Hungarian grammar


Hungarian grammar is the grammar of Hungarian, a Finno-Ugric language that is spoken mainly in Hungary and in parts of its seven neighboring countries.
Hungarian, a highly agglutinative language, uses various affixes, mainly suffixes, to change the meaning of words and their grammatical function. These affixes are mostly attached according to vowel harmony.
Verbs are conjugated according to definiteness, tense, mood, person and number. Nouns can be declined with 18 case suffixes, most of which correspond to English prepositions.
Hungarian is a topic-prominent language and so its word order depends on the topic-comment structure of the sentence.

Word order

Neutral Hungarian sentences have a subject–verb–object word order, like English. Hungarian is a null-subject language and so the subject does not have to be explicitly stated. Word order is determined not by syntactic roles but rather by pragmatic factors. Emphasis is placed on the word or phrase immediately before the finite verb.
The four parts that a sentence usually contains are topic, focus, verb and the rest; however, any of the four parts may be empty. The topic and the rest may contain any number of phrases, but the focus may contain only one phrase.

Emphasis

The tables below contain some Hungarian variations of the sentence János tegnap elvitt két könyvet Péternek. Besides the verb, the sentence contains four other elements: János, Péternek, két könyvet and tegnap.
The topic contains a phrase or phrases that the speaker considers to be known and are used to introduce the topic of the statement, equivalent to "as far as X is concerned,...". The focus attracts the attention to an element of the event that is considered to be unknown, or it may be a refutation to a possible opposing belief. It excludes the validity of the statement for all other individuals in question and is equivalent to "it was X and nothing else that...".
If a focus is present, the verbal prefix will be put after the verb. If there is no verbal prefix, there may be ambiguity in writing since the phrase before the verb may be either a topic or a focus. For example, in the sentence Éva szereti a virágokat, Éva may be a topic and the sentence may be neutral, or Éva may be a focus and the sentence may emphasize that it is Eve who likes flowers:

Morphology

Hungarian is an agglutinative language. Most grammatical information is given through suffixes: "at the table" = asztalon, "at 5 o'clock" = öt órakor. There is also one grammatical prefix.

Overview of personal endings: typical sound elements

In Hungarian, the endings are common mostly for endings of pronouns with suffixes and postpositions, possessive endings of nouns and endings of verbs.

Harmonic vowels in suffixes

Front-back vowel harmony is important in Hungarian morphophonology. Certain suffixes also distinguish between front unrounded vowels and front rounded vowels. See Hungarian phonology or vowel harmony for a more detailed explanation.
Most of morphological word endings in Hungarian for verb conjugations, possessive suffixes and 'case-related' postpositions can be thought of as 'templates' that are, in turn, 'filled in' with vowels. While the template itself consists mainly of consonants, the vowels that 'fill in' the template depend on the class of vowels in the word to which the template is attached.
For example, 'bVn' would be the template for the postposition meaning 'in' and it can be 'filled in' with either 'a', thus forming 'ban,' or with 'e', thus forming 'ben.' On the other hand, 'hVz' would be the template for the postposition meaning 'to' and this can be 'filled in' with 'o', 'e', or 'ö'. The particular vowel or vowels taken by a template must mostly be memorized by a learner of Hungarian, but certain patterns can be noted by observing the particular phonological makeup of the consonants in the template. For example, 'vVl' is the template meaning 'with,' but the first consonant changes to match the final consonant of the word to which it is attached.
Note that the stem-final a and e, as well as o and ö in foreign words, are lengthened before suffixes: alma → almát, mese → mesét, pianó → pianót, Malmö → Malmőt. Short i, u and ü retain their length: ami → amit, kapu → kaput, menü → menüt.
Here are the vowels that form parallel pairs or triads in harmonic suffixes:
It can be seen the members of these pairs/triads agree mostly in height and length but differ in backness.
In the cases of o vs. e and ö and of a and e there appears a difference in roundedness, too.
Notes:
The suffixes can be classified into the following phonological types:
  1. Initial consonant and no change depending on the stem ending: -ban/-ben, -hoz/-hez/-höz
  2. Initial v with complete preservative consonant assimilation, only for -val/-vel and -vá/-vé
  3. Initial vowel and no change depending on the stem ending: -ul/-ül, -ás/-és
  4. Link vowel o/e/ö on stems ending with a consonant, with link vowel a for certain back-vowel noun stems, e.g. -om//-em/-öm/-m
  5. Link vowel a/e on stems ending with a consonant: -ak/-ek/-k
  6. Link vowel u/ü on stems ending with a consonant: -unk/-ünk/-nk
  7. Link consonant -j on stems ending with a vowel and on certain stems ending with a consonant, only for -a/-e/-ja/-je and -uk/-ük/-juk/-jük
  8. Invariant: -kor, -ig
Minor variations:
Note that The long vowels á/é, ú/ű and ó/ő are not used as link vowels.

