default • For example + t(right after the root, and then) + k = • In this case k is still plurality marker, but it marks the '''possessor's''' plurality again • Also when... • ...t appears after k • ...or t appears without k • ...or two ts appear before, and after k • ...the t after means accusative case (see also Accusative case) • For example, to the question: - the answers may be: • + t = - The hammer • + k + t = - The hammers • + t + k + t = - Your hammer • + i + t + k + t = - Your hammers • Note that t is underlined on the verb because it is the mark of past tense, not accusative case More examples: • For example, root word "" (meaning "dog") with i: • "" means "from the dog", or "at the dog" • "" means "its dogs" (or notably yet uncommonly "from its dogs") • "" just means "dogs" • There are cases when ambiguity is not avoided for example to the word "" (meaning "cutter") with i: • "" means both "from cutter", and "its cutters" • Although it does not mean "from its cutters" because that would be "" • "" just means "cutters" Summary for everything above: • in English: dog -> dogs -> her dogs, his dogs, its dogs • in Hungarian: -> -> , , Both plural marks So things that are possessed, and there are multiple of contain the i mark, but when the possessor is plural too both i, and k marks are used. • A single dog is owned by multiple people (using only k): • • • • Multiple dogs are owned by multiple people (using both i, and k): • • • Note that before the other kind of i mark was mentioned (with meaning "from", or "at the"). That mark comes after k in case any, or both plurality markers are used. It is possible to talk about abstract placement of things generally using the other kind of i marker • For example: "A napjainki hírességek már nem annyira szépek" - "Famous people of these days are no longer as beautiful" literally told as: "Famous people of our days are no longer as beautiful" Hungarian language makes difference between "you" singular, and "you" plural for all of the related words' cases, cases of "you", and even for the word "you" itself (which are "" in singular, and "" in plural forms) For singular case of "you" the above example is as follows: • A single dog is owned by a single person (using no k, no i): • • Multiple dogs are owned by a single person (using only i): • • Notice that there is no k mark at all because "you" in this case is singular For the sake of completeness here are the remaining "dog cases": • A single dog is owned by a single person (using no k, no i): • • • Multiple dogs are owned by a single person (using only i): • • Usage of plural marks 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. • For example "" means "boys" • " " (without "k") means "five boys", but told as "five boy" • also " " (without "k") means "many boys", but told as "many boy", or "much boy" because in Hungarian there is no difference between countable, and uncountable plural cases Unlike in English in phrases that refer to existence/availability of entities, rather than their quantity, the singular is used in Hungarian: • " " means "there are chairs in the room", but told as "there is chair in the room" • " " means "there are no chairs in the room" told as "there is no chair in the room" • The singular may be considered as partitive here • Also, product names, things' type's, and kind's are usually written singular, e.g. "" meaning "lamps" (as a kind of product), or exactly "kind of lamp", but written, and meant as "lamp" Hungarian also often uses a singular noun when the possessor is plural but the thing possessed would be plural too, e.g. "" means "our heads", but told as "our head". • Since it is impossible for multiple people to possess the same head, it is immediately clear that it can not mean "our single head", and in case of other contexts with other words in which case the meaning is not clear: it is possible to say explicitly "" that is exactly translated to "our heads" • Even in the "our heads"'s case it is ambiguous in both English, and Hungarian languages whether it refers to a group of people with each person possessing multiple heads, or a single head The word "both" Contrary to English, in Hungarian language there is no word for "both". Instead the word is used before the number of things that are plural (but not plural grammatically as it was mentioned right above) • For example: , or , or This allows Hungarian language to say any number of "pairs", not only "pairs" of two • For example: would mean "troth" maybe, but it can surely be translated to "all three" Although it is worth mentioning that the word for is without "k", and it means a pair of two specifically Pairs of items Hungarian language never refers to boots as "boots", but always just "boot". The "boots" translation in Hungarian used to refer to multiple "boot" types, or to multiple "boot" pairs • "", and "" are translated to "boots", and "multiple boots" There are exceptions for example "" meaning "twins", and other things that can be used, or interacted with separately, or things that are less related to one another, yet pairs. Things that are not functional without its counterparts are never in plural case. 