Tag Archives: magyar nyelvtan

Verbal Noun – Infinitive – Főnévi igenév

INFINITIVE

You already know how to form the infinitive of a Hungarian verb: menni, látni, fogni. Sometimes you need a link vowel, especially with verbs in two consonants: mondani, gyűjteni

Now we’ll deal with possibilities allowing us to use infinitive:

IMPERSONAL VERBS AND EXPRESSIONS

Impersonal verbs and expressions are to be followed by the infinitive of the main verb. Impersonal verbs are: kell, kellene, szabad, lehet. Impersonal expressions are:

könnyű – easy
nehéz – difficult
ideje, hogy – it’s time to
épp ideje, hogy – it’s high time to
jó / rossz, hogy – it’s good / wrong to
jobb / rosszabb, hogy – it’s better / worse to
tilos – it’s forbidden to
szégyen – it’s a shame
helyes – it’s right to
helytelen – it’s wrong to

Könnyű nyelveket tanulni. – It’s easy to learn languages.
Nehéz nyelveket tanulni. – It’s difficult to learn languages.
Ideje aludni. – It’s time to sleep.
Épp ideje elmenni. – It’s high time to leave.
Jó magyarnak lenni. – It’s good to be Hungarian.
Jobb gazdagnak lenni. – It’s better to be rich.
Tilos az állatokat etetni. – It’s forbidden to feed the animals.
Szégyen ilyen ruhában kimenni. – It’s a shame to go out in these clothes.
Helyes elítélni a bűnözőket. – It’s right to condemn criminals.
Helytelen elítélni az ártatlanokat. – It’s wrong to condemn the innocent.

SUBJECT

Futni egészséges. – To run is healthy.
Reggelizni nagyon fontos. – To have breakfast is very important.

VERBS REQUIRING THE INFINITIVE OF PRÓBÁL, MEGY, JÖN

Megpróbálom elkerülni, hogy találkozzak vele.
I’ll try to avoid meeting him.
Elmegyünk focizni. – We’re going play football.
Jöttök teniszezni? – Will you come play tennis?

Word Order – Verbal Prefix

VERBAL PREFIX

You already know this:

1. The verbal prefix precedes the verb and is written together with it in normal / general statements.

Felkelek. – I get up.
Megesszük a levest. – We eat up the soup.
Kitakarítják a szobát. – They tidy up the room.

2. The verbal prefix follows the verb and is written separately from it in imperative mood, negation.

Keljek fel? – Shall I get up?
Nem kelek fel? – I won’t get up.

Együk meg a levest! – Let’s eat up the soup.
Nem esszük meg a levest. – We won’t eat up the soup.

Takarítsák ki a szobát! – They’d better tidy up the room.
Nem takarítják ki a szobát! – They won’t tidy up the room.

3. The verbal prefix is written separately from the verb if a third word is inserted between them.

Fel akarok kelni. – I want to get up.
Meg kell ennünk a levest. – We must eat up the soup.
Ki tudják takarítani a szobát. – They can tidy up the room.

What you don’t know (yet) is that certain expressions require the verbal prefix to behave like in imperative mood and negation. These are expressions with contrasted / excluding / negative meaning. Examples:

alig, aligha, kevésbé, nem annyira, kevesen, nem sokan, nehezen, ritkán, csak, csupán, mindössze, kizárólag

Alig néztél bele a könyvbe. – You hardly looked into the book.
Nem annyira eszem meg a spenótot. – I don’t really like spinach.
Kevés nő mondja meg az életkorát. – Few women tell their age.
Nehezen írok le ilyesmit. – It’s difficult for me to write down such things.
Csak ketten jöttek el. – There were only two people.

WE’RE DONE WITH WORD ORDER. 🙂

Negation – Nem…Van or Nincs?

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NEM…VAN AND NINCS

Take a look at these sentences and you’ll see what I mean, but first a small summary:

nem…van/vannak = is/are not
>expressing existence

nincs/nincsenek = there is/are no, there isn’t/aren’t any
>expressing something, someone is not to be found somewhere

POSITIVE SENTENCES:
Az autó a garázsban van. – The car is in the garage.
Az autók a garázsban vannak. – The cars are in the garage.
A labda a strandon van. – The ball is on the beach.
A labdák a strandon vannak. – The balls are on the beach.

NEGATIVE SENTENCES WITH NINCS:
Az autó nincs a garázsban. – There’s no car in the garage.
Az autók nincsenek a garázsban. – There are no cars in the garage.
A labda nincs a strandon. – There’s no ball on the beach.
A labdák nincsenek a strandon. – There are no balls on the beach.

