Hungarian:Noun Declension

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Prerequisites

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Vowel Harmony
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Hungarian nouns take suffixes from two main sets. In fact they can take one suffix from each group simultaneously. The first talks about the number of the noun and its possession. while the Second talks about the noun's status, its relation to other things in the sentence both physically and metaphorically, or in simpler terms, the noun's “grammatical case”. Hungarian nouns can also take a few other endings which fall into neither category, usually used in special circumstances, or when turning a noun into another part of speech.

Unpossessed plural

Every noun forms its plural by adding the consonant -k. If the nouns ends on a consonant, as per vowel harmony a vowel (usually one of four possible vowels) will preceed the -k.

Possession

In stead of a genitive case, Hungarian nouns express whom they are possessed by. For instance ház means "house", while házam means "my house". Hungarian allows six possible possessors; I, you (singular), he/she/it, we, you (plural), and they. Each possessor has an associated suffix which you add to any noun that they own.

A noun which is possessed must take a definite or indefinite article. If it takes a definite article as in a házam it means "my house/the house of me" whereas with the indefinite article egy házam it means "one of my houses"

This is a table of all the possessive suffixes on four nouns with different vowels with the suffixes marked in green

	ember	dög	ház	állat
my	emberem	dögöm	házam	állatom
your (s)	embered	dögöd	házad	állatod
his/her	embere	döge	háza	állata
our	emberünk	dögünk	házunk	állatunk
your (pl)	emberetek	dögötek	házatok	állatotok
their	emberük	dögük	házuk	állatuk

You will notice that the consonants of the endings never change

my	your (s)	his/her	our	your (pl)	their
m	d	*	nk	tok tök	k

Further more, while the 1st person singular, 2nd person singular and 2nd person plural endings all undergo 4-way vowel harmony using e, a, o, and ö, the 1st person plural and 3rd person plural have only a 2-way vowel harmony and use only u and ü

the possessive infix -j-

In the third person possessive, the endings are

	back vowel	front vowel
singular	a	e
plural	uk	ük

However, these endings take a -j- infix before the vowel of the ending when the stem also ends on a vowel (not including the V-stems whose stems end on the consonant v when declined) giving us the following table.

	back vowel	front vowel
singular	ja	je
plural	juk	jük

The problem is that it doesn't end there. Certain word ending in consonants will also take the -j- infix not only in the third person, but also whenever the noun itself is plural (regardless of the number of the possessor). Alas, these words are often unpredicatable so here are some guidlines. However, when in doubt (and not breaking a rule) use the infix.

Words which MUST add the -j- infix

Any word whose stem ends on a vowel (not including the V-stems whose stems end on the consonant v when declined)
Any word who stem ends on f or ch

Words commonly adding the -j- infix

international words and loan words
words whose stems end on multiple consonants
words whose stem ends on a long vowel + consonant
words whose stem ends on b or d

Words commonly without the -j- infix

words whose endings take a
words ending on v, l, r, m, g, k
words who already end in the suffix -at/-et This needs to be expanded

Words which CANNOT add the -j- infix

Words whose stems end on c, cs, dzs, sz, z, s, zs, j, ny, ty, gy, or h
demoting words

Exceptions

Remeber that like in all things there are exceptions, for instance the word barát which does take the -j- infix for a third personpossessor, but doesn't use it when the noun is in the plural

plural possession

If the noun possessed is in the plural, for some reason Hungarian does not combine the plural -k ending with the posessive endings. Instead:

Take the normal possessive endings
If the noun stem already ends on a vowel, add -i- after it. done
If the stem ends on a consonant and, you added a vowel between the ending and stem and it is not already a or e change it. I.e. ö and ü become e while o and u become a.
add the letter i after that vowel. done

The result is the following table

	ember	dög	ház	állat
my	embereim	dögeim	házaim	állataim
your (s)	embereid	dögeid	házaid	állataid
his/her	emberei	dögei	házai	állatai
our	embereink	dögeink	házaink	állataink
your (pl)	embereitek	dögeitek	házaitok	állataitok
their	embereik	dögeik	házaik	állataik

Essencially the vowel becomes e or a and adds an i making plural possession much easier.

emphasis and possession by a non-standard possessor

In order to emphasise the possessor, the nominative pronoun can be placed before the possessed noun like so:

a házam → my house

az én házam → my house

Although the third person plural uses not the 3rd person plural pronoun (ők) but rather the 3rd person singular pronoun ő

If the possessor is a noun (which has not been mentioned before and therefore cannot be replaced with a pronoun) or a special pronoun like ön or maga, the possessor is explicitly written followed by the possession marked for a 3rd person singular possessor.