Citation form of suffixes

Personal suffixes can have various uses in Hungarian grammar. There are two sets of them:
Therefore, their differences are:
This difference often disambiguates meanings, e.g. jöttek means "they came" and jöttök means "you come".
An extreme example is the longest Hungarian word 'megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért'. This word contains mass of inflexions, prefix, suffix, etc. The core of the word is 'szent', meaning "sacred."
Note: the accusative suffix following the stem or following other suffixes shows the same difference, except for the six different forms for the six persons:
Type I Type II

  • ablakokat, szemeket, gyümölcsöket

  • ablakot, szemet, gyümölcsöt

Noun phrase

Postpositions

As well as the noun suffixes, which are often equivalent to English prepositions, Hungarian also has postpositions.

Amalgamation with personal pronouns

If postpositions are used with personal pronouns, most of them amalgamate with the suffixes expressing the person. Compare:
Postposition"Regular"
postpositional use		"Amalgamated" use
with personal suffixes
alatt
under		az asztal alatt
under the table		alattam
under me

For the full list of such postpositions, see postpositions with personal suffixes.

Stand-alone postpositions

The following postpositions differ from the above in that they are never suffixed with personal endings:
Spatial postpositionsTime postpositionsOther postpositions

  • át "over/across"
  • keresztül "through/via"
  • túl "beyond"
  • óta "since"
  • hosszat "for xxx time"
  • múlva "in xxx time"
  • kezdve "from xxx on"
  • közben, során, folyamán "during"
  • körül, tájt, tájban, táján "around"
  • gyanánt "as, by way of"
  • végett "in order to, with a view to"
  • esetén "in case of"
  • folytán "due to"
  • képest "as compared to"
  • nézve "regarding, considering"

    • Derived postpositions

    Certain standard postpositions are derived from a noun + 3rd person singular possessive suffix + case ending, e.g. apám révén "by the help of my father". See their list here.
    This internal structure affects how they are used with pronominal forms.

    Case requirements

    Most postpositions govern the nominative case; the exceptions are listed below.
    genitivevalami /
    valaminek    		ellenére, folyamán, jóvoltából, kedvéért, következtében, mentén, részére, révén, számára, útján
    superessivevalaminalul, át, belül, felül/fölül, innen, keresztül, kezdve, kívül, túl
    sublativevalamirenézve
    allativevalamihezhasonlóan, képest
    adessivevalaminélfogva1
    ablativevalamitőlfogva2, kezdve
    instrumental-comitativevalamivelegyütt, szemben

    Postpositions functioning as prepositions

    Some postpositions may also precede the noun, thus functioning as prepositions: át, keresztül, együtt, szemben, túl, e.g. át a folyón or a folyón át.

    Adjectives and adverbs

    Adjective marking

    Adjectives are unmarked for case. Attributive adjectives are unmarked for number but predicative adjectives are marked: piros almák but Az almák pirosak..

