Tag Archives: introduction

Suffixes / Postpositions, Adverbs of Manner, Introduction

INTRODUCTION TO ADVERBS OF MANNER

Hungarian adverbs of manner have a crucial part in expressing mood and condition, answering the question How? = Hogy?

But first let’s see another case in connection with a purpose or a reason. The base for that could be the question word ’Why?’, whose equivalent is Miért? That is, the question word Mi? takes the suffix -ért, whose meaning is the same as the preposition for.

In a word, Hungarian question words are: Miért? – Why? AND Kiért? – For whom?

If you want to say that somebody does something for a purpose or a reason, then do this.

–Miért vagy itt? –Azért vagyok itt, hogy beszéljek veled.
–Why are you here?- I’m here to talk to you.

–Miért vagy itt? –Azért vagyok itt, mert beszélni akarok veled.
–Why are you here? -I’m here because I want to talk to you.

So the question Miért? can be answered with a sentence explaining the purpose or the reason.

ATTENTION! In Hungarian, sometimes there’s an ANTECEDENT at the beginning of the sentence (in this case: Azért). This phenomenon does not exist in English. The first sentence literally is:

I’m here (for the purpose) so that I talk to you.

Whereas the second one:

I’m here (for the reason) that I want to talk to you.

Summary:

PURPOSE CLAUSE:
Question: Miért = Why?
Answer: Azért, …hogy = …(in order) to

REASON CLAUSE:
Question: Miért? = Why?
Answer: Azért, …mert = …because

So much for the introduction.

As for the following issues, we’ll learn the meaning of the suffix -ért and how to form adverbs of manner expressed with -ly in English (happily, easily…)

Bye now!

Suffixes / Postpositions, Introduction

OCCURRENCE IN A WIDER AREA – POSTPOSITIONS

This is the fourth group. These occurrences are expressed by means of postpositions which differ from suffixes in certain aspects:

1. The most important aspect is their meaning. A postposition by itself has its own meaning in contrast to a suffix.

2. Suffixes and endings have one syllable, while postpositions have two.

3. Suffixes and endings have two or three forms which have to comply with the vowel harmony. Postpositions have one form only.

POSTPOSITIONS FOR ADVERBS OF PLACE

Here is the list of the postpositions determining a place/direction. They have to be learned according to the three directions phenomenon, too.

On the whole, while in English one has to remember what preposition follows or precedes an adverb of place, Hungarian expresses these things in one word. Naturally, it is a must to learn the suffixes in accordance with the directions. And that goes as follows:

For the question Hova? the suffix is: -á, -é
For the question Hol? the suffix is: -tt, except körül
For the question Honnan? the suffix is: -ól, -ől, -ül

HOL? – WHERE?
előtt – in front of
mögött – behind
fölött – above
alatt – underneath, under, beneath
mellett – next to, near, beside
között – between, among
körül – around
–

HOVA? – WHERE TO?
elé – in/to front of
mögé – behind
fölé – over
alá – under, below, beneath
mellé – next to, near, beside, by
közé – between, among
köré – around
felé – towards

HONNAN? – WHERE FROM?
elől – from (the front of)
mögül – from behind
fölül – from above, from the top of
alól – from under, from below, from beneath
mellől – from (the vicinity of), from beside
közül – from between; of; among
–
felől – from (a direction)

SUMMARY:

HOL? – HOVA? – HONNAN?
előtt – elé – elől
mögött – mögé – mögül
fölött – fölé – fölül
alatt – alá – alól
mellett – mellé – mellől
között – közé – közül
körül – köré – ———-
——- – felé – felől

NOTE! The postposition felé (towards) has no version for position Hol?, just for Honnan? = felől (from). The postposition körül (around) has no version for from a direction Honnan?, just for Hova? = köré (around)

Watch them in sentences. Maybe that’s more help for you to understand their use.

Examples:

A ház előtt állok.
I’m standing in front of the house.