E.g. az ön háza - your (singular formal) house

az ön házuk - your (plural formal) house

az önök háza - your (plural formal) house This needs to be checked

az ember háza - the man's house

az emberek háza - the mens' house

Notice that the pronoun here acts as an adjective and as such the definite article moves before it.

For an even higher level of emphasis, you can put the possessor in the dative case in which event both the posessor (unless it's a pronoun) and the possession require articles.

az embernek a háza

This is usually used with nouns though and not pronouns, essencially giving each possessor two levels of emphasis.

Case

The second set of endings deals with physical or grammatical relations to the noun. They are called “Cases” and exist in English as well. For instance, “I” is in the nominative case while “me” is in the accusative. They both express the same notion, but are used in different circumstances. Hungarian has at least 17 such cases, of which 9 have to do with location. It is important to note that while cases do have certain functions, some expressions, postpositions, or verbs can require a noun to take a certain case for no obvious reason, not to mention that sometimes cases which have a clear purpose are used in completely unrelated ways.

Also, Hungarian postpositions have, over time, become enclitics and cases. For instance útra (lit. onto the road, means roughly on the road to somehwere) used to be utu rea where the "onto" part is a clear postposition, a separate word. Over time it became attached to the back of the noun and eventually became subject to vowel harmony and a full fledged case. Similar things have happened to other words in Hungarian meaning that a few endings which appear to be cases might not be cases strictly speaking. Many people believe that Hungarian (being an agglutinative language) should not have cases but rather sets of suffixes, some of which are similar in purpose to the cases of fusional languages. The default definition of a Hungarian case that it can be the argument of a verb. This page only lists endings which are universally concidered to be cases as "cases".

Non-loctive Cases

Any case whose function is not to show the positions of other objects to the noun it describes is a non-locative case.

Nominative Case

The nominative case in Hungarian has no ending, nouns are by default nominative. This case is used for:

1/ the subject of a verb, that is, the thing performing the action – the dog bites the man.

2/ the complement of a subject. Basically when saying that “X is Y” - the dog is a pitbull.

3/ nouns governed by a postposition – the dog is behind the man.

Accusative Case

The accusative is marked with -t. This ending can take all 4 possible vowels but after -l, -r, -j, -ly, -n, -ny, -s, -sz, -z and -zs usually takes none at all. This is used for:

1/ the direct object of the verb. Namely whatever the action is performed on - the dog bites the man.

Note that, after a 1st or 2nd person singular possessive ending, the accusative -t is not strictly necessary. While it is correct to say házamat or házadat it is often ommited and written in the nominative.

E.g. láttad a házam? - have you seen my house?

Dative Case

The dative case is marked with the suffix -nak or -nek depending on vowel harmony. It is used for:

1/ when giving something to someone (indirect object) - I gave the ball to the man

2/ when doing something for something (indirect object) - I did it for the man

3/ in sentences like – it is good for the man

4/ in the verb “to have”. Hungarian has no single verb for “to have” instead it uses the following construct “there is (to/for the man) a house(of him)” – van (az embernek) egy ház(a). Meaning the man has a house. While technically any permutation of the brackets is acceptable, they are not all the same.

van egy ház - means only that there is a house

van az embernek egy ház - implies the existence of a house intended for the man, but of which the man has not yet taken possession.

Van az embernek egy háza or van egy háza (if “the man” is implied from context) - are the usual ways to express the English verb “to have”.

5/ to express genitive. What English would say as “the house of the man” can be said as az ember háza (as discussed before) or az embernek a háza (note the definite article after the possessor). These two are equivalent.

6/ with the verb kelleni (to be needed) as an auxiliary is used only in the 3rd person form kell (it is needed). Used in a sentence: az embernek el kell mennie literally: “for the man it is needed for him to go away” or rather “the man needs to go away”.

7/ dative verbs. Some verbs will require or allow the direct object to be in the dative and not accusative. For instance segíteni (to help) which can take: accusative – segítem az embert (I help the man) dative - segítek az embernek (I give help to the man) superessive - segítek az emberen (I help the man [improve on his situation])

Commitative/Instrumental Case

The Instrumental and commitative case is marked with -val/vel but it suffers complete assimilation. This means that a noun ending on a consonant doesn't add a “v” but rather doubles the final consonant and adds a further -al or -el. E.g. kutya (dog) and kutyával, but ház (house) and házzal. It is used:

1/ when someone is with something (commitative)– the man is with his wife

2/ when doing something by means of something (instrumental)– the man nailed the wood with the hammer

note: often when English would say “John and I went to the shops” Hungarian would say “With John we went to the shops”