    Adverb derivation

    The suffix -an/-en/-n is used to form adverbs of manner from adjectives. -l, -lag/-leg and -ul/-ül are also used to derive adverbs from some adjectives.
    There is also a suffix, -va/-ve, which is used to derive adverbs from verbs. Its nearest English equivalent is the -ing form in a present participle :
    When combined with a form of the existential verb , it expresses the result of an action:
    Such participles are referred to by term “adverbial participle”.

    Use of adverbs

    In Hungarian adverbs can be used predicatively with van : Korán van. Nyitva van.

    Degree adverbs

    Some degree adverbs are formed from adjectives. The suffixes are the same ones that are usually used on nouns:
    adjectives and adverbs are formed by adding -abb/-ebb/-bb to the adjective stem: gyors, gyorsabb, gyorsan, gyorsabban.
    To state the thing that is being compared with, Hungarian uses the noun suffix -nál/-nél or the preposition mint : gyorsabb a szélnél or gyorsabb, mint a szél.
    Superlative adjectives and adverbs are formed by adding the prefix leg- to the comparative: a leggyorsabb, a leggyorsabban.
    Notes:
    1. Back-vowel adjectives use a as link vowel, while front-vowel ones use e. The only exception is nagy, which uses o as link vowel instead of a: nagyobb, legnagyobb, legeslegnagyobb.
    2. The exaggerated measure is used to stress the superlative adjective.

      Verbs

    Expressing time

    Many expressions of time use the case endings and postpositions which are also used for position, e.g.:
    There are also some which are used only for time, e.g.:
    There are 2 ways of expressing how long ago something happened:
    "Hány óra ? Mennyi az idő?"
    Times can be given by just the numbers, but this is not usual in speech, e.g.:
    nyolc óra húsz or nyolc húsz.
    In speech the half and quarter hours are expressed by what fraction of the time to the next hour has elapsed.
    These can be written using fractions, e.g.:
    These are abbreviated in movie programmes as n9, f9 and h9.
    The times in between these are expressed in relation to the next or previous quarter hour, e.g.:
    ...or fél kilenc lesz tíz perc múlva
    These are different when they refer to a time in the past or future:
    For a period of time extending up to the present:
    For a period of time in the past, present or future:
    These two structures are often interchangeable.
    Verbs are negated with nem except in the subjunctive, when ne is used.
    Double or multiple negative is mandatory with negative pronouns.

    Questions

    Question words

    Ki? is the basic question word for a person, and mi? is the basic question word for a thing. If it is meaningful, they can take the full range of case and noun suffixes: kit?, miben?, miképp? mi + ért gives the question word miért?.
    Milyen? is used to ask for a description and can be used either to ask about a whole noun phrase or as a determiner. There is no case suffix -lyan/-lyen, but that ending still occurs in ilyen, olyan, valamilyen and semmilyen.
    The strict three-way distinction in direction that occurs in the positional suffixes also occurs in the question words: hol?, hova? /hová? and honnan?.
    Hány? is used to ask questions about numbers, and mennyi? is used to ask about quantities. If it is meaningful, they can take the full range of case and noun suffixes, and hánnyal?, hánykor?, mennyibe?, mennyiért? hány? can also take the full range of suffixes used for numbers and to express quantity: hányadik?, hányas?

    Yes/no question

    s are expressed by intonation and not by any modification to syntax or morphology.
    A short positive answer to a yes/no question is often given by repeating the verb particle, rather than by using the words Igen. Examples:
    A negative answer to a yes-no question may include the word Nem, the negation of the requested part of the sentence or both.
    s are made by adding ugye to the beginning or end of a statement: Elment, ugye? or Ugye elment?. The latter form more strongly suggests a positive answer.

    Subordinate and relative clauses

    Subordinate clauses are often used with an antecedent in the main clause, e.g. Kabátot hozott, mert fázott. /Azért hozott kabátot, mert fázott.
    Relative clauses usually have an explicit antecedent in the main clause, e.g. Attól félek, nem mehetek el. However, Attól tartok, nem mehetek el. is also correct.