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: " " meaning "one of his legs". As you can see Hungarian language grammatically does not expect both legs to be the same left, or the same right leg, therefore there is no comprehensive plural form to two different "human legs" (one is right, and one is left) according to its grammar's logic. The complete visualization is the following: Note the number of the noun in the following examples: Note: if one wants to emphasize the third case (where both legs of each person involved), the actual plural number (" " (using "their legs") might also be used, but the above (singular) option can fully suffice in this case, as well. Apparent plural endings and homonymy The letter k also occurs at the end of certain words, which thus may appear plural. Examples include "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", etc. – the name of the mole used to be "", but this form took on a plural meaning and the word is mostly used today as "". Homonymy may occur between a word in the singular and another in the plural. Examples: • "" • Through "" + "k" with filler vowel according to vowel harmony • "" • Through "" + "k" with filler vowel according to vowel harmony, and a/e/o/ö lengthening before suffixes • "" • Through "" + "k" with filler vowel according to vowel harmony, and vowel-shortening ==Person==

The Hungarian language completely lacks grammatical gender. • Neither the definite nor the indefinite articles have got any other inflexion markers whose logic may otherwise possibly be applied to any adjectives or nouns right after them, or instead of them. Forms for "you" Beside te (plural ti), which are used informally, there are polite forms for the second person pronouns: ön (plural ) and (plural ). Ön is official and distancing, is personal and even intimate and some people think it has rude connotations. (There are some older forms for you, like kend, which is still used in rural areas.) 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 (second person, informal), but ön kér or (second person, formal), just like ő kér (third person). Impersonal usage Hungarian does not have a distinct impersonal or generic pronoun (cf. English "one"), but there are two ways of expressing this: • The 3rd person plural (), for example • The phrase , for example "" is told as "People generally would never think of it", or literally "The human would never think of it" Most of the time expression is not required. When it is expressed the expression is explicit. Generally when such sentences are translated to Hungarian a comparable word for the English "one"-ing structure is missing completely due to such thing's meaning is present in the context already. For example: • - • - Also in Hungarian language it is very not common to hear an explicit expression translatable to the "one" word, yet in English it is very common to use the "one" word even if it is in the context already. In other words, English language can not leave the "one" word contrary to Hungarian. Also the English "it" word itself is missing from many expressions that can only be translated to English with the "it" word. Therefore, the "it" (beside she, and he) word in the point of view of the Hungarian language is also a generic word for a person (because it is often missing the same) • One of the most remarkable examples is ==Determiners==

Articles Hungarian has definite and indefinite articles. The definite article, a, changes to az before a vowel. The indefinite article is egy [pronounced with a long final consonant], an unstressed version of the word for the number "one". Articles are invariable (i.e. not marked for number, case, etc.) Differences in using the definite article The definite article "a(z)" is applied more commonly than in English, for example in general statements, even before uncountable nouns, e.g. A szerelem csodálatos ("Love is wonderful"), and with plural nouns, e.g. A kiskutyák aranyosak ("Puppies are cute"). The latter sentence can thus have two meanings, either referring to specific dogs or puppies in general. However, in a semi-specific sense (when "some" could be inserted in English) the article is omitted in Hungarian, e.g. Ceruzákat tett az asztalra ("S/he put [some] pencils on the desk"). "A(z)" is used before holidays, when referring to a forthcoming or recent event (A karácsonyt a rokonokkal töltjük "We'll spend Christmas with the relatives") and also when referring to companies (A Coca Colánál dolgozik "S/he works for Coca Cola"). "A(z)" is used before names of months and days of the week in a general sense (Kedvenc hónapom a május, kedvenc napom a szombat "My favorite month is May and my favorite day is Saturday.") However, it's omitted in statements about the current month or day, with the verb van/volt/lesz (Aznap szombat volt "It was Saturday that day", Holnap már május van "It's May tomorrow"). This article is also used after ez/az as a determiner ("this, that"), e.g. ez a szék ("this chair"), as well as (usually) before the possession (az asztalom or