POSITION > Where? – in front of = Hol? – előtt

A fa mögé bújok.
I’ll hide behind the tree.

TOWARDS A DIRECTION > Where to – behind = Hova? – mögé

A madár a fészek fölé repül.
The bird flies up over the nest.

TOWARDS A DIRECTION > Where to – over = Hova? – fölé

A kocsi mellől rohan el.
He’s running away from the car.

FROM A DIRECTION > Where from? – from = Honnan? – mellől

Az emberek között érzi jól magát.
He feels good among people.

POSITION > Where? – among = Hol? – között

A föld alatt ás a vakond.
The mole is digging under the soil.

POSITION > Where? – under = Hol? – alatt

A Föld a Nap körül kering.
The Earth orbits around the sun.

POSITION > Where? – around = Hol? – körül

Vihar közeledik a város felé.
The tempest is approaching (going towards) the city.

TOWARDS A DIRECTION > Where to? – towards = Hova? – felé

So Hungarian takes directions seriously. We express exactly when being at a place, going to a place and coming from a place!

I know it seems like a big jumble now, so I would recommend learning the suffixes -á, -é / -tt / -ól, -ől, -ül. Then practise the postpositions above and try to create simple sentences for yourself. You can do that by writing a little bit far-fetched sentences in English.

A család az asztal körül ül. – The family is sitting around the table.
A család az asztal köré ül. – The family sits down around the table.

A levél a fa alatt van. – The leaf is under the tree.
A levél a fa alá esik. – The leaf falls under the tree.
A levél a fa alól elszáll. – The leaf flies away from under the tree.

I know it’s difficult because English uses quite the same adverbial prepositions for both Hol? and Hova?, but as you might have realized by now, Hungarian is an impish language.

Cheer up! And keep stuffing your head with my blog entries. 🙂 🙂 🙂

More about postpositions next time. Bye now!

Suffixes / Adverbs of Place – Introduction

ADVERBS OF PLACE

Hungarian adverbs of place can be divided into four groups:

-occurrence inside an object
-occurrence on the surface of an object
-occurrence next to an object
-occurrence in a wider area (postpositions)

The fourth group contains the majority of the adverbs of place because the occurrences in the other three are restricted to a specific direction.

It’s important to remember that Hungarian uses suffixes, endings and postpositions instead of prepositions. That is, suffixes behave according to vowel harmony: high-vowel words take high-vowel suffixes, deep-vowel words take deep-vowel suffixes.

That being said, one should start learning the interrogative words relative to these adverbs. Here they are:

Hol? – Where?
Hova? – Where to?
Honnan? – Where from?

Hungarian has three different words for getting information about a specific direction. It is called irányhármasság, that is the three directions phenomenon. Think of the spanish interrogative words Dónde? A dónde? De dónde?

And another thing! Hova? can also have the form Hová? in which the á vowel is at the end of the word instead of the a vowel. Doesn’t matter which you use!

Next time we jump into the occurrences! Be prepared. It is an extensive topic. 🙂

Introduction and Saying hello – Bemutatkozás és köszönés

Since you can pronounce words now (right?), let’s start with basic things.

INTRODUCTION

Vocabulary:

név – name
én – I
engem – me (accusative)
te – you (singular)
téged – you (accusative singular)
Mi? – What?
Hogy? – How?
hív – to call
Engem …-nak/-nek hívnak – My name is…

Three guys talk:

-Szia! én Péter vagyok. Te ki vagy? – Hi! I’m Peter. Who are you?
-Szia! én Ádám vagyok. és téged hogy hívnak? – Hi! I’m Adam. And what’s your name?
-Sziasztok! Engem Gábornak hívnak. – Hi guys! My name is Gábor.

Note! You can also ask: Mi a neved? – What’s your name?

-The literal meaning of ”Hogy hívnak?” is How are you called?
-Watch the verb hív carefully. It requires accusative pronouns and the name needs the dative suffixes! That is: ACCUSATIVE PRONOUN + NAME + -NAK/-NEK + HÍVNAK

But you can just say: NAME + VAGYOK (Péter vagyok.) = I’M + NAME (I’m Peter.)