Translative case

The translative case is used to extress transformation into something. The suffix is -vá/vé and like -val/vel, the v sufferes total assimilation. It is used together with the elative case as in:

a boszorkány emberből békává alakította - The witch turned him from a human into a frog

Locative Cases

Hungarian has nine cases dealing directly with position. In Hungarian most things to do with position come in threes. One word indicating motion to the position, one word indication motion away from it, and a third form indicating being at the position. The cases cover three types of position; on top of, inside, and near to. the table below gives each case's endings alogn wiht its name. The names can be hard to remember, but anything ending on -essive means static location, while anythign ending on -lative is motion either to or from.

	motion towards positions	location at position	motion away from position
on top of	-ra/re sublative	-n superessive	-ról/ről delative
inside	-ba/be illative	-ban/ben inessive	-ból/ből elative
near to/at	-hoz/hez/höz allative	-nál/nél adessive	-tól/től ablative

Every locative case has 2-way vowel harmony, except allative and superessive which both have 3-way harmony (vowels ö, e and o). Of course -n being a consonant ending can also be appended directly to the noun stem if it ends in a vowel.

It may seem complex to have this many cases for positions, but it means fewer postpositions to learn.

Disputed cases and other endings

Certain "cases" are disputed for many reasons which can include:

"cases" allow further endings to be suffixes
"cases" do not begin with a consonant
"cases" to not experience vowel harmony (though if the ending uses i í ë or é, which are neutral, vowel harmony wouldn't be needed)
"cases" cannot combine with -é (discussed further down"

Terminative

There is a tenth locative case, the "terminative case". It simply takes the suffix -ig and doesn't suffer vowel harmony. It means "until", "as far as", "up until" etc. It can be used with physical locations as well as time, lists, numbers, events, and so on

Causal final

the causal-final case is formed with -ért which does not affect the noun stem. It can loosly be translated as "for the sake of" or "in the interest of".

Essive-formal

can express the position, task, or state of a noun (e.g. "as a tourist"), or the capacity in which it performs an action (e.g. "like a hunted animal"). it is formed with the suffix -ként which does not in any way change the noun stem, neither demoting nor promoting any vowels. It does not combine with the ending -é while it does allow the adjective marker -i, which no case (but nominative) can take. It is very similar to the prepositions mint.

Essive-modal case

This case takes the ending -ul/ül, which also marks adverbs. loosly it translated to "by way of" and is rare. Both of the essive cases act like adverbs but arent.

Other noun endings

Nouns can take various other suffixes, some of which turn them into other parts of speech and some which are just odd.

The possessive predicative adjective

The possessive predicative adjective is fromed from a noun by suffixing -é. It acts roughly like the Genitive of English and most other indo-european languages except that it cannot directly modify a noun (atributive adjective) in stead it must be on the other end of the verb to be (predicative adjective) and of course it can alway's act as a noun (substantive adjective). For instance:

az ember - the man

az emberé - the man's

az embereké - the men's

az ember háza - the man's house, as described under posession

a ház az emberé volt - the house was the man's

,,Kié volt ez a ház?" ,,Az emberé" - whose (ki=who) was this house? The man's

Ez a ház nagyobb volt mint az emberé - This house was bigger (nagyobb) than the man's

Ez a ház az emberénél nagyobb volt - This house was bigger (nagyobb) than the man's. Note the use of the adessive case (used in comparisons) on the noun-turned-adjective-turned-noun-again.

The past tense volt (was) is used because the present tense "is" is marked by the absence of a verb in Hungarian.

the abessive suffix

The abessive "case" means "without sth", similarly to the English suffix -less.

There are four endings:

	front vowel	back vowel
	-telen	-talan
	-etlen	-atlan

The distinction between the front and back vowels is clear, but what's confusing is the difference between -telen and -etlen.

This needs to be expanded

A noun in the abessive acts just like an adjective a hontalan ember "the homeless man" (hon is an ancient word for home and is used in many common compounds). Like all adjectives however, it can become a noun.

The suffix -ilag

The suffix -stul/stül

The adjective ending -i

The adjective ending -s

The combination -ias/ies

The adjective ending -szerű

The verb ending -l/sz/z

Diminutive

Diminutives can be used to denote a noun which is smaller than usual (although not in formal speech), unimportant, or when speaking to a child or pet as "cutesy speech", or when adressing someone as a form of endearment.

Diminutives are added directly to the noun stem before any case or possessive endings. They take the forms -ka/ke -ska/ske and -cska/cska mainly. Adding diminutives can be tricky as sometimes nouns' final vowels will change e.g. kutya+-ska generally gives kutyuska