az én asztalom "my desk"). Sometimes the definite article (specifically the one with zed "az") is used as topic marker even when the next word's first letter is not a vowel. In that case the meaning of such topic marker is "the only one of...", or "the very...". Although this practice is quiet common as of 2025 it is likely not something that can be referred to as a "grammar rule". Differences in using the zero article No article is normally used (especially in literary language): • before indefinite noun phrases as predicates, e.g. A nővérem tanár ("My elder sister is [a] teacher"), • before "theatre" and "cinema" (színházba/moziba megy "go to the theatre/cinema") unless a specific, particular venue is meant, • in "have" statements before the indefinite possession, especially if the number is unimportant or unknown, e.g. Van gyerekük? ("Do you have children?", literally, "Do you have [a] child?") or Van nálam toll ("I have a pen / pens with me") and • before the subject in "there is" constructions, especially in a sentence-initial position, e.g. Szellem van a konyhában ("There is [a] ghost in the kitchen"). Before country names The definite article is used before country names in the following cases: • when it comprises an adjective formed with -i: a Dél-afrikai Köztársaság [Republic of South Africa], a Dominikai Közösség, a Dominikai Köztársaság, a Kongói Köztársaság, a Kongói Demokratikus Köztársaság, a Közép-afrikai Köztársaság [Central Africal Republic], a Zöld-foki Köztársaság [Cape Verde], including the longer names of countries which comprise an adjective with "-i", e.g. a Kínai Népköztársaság "the People's Republic of China" • which are formally in the plural: az (Amerikai) Egyesült Államok [USA], az Egyesült Arab Emírségek [UAE], and the short form a Bahamák (~ a Bahama-szigetek) • including the plural form szigetek ("islands") at the end of the name: a Bahama-szigetek, a Comore-szigetek, a Fidzsi-szigetek, a Fülöp-szigetek [the Philippines], a Saint Vincent és a Grenadine-szigetek, a Salamon-szigetek, a Maldív-szigetek, a Marshall-szigetek, a Seychelle-szigetek, • and before the names az Egyesült Királyság [UK] and a Vatikán. (Note: the Gambia and the Netherlands are no exceptions; they have no article in Hungarian.) Other proper nouns Cities never have articles in Hungarian (not even The Hague, simply Hága). In contrast with English, "the" is used before the following types: • streets, squares, and parks (a Váci utca "Váci Street", a Central Park) • public buildings (a canterburyi katedrális), including railway stations and airports (a Waterloo pályaudvar "Waterloo Station") • bridges (a Szabadság híd "Freedom Bridge") • hills and mountains (a Gellért-hegy "Gellért Hill", a Mount Everest) • woods, forests, gardens, and valleys (a Szilícium-völgy "Silicon Valley") • lakes, bays, and gulfs (a Balaton "Lake Balaton", az Ontario-tó "Lake Ontario", a Hudson-öböl "Hudson Bay") • islands and peninsulas (a Margit-sziget "Margaret Island") • and planets (a Mars, a Szaturnusz, a Jupiter). As a result, a Niger refers to the river while Niger refers to the country. People can colloquially say a Móriczon találkozunk (literally "we'll meet on the Móricz"), where the definite article indicates the square as opposed to the person (Zsigmond Móricz). Also, Japán on its own refers to the country while a japán can refer to a Japanese person or thing. Demonstrative determiners The demonstrative determiners (often inaccurately called demonstrative adjectives in English) are ez a/ez az ("this") and az a/az az ("that"). ==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 (on the oblique stem). Compound numbers are formed simply by joining the elements together. Examples: • öt ("five") • tíz ("ten") • tizenöt ("fifteen") • ötvenöt ("fifty-five") • százötvenöt ("one hundred and fifty-five") As in English, a number can function as a determiner or as a stand-alone noun. As a noun it can take all the usual suffixes. Suffixes used only on numerals and hány ("how many?"): • -odik/(-adik)/-edik/-ödik for ordinal numbers, e.g. ötödik ("the fifth") • -od/(-ad)/-ed/-öd for fractional numbers, e.g. ötöd ("a fifth") • -os/(-as)/-es/-ös for adjectival numbers (numeric adjectives), e.g. ötös The numeric adjectives do not have an exact equivalent in English. They are used when English uses a construction such as "bus number 11": a tizenegyes busz, "room 303": a háromszázhármas szoba. ==Quantity expressions==

Suffixes used specifically with numerals, hány ("how many?") and other quantity expressions: • -szor/-szer/-ször for how many times, e.g. ötször ("five times"), sokszor ("many times") • -féle and -fajta for "kind(s) of", e.g. ötfajta ("five kinds of") • -an/-en/-n for numeric adverbs The use of the adverbs suffixed with -an/-en/-n is best illustrated by examples: Sokan voltunk. ("There were a lot of us.") Öten vannak. ("There are 5 of them.") Ketten mentünk. ("Two of us went.") ==Possession==