And you can answer:

Örülök. / Örülök a találkozásnak. / Örülök, hogy megsimertelek. / Örvendek. – Nice to meet you.
Részemről a szerencse – The pleasure is mine. (somewhat literally: Luck is on my side.)

Well, just say Örülök! 🙂

SAYING HELLO

General greetings:

Jó reggelt! – Good morning!
Jó napot! – Good day! Good afternoon!
Jó estét! – Good night!
Jó éjszakát! – Good evening!

Take care and make these nouns (reggel and so on) accusative because the entire greetings are: Jó reggelt kívánok! – I wish you a good morning! And so on…I wish you something, it’s accusative in Hungarian.

Informal: to friends, family and so on…

Szia! – is for saying hello when you meet someone and saying goodbye, as well. Equivalent: Hi! Hello! Furthermore, You pronounce it like See  ya! 🙂

Sziasztok! – is the same as Szia! but it is used if you say hello or goodbye to more than one person. Equivalent: Hi guys!

Üdvözöllek! – is Welcome! or Greetings! The short form for it is: Üdv!

Isten hozott! – is also Welcome! but its literal meaning is ”God brought you!”. If God brought you, I welcome you or something like that is the secret meaning :).

Isten veled! – Bye! Goodbye! Literal meaning is ”May God be with you”! Obviously the one saying this wishes God to be with on your journey. Not really used anymore. It’s more like Szia!

We have a huge amount of slang words for saying Hi! :):):) Only a few of them: Csá! Pá! Cső! Szióka!

Formal or semi-formal: teacher, stranger, someone above you in rank…

Jó napot! – general greeting during the day.

Üdvözlöm! – I welcome you! I greet you! Remember Üdvözöllek!

Isten hozta! – Welcome! Remember Isten hozott!

Isten vele/Önnel! – Good-bye! Not so much in use anymore. Rather Viszontlátásra!

Viszontlátásra! – is saying Good-bye! The short form for it is: Viszlát! You can use it in shops, post-office and so on…

More expressions:

Formal: A közeli viszontlátásra! – See you soon/later!
Informal: Akkor legközelebb! – See you soon/later!

Formal: A holnapi viszontlátásra! – See you tomorrow!
Informal: Akkor holnap (találkozunk!) – See you tomorrow!

üdvözöl valakit – greet someone (needs accusative)
Várj, ne menj! Előbb üdvözlöm! – Wait. Don’t go. I’ll greet her first. (than you can go)
Üdvözlünk titeket! – We greet you (pl)!

köszön valakinek –  say hello to someone (needs dative case)
Köszönök neki, jó? – I’ll say hello to her, okay?

Saying ”Thank you!” for something

megköszön – to thank — NOTE! Hungarian says I thank you (indirect object – dative case) something (accusative case) —- Köszönöm neked a virágot! – Thank you for the flowers!

Köszönöm! – Thank you.
Nagyon (szépen) köszönöm! – Thank you very much (indeed).
Ezer köszönet! – literal meaning: A thousand thanks!

Kösz! – Thanks! or you can say Köszi! as well.

Kösz(önöm) a segítséged! – Thank you for your help.

hála valaminek/valakinek – thanks to something/someone (needs dative case -nak, -nek)
Hála Istennek! – Thank god!
Hála a Péternek, itthon vagyok. – Thanks to Peter, I’m home. (maybe he took me home)

Remember!

Köszönöm a…+ Accusative case = Thank you for…
Hála valaminek/valakinek = Thanks to something/someone

Hi there, native English speakers!

This blog is about Hungarian language, my language. If I’m lucky and I can upload a pdf. file on this blog, you can download it for free and for personal use. The book I wrote about Hungarian grammar is for beginners. My goal was to give an idea what kind of language it is and an insight into more detailed grammar issues.

Best wishes

László