OTHER FUNDAMENTAL ADVERBS OF PLACE

Here they are: kint, bent, fent, lent and kívül, belül, alul, felül. Let’s see them in details!

HOL? – WHERE?
kint, kinn / kívül – outside
bent, benn / belül – inside
lent, lenn / alul – below, underneath
fent, fenn / felül – above, up

HOVA? – WHERE TO?
ki(felé) / kívülre – (to) outside, outwards
be(felé) / belülre – (to) inside, inwards
le(felé) / alulra – down(wards)
fel(felé) / felülre – up(wards)

HONNAN? – WHERE FROM?
kintről / kívülről – from outside
bentről / belülről – from inside
lentről / alulról – from underneath
fentről / felülről – from above

First of all, kint, bent, lent, fent have other forms meaning the same thing: kinn, benn, lenn, fenn. The rule is: you can choose whichever you want from the HOL? group. Then you see ki, be, le, fel can be stressed with –felé: kifelé…

And now another thing that might be confusing for a foreigner: English doesn’t make much of a difference between outside and outside, but Hungarian does! So what the heck is the difference between kint and kívül, for example? The answer is simple: kívül, belül, alul, felül are missing something! Literally something!

valamin, valakin kívül – outside something, somebody
valamin, valakin belül – within something, somebody
valamin, valakin alul – under something, somebody
valamin, valakin felül – above something, somebody
valamin innen – over something, somebody
valamin, valakin túl – over something, somebody
valamin, valakin át – through something, somebody
valamin, valakin keresztül – through/across something, somebody
valamin, valakin végig – along something, somebody
valaki, valami mentén – along something, somebody

Note that ‘innen’ can only be applied to something. It is not used frequently at all. An example can be a fairy-tale as follows:

…az üveghegyen innen és túl, ahol a kurta farkú malac túr, élt egy öregember.
…over the glass mountain where a pig with short tail is digging there was an old man.

Furthermore, you can see ‘végig’ and ‘mentén’ are translated with ‘along’. It is because the two are synonyms in this context.

In this context the above-mentioned indefinite pronouns (valaki, valami) take the suffixes -on, -en, -ön, -n, except the postposition mentén. That’s why you say valamin, valakin! They’re used both in general and figurative sense. Note that nouns followed by kívül, belül, etc. take those suffixes, too: a réten keresztül – across the meadow, a városon belül – inside the city…

Examples:

The English sentences might be constrained, but I want to show you what the Hungarian sentences literally are.

Kint vagyok a kertben.
I’m outside in the garden.

–Hova mész? –Ki a kertbe.
–Where are you going? –Out to the garden.

Kintről jövök.
I’m coming from outside.

Benn ül a házban.
He’s sitting in(side) the house.

Lent piknikeznek a völgyben.
They’re doing a picnic down there in the valley.

Fentről kiabál a hegymászó.
The mountainer shouts from above.

Lővávolságon kívül van.
It’s out of a shooting range.

A normál értékeken belül van.
It’s within normal values.

Várakozáson felül teljesít.
Literally: do sg above expectation.

Áron alul adja el a villáját.
He sells his cottage at a loss. (under price)

MORE EXAMPLES:

Watch the use of the adverbs and observe the difference compared to English!

az országon kívül
outside the country

kívül-belül
in and out

Rajtam kívül senki nincs itt.
There’s nobody here besides me.

Rómán át Párizsba repülünk.
We’re flying through Rome to Paris.

A repülő Rómán keresztül repül.
The plane will fly through Rome.

Ezen felül nincs más mondanivalóm.
I have nothing to say other than that. (above that)

A Tiszán innen gyönyörű a táj.
There’s a beautiful landscape over the Tisza.
(A Tiszán innen = after leaving the Tisza behind us)

A városon át megyek haza.
I’m going home across the city.

Menj végig a parton!
Go along the shore!

Menj a part végéig!
Go up to the end of the shore!

A folyó mentén horgászok pecáznak.
There are anglers fishing along the river.

Végig has the meaning of to the end of a place and also along a place, whereas mentén means along, next to. Besides, these adverbs can act like verbal prefixes.

túlcsordul  – to overflow
átkel – to cross (to go across)
keresztüldöf – to drive through, to pierce
végigcsinál – to do something until it’s done

Today I’ve talked about a lot of things, so I suggest reading this entry again and again. I tried to write it logically, so I just hope you will have no big problem with these adverbs of place. Bye now! 🙂