Possessive suffixes In Hungarian, pronominal possession is expressed by suffixes applied to the noun. The following suffixes are used for singular nouns: The following suffixes are used for plural nouns: The háza, házai type (i.e., like the one with a singular possessor) 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 ("my house"). 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 (not az ők 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 ("hat"): kalapja ("his/her hat"). This group also uses the -j for a singular noun with a 3rd person plural possessor, e.g. kalapjuk ("their hat"). The -j is also inserted for a plural noun (with a possessor of whichever person and number), e.g. kalapjaim ("my hats"), kalapjaid ("your (sg. fam.) hats"), kalapjai ("his hats"), 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. (Usually the variant without -j is more traditional and the one with -j is more recent.) Where a form applies the j, the other forms will apply it too. An exception is the uncommon type of barát ("friend") where the -j type is incorrect with a plural noun: barátja ("his/her friend"), barátjuk ("their friend") but barátaik ("their friends"), 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 (c, cs, dzs, sz, z, s, zs, j, ny, ty, gy, h, i.e., affricates, spirants, palatal/ized sounds and h) 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 (so these forms are to be learnt one by one), 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 (e.g. programja, oxigénje, fesztiválja "his/her program, oxygen, festival"). Vowel-dropping and vowel-shortening stems always use the variant without -j, just like most words using -a as linking vowel (e.g. házat, házak "house": háza "his/her house"). :*The endings v, l, r, m, g, k usually take the variant without -j (e.g. gyereke, asztala "his/her child, table"), but a minority among them take it (e.g. hangja, diákja "his/her voice, student" but again könyve, száma "his/her book, number"). :*For words ending in n, p, t, the regularities are basically similar, but there is wide variance. Words ending in -at/-et (a suffix), however, usually take the variant without -j. :*The majority of words ending in b, d use the -j suffix (e.g. darabja, családja "his/her/its piece, family" but lába, térde "his/her leg, knee"). Apparent possessive suffixes and homonymy Certain words (with or without suffixes) have endings which are identical with a possessive suffix. Examples: Notes: • For the → change, see Oblique noun stem. • For the apa → , → change, see Oblique noun stem. • For the plural marked with "[s]" in "your [pl.] eye[s]", see Pairs of body parts. • For the different link vowels after words taken as absolute or relative stems (like and here), see The accusative suffix after other suffixes. A homonymy is also possible between the same possessive ending of two unrelated words, if one ends in a consonant and the other in a vowel: may be parsed as ("our village") or ("our wall"). A similar kind of homonymy may arise with vowel-dropping words (see the type under Oblique noun stem). Examples: Note that the first person singular possessive form of hal (fish) is not the above halom but exceptionally halam, cf. a link vowel. Examples: :A kiskutya bepiszkította az almát. (The puppy soiled its litter OR the apple.) :Bedobta az érmét a folyóba. (He/she threw his/her medal OR the coin into the river.) :A macskának fontos a karma. (Its claws OR the karma is/are important for a cat.) Finally, another kind of homonymy may arise between a noun with a possessive suffix and a verb: hasad "your stomach (belly)" 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 ("István's flat/apartment") • The possessor is a noun suffixed with -nak/-nek and the possessed noun is preceded by a/az, e.g. Istvánnak a lakása ("István's flat/apartment") The first form is used as default and the second is used to emphasize the possessor or for clarity. It also enables the possessor to be moved within the sentence, e.g. Ennek a lakásnak sehogy se találom a kulcsát ("I can't possibly find the key of this flat/apartment"). Note the sehogy se találom ("I can't possibly find") wedged in between the parts of the possessive structure. If the 3rd person plural possessor is a lexical word, not a pronoun (thus the plurality is marked on it), the possession will be marked like the 3rd person singular: a szülők lakása (not a szülők lakásuk) ("the parents' flat/apartment"). In other words, the plurality of the 3rd person plural possession is only marked once: either on the possessor (in the case of lexical words) or on the possession (in the case of pronouns), cf. az ő lakásuk (above). Possessive pronouns The following pronouns are used to replace singular nouns: :Note: Where two variants are given, the one with a long vowel is more literary. 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". Hence comes the unusual vowel sequence: fiaiéi, which means "those belonging to his/her sons". Fia- (his/her son) -i- (several sons) -é- (belonging to) -i (several possessions). The suffixes are also used to form the question word kié ("whose?"). ==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 (no movement), movement towards or movement away. Combining these gives 9 different options. Note 1: -nál/-nél is also used with the meaning "at the home of" (cf. French chez, German bei). 