NEGATIVE SENTENCES WITH NEM…VAN:
Az autó nem a garázsban van. – The car is not in the garage.
Az autók nem a garázsban vannak. – The cars are not in the garage.
A labda nem a strandon van. – The ball is not on the beach.
A labdák nem a strandon vannak. – The balls are not on the beach.

See what I mean? And the positive sentences are no problem. A positive existence or whereabouts is simply expressed with van, vannak which, however, can be translated in English as: is, are / there is, there are.

SUMMARY:
van = is, there is
vannak = are, there are
nincs = there is no, there isn’t any
nincsenek = there are no, there aren’t any
nem…van = is not
nem…vannak = are not

This is a problem only in present tense. In any other tense and mood you use the same forms for both existence and wherebouts.

PAST:
volt, voltak = was, were / there was, there were
nem volt, nem voltak = wasn’t, weren’t / there was no, there were no

FUTURE:
lesz, lesznek = will be / there will be
nem lesz, nem lesznek = won’t be / there won’t be

CONDITIONAL:
volna, volnának = would be / there would be
lenne, lennének
nem volna, nem volnának = wouldn’t be / there wouldn’t be
nem lenne, nem lennének

IMPERATIVE:
legyen, legyenek = (let) be / (let) there be / (there) should be / had better be
ne legyen, ne legyenek = don’t be / (there) shouldn’t be / had better not be

A few examples for the sentences above in other tenses and moods:

Az autó a garázsban lesz.
The car will be in the garage.
Az autó nem lesz a garázsban.
The car won’t be in the garage.

A labda a strandon legyen.
The ball had better be on the beach.
A labda ne legyen a strandon.
The ball had better not be on the beach.

Negation – Ne / Se, Sem / Nehogy / Soha

NE

It’s a negative word for imperative mood. Equivalent: DON’T

Ne mondj ilyet! – Don’t say such things!

Ne hagyják a tárcájukat a kocsiban, uraim!
Don’t leave your wallets in your cars, gentlemen!

Ne velem üvölts, üvölts az anyáddal!
Don’t roar at me. Roar at your mother!

Double negation again:

Ne csinálj semmit! / Semmit ne csinálj!
Don’t do anything!

SE, SEM

Equivalent: NOR, NEITHER, EITHER

Én sem tudom. – I don’t know, either.
Még ők se értik! – Even they don’t get it!

Semmit sem láttunk a tömegtől.
We didn’t see anything because of the crowd.

Egy percig sem habozik. – She doesn’t hesitate for a moment.

If you want to say ’neither, either’, then ’sem, se’ stays a single negation. Another example:

A fene se tudja! – The hell knows! (literally: Not even the hell knows!)

NEHOGY, HOGY…NE

Equivalent: lest, so that…don’t. You see you have two possibilities in Hungarian. These words are used in sentences expressing a purpose!

Vigyél kabátot, nehogy megfázz!
Take your jacket lest you catch a cold.

Vigyél kabátot, hogy meg ne fázz!
Take your jacket so that you don’t catch a cold.

Watch how they’re used. ’Nehogy’ is followed by full phrasal verbs, the verbal prefix stays with its verb! However, ’hogy…ne’ makes phrasal verbs split apart and verbal prefixes to precede ’ne’!

Use whichever you want to. One is heard as often as the other.

SOHA

Equivalent: NEVER. Used with double negation only unless it forms its own sentence!

Soha nem bántottalak. – I’ve never hurt you.

Soha semmit nem mondasz nekem.
You never tell me anything.

-Hallottál valaha ilyenről? –Soha. >Soha is the sentence itself.
-Have you ever heard about such a thing? –Never.

Another possibility: soha nem = sohasem

Sohasem bántottalak. – I’ve never hurt you.

Negation – Nincs, Nincsen

NINCS

This negative word is used if something doesn’t exist or something is not to be found somewhere. It also has a plural form: nincsenek. Equivalent:

SING: nincs, nincsen = there is no / there isn’t any
PLUR: nincsenek = there are no / there aren’t any
POSSESSION: nincs, nincsenek = have no / don’t have any

For explanation, watch the examples:

Nincs/Nincsen házam.
I have no house. I don’t have a house.

A tárcám nincs a széken.
My wallet is not on the chair.

Nincsenek könyveink.
We have no books. We don’t have any books.

A fiúk nincsenek az osztályban.
The boys are not in the classroom.

Note that nincs, nincsenek are only irregular in present tense.

Present tense: nincs/nincsen, nincsenek
Past tense: nem volt, nem voltak
Future tense: nem lesz, nem lesznek
Conditional: nem volna/lenne, nem lett volna, nem volnának/lennének, nem lettek volna
Imperative: ne legyen / ne legyenek

Nem volt házam.
I had no house. I didn’t have a house.

A tárcám nem lesz a széken.
My wallet will not be on the chair.