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 (i.e., towns that don't have a native Hungarian name) 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 ("city/town"), most with -m, -i and some with -r. For example, Sopronban, Debrecenben; Gárdonyban; Dunaújvárosban; Esztergomban, Komáromban, Veszprémben; Zamárdiban; Egerben, Győrben A few towns within Hungary traditionally use a different ending, -ott/-ett/-ött/-t, for position, see locative case for examples. This locative, however, always can be replaced by one of the above suffixes. Those towns that can also use the -on/-en/-ön/-n group (e.g. Pécsett or Pécsen) use -ra/-re and -ról/-ről for movement. Győr, however, where the alternative form is with -ban/-ben, uses -ba/-be and -ból/-ből for movement. Differentiating place names with suffix groups The difference of the two suffix group may carry a difference in meaning: The below cases may exemplify the above tendencies but in actual usage they are not always followed as strictly as described: • Tajvanon means "on (the island of) Taiwan" but Tajvanban is "in (the country of) Taiwan" (here the usage is parallel to English) – Note: Tajvanon may also refer to the country • Tolnán means "in (the town of) 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 (in Hungarian: Velence)" – Note: Velencében may also refer to the Hungarian town Insider and outsider usage There may also be difference between "insider" and "outsider" usage: one may prefer the suffixes expressing the "interior" relation and the others those expressing the "surface" relation (the difference extends to the suffixes of static position and those of the two kinds of movement). In some cases, the local usage is encouraged based on traditional usage in literature and linguistic history, e.g. Csíkszeredában (instead of Csíkszeredán) as well as Nagyszombatban (instead of Nagyszombaton, which coincides with the form "on Holy Saturday"). In other cases, the "outsider" usage is considered more received or even normative, for example: == 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 "(case) 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 (according to today's generative linguistic grammars of Hungarian) 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 (such as the plural or the possessive suffix) and the other noun endings can only be added to absolute stems. For example, lakás-om-mal exists ("with my flat/apartment"), 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. (In words ending in a vowel or v, there is no change, e.g. sáv·val "with the lane", hajó·val "with the ship".) 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. The accusative suffix after other suffixes As shown in the above chart, -ot/(-at)/-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 (i.e. a plural or possessive suffix), -at/-et is used. Examples: Sometimes the quality of the link vowel of the accusative can differentiate between otherwise homonymous words: Accusative without marking The accusative can be expressed without the -t morpheme after the first and second person possessive suffixes (especially in the singular). For example: • Látom a kalapod''. or Látom a kalapodat. "I [can] see your hat." • Látod a kalapom''. or Látod a kalapomat. "You [can] see my hat." The accusative personal pronouns engem ("me") and téged ("you") are also used without the -t suffix (engemet and tégedet are rather infrequent). The third case where the accusative remains unmarked is the infinitive, e.g. Szeretek kirándulni ("I like hiking", lit. "I like to hike"). (When the same meaning is expressed with a derived noun, the accusative -t appears: Szeretem a kirándulást.) Apparent accusative endings and homonymy The letter t also occurs at the end of certain words which thus may appear accusative. Examples include eset ("case"), falat ("a bit of food"), hét ("week"), kabát ("coat"), kert ("garden"), kötet ("volume" [of books]), lakat ("padlock"), lapát ("shovel"), part ("shore", "bank", "coast"), párt ("party"), sajt ("cheese") etc. Telling them apart: Homonymy may also arise between accusative nouns and verbs, e.g. választ may mean "answer" (n, acc.) or "s/he chooses/elects" and nevet may mean "name" (n, acc., from név) or "s/he laughs". The accusative of terem ("room"/"hall") is termet (see vowel-dropping) instead of the regular teremet (which could come from tér with vowel-shortening, meaning "my square", acc.). On the other hand, teremt means "s/he creates". Termet is another homonymy as it may be another word in the nominative ("stature"). – 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 (nominative or dative case). The case marking is on the possessed object rather than the possessor. Incorrect classifications The following endings are sometimes counted as cases, but are in fact derivational suffixes, see Adjectives and adverbs ==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 (the plural) and almám/körtém (the possessive forms) 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 (e. g. Oslók lit. means "Oslos", but naturally Oslo doesn't have plural, although the case technically can be formed; Oslóul means "as an Oslo", which is also dubious). 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 ("apple/pear juice"). 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 (like Oslo and Malmö above) 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 ("house"), 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/(-a)/-e/-ö occurs with the following suffixes: • -ok/(-ak)/-ek/-ök/-k for noun plurals, e.g. házak ("houses") • -om/(-am)/-em/-öm/-m for 1st singular possessive, e.g. házam ("my house") • -od/(-ad)/-ed/-öd/-d for 2nd singular possessive, e.g. házad ("your (singular) house") • -otok/(-atok)/-etek/-ötök/-tok/-tek/-tök for 2nd plural possessive, e.g. házatok ("your (plural) house") • -ot/(-at)/-et/-öt/-t for accusative case, e.g. házat ("house") • -onként/(-anként)/-enként/-önként/-nként, e.g. házanként ("per house") • -ostul/(-astul)/-estül/-östül/-stul/-stül, e.g. házastul ("together with the house") • -odik/(-adik)/-edik/-ödik for ordinal numbers, e.g. nyolcadik ("the eighth") • -od/(-ad)/-ed/-öd for fractional numbers, e.g. nyolcad ("an eighth") • -os/(-as)/-es/-ös for adjectival numbers, e.g. nyolcas ("number eight") • -onta/(-ante)/-ente/-önte for distributive occasions, e.g. nyaranta ("every summer", from nyár "summer") Theoretical: • -ott/(-att)/-ett/-ött/-t for position This irregularity sometimes help differentiate between otherwise homonymous verbs and nouns: The case of nyúl is similar ("rabbit" or "he reaches out") except that it becomes short in the plural as a noun (nyulak, cf. the hét type) and remains long as a verb (nyúlok). Beside árak (the plural of the a stem word ár, "price") árok also exists ("ditch"). Finally, beside vágyak ("desires"), vágyok may also occur as a verb ("I desire") although it is expressed as vágyom in standard Hungarian (cf. -ik verbs). 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 (the first seven rows) 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 (which have suffixes of certain cases) 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 (vowel-dropping and -v- bases) 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 ("on the house"). As noted above, when it is added to tíz ("ten") and to húsz ("twenty") to form compound numbers, e.g. tizenegy ("eleven"), huszonegy ("twenty-one"), 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 (on the number five) and öten (numbering five), haton and hatan (for the latter form, see Quantity expressions). ==Order of noun suffixes==

Where more than one type of noun suffix occurs, the plural suffix is first (normally -k but -i with possessives). The possessive suffix follows this and the case suffix is last. ==Pronominal forms==

Demonstrative pronouns The demonstrative pronouns are ez ("this") and az ("that"). They can take the full range of case endings. For most suffixes, preservative consonant assimilation occurs. Subject and object pronouns Pronouns exist in subject (nominative) and object (accusative) 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 ("in you") or for emphasis tebenned ("in you") has the stem benn- which is derived from the front variant of the position suffix -ban/-ben ("in"). 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: Suffixes that use a front vowel stem: No personal forms exist for the other suffixes: -vá/-vé, -ig, -ként, -ul/-ül, , -stul/-stül, -onként/(-anként)/-enként/-önként/-nként, -ott/(-att)/-ett/-ött/-t, -onta/(-anta)/-ente/-önte, -kor. Their personal variants can be only paraphrases (e.g. addig ment, ahol ő állt "he went as far as him" > "… as far as where he stood"). Postpositions with personal suffixes Most postpositions (see there) are combined with personal suffixes in a similar way, e.g. alattad ("under you"). 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: See also the section Overview of personal endings: typical sound elements. Note: • In the same way as for the cases with personal suffixes, when the postposition (stem) ends in a long vowel, the 3rd person singular has a ∅ suffix (see the bolded forms in the last row). • Postpositions in bare (unsuffixed) 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 (to someone), usually részére is preferred. On the other hand, to express the affected party of some perception or judgement (good, bad, new, shocking, unacceptable etc. for someone), only számára can be used, as well as when expressing goal, objective, intention, or other figurative purposes. Placeholders in Hungarian :See Placeholder names 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: As peripheral phenomena, there also exist non-duplicating forms, like e, ezen, eme, azon and ama (the latter two referring to distant objects), but they are poetic or obsolete (cf. "yonder"). For example: e házban = eme házban = ebben a házban ("in this house"). Ezen and azon are used before vowel-initial words, e.g. ezen emberek = ezek az emberek ("these people"). The duplicating forms (as in the chart above) are far more widespread than these. == References ==