Nem voltak könyveink.
We had no books. We didn’t have any books.

A fiúk nem lesznek az osztályban.
The boys won’t be in the classroom.

Double negation is possible with nincs, too:

Nincs egy vasam se. – I haven’t got a red cent. / I’m broke.

Sometimes you can use single negation with sincs which is a combination of se + nincs!

Fogalmam sincs. – I have no idea.

Még tiszta zoknim sincs!
I don’t even have a pair of clean socks!

Nincs also expresses the English NONE:

-Van kerti törpétek? –Nincsen.
-Do you have any garden gnomes? -No, we have none.

-Van kerti törpétek? –Egy sincs.
-Do you have any garden gnomes? -No, we have none.

egy sincs/egy sincsen = none, not a single one

Negation and Affirmation – Tagadás és igenlés

NO AND YES – NEM ÉS IGEN

English offers more possibilities depending on what you want your future wife to do: buzz off or stay with you!

-Honey, did you buy a ring for me?
–No, I didn’t. / Yes, I did.

-Honey, are you aware of my mom coming tonight?
–No, I’m not. / Yes, I am.

-Honey, have you picked up my mom yet?
-No, I haven’t. / Yes, I have.

I won’t write an example for all tenses. I guess you’ve got my point. Let’s just summarize the English yes/no answers, all right? Here’s a summary table:

YES > NO
am / are / is > am not / aren’t / isn’t
do / does / did > don’t / doesn’t / didn’t
have / has / had > haven’t / hasn’t / hadn’t
will / would > won’t / wouldn’t
can / could > can’t / couldn’t
may / might > may not / might not
should > shouldn’t
shall > shan’t

Hungarian yes and no is much simpler. You answer: yes or no :). As opposed to English, it is not impolite to answer yes or no. But if you want, you can add the verb (rarely used) or the verbal prefix (if there’s one), but only with yes answers!

yes = igen
no = nem

So the sentences about your wife in Hungarian:

-Drágám, vettél gyűrűt nekem?
-Nem, (nem vettem). / Igen, (vettem).

-Drágám, tudod, hogy anyám ma este jön?
-Nem, (nem tudom). / Igen, (tudom).

-Drágám, elhoztad anyámat?
-Nem, (nem hoztam el). / Igen, el.

About saying yes, it’s enough to know that much. About saying no, we have yet to learn a thing or two.

NEM

Unlike English, Hungarian makes a wide use of double negation! But first let’s see the use of nem!

It can deny a whole sentence:
Nem tudom, miért tette. – I see not why he did that.

It can deny a specific segment in a sentence:
Nem a fiú csókolta meg a lányt, hanem a lány a fiút.
Not the boy kissed the girl, but the girl kissed the boy.

’NEM’ PRECEDES THE WORD IT REFERS TO!

The above-mentioned negations are single negations. Double negation is when two words are used to express some kind of negation. Double negation in English would be:

I don’t have no money.

But this Hungarian method is grammatically correct and must be used with ’nothing’ = semmi. Think of the last English sentence with don’t…anything and there will be no problem.

Semmit nem tudok.
I know nothing.
I don’t know anything.

It’s all the same which solution you use. Again, topic-prominent aspect. You think ’semmit’ is more important? Then begin the sentence with it. It’s not that important? Don’t begin the sentence with it. Now let’s see more examples. Watch where nem is in the sentence and what it denies:

Nem vagyunk orvosok. – We aren’t doctors.
>Being a doctor is not our profession.

Nem orvosok vagyunk. – We are not doctors.
>We’re not doctors but lawyers, actors, politicians…

Nem látok a sötétben. – I can’t see in the dark.
Nem a sötétben látok. – It’s not in the dark where I can see.
(I can see in the light.)

Nem a fiú megcsókolta a lányt.
Not the boy kissed the girl.

Nem a lányt csókolta meg a fiú.
The boy didn’t kiss the girl (but someone else).
It’s not the girl (whom) the boy kissed.

Nem csókolta meg a lányt a fiú.
The boy didn’t kiss the girl (or anybody).

Nem ismerek senkit a teremben.
Senkit nem ismerek a teremben.
I don’t know anybody in the room.

Next time we’ll take a look at: NINCS

Word Order – Double Question

So this time it’s about DOUBLE QUESTION. At least in Hungarian. Take a look at this to understand what I mean:

Mit mondtál, hova megy?
Where did you say he’s going?

First let’s translate the Hungarian sentence literally:

What did you say, where is he going?

As you see there are two question words Mit? (What?) and Hova? (Where?), while the English sentence is satisfied with one question word Where?

That would be the rule: If you ask what a person said/heard… about a second person and you’re interested in what the second person does, you need two question words in Hungarian. The first question is usually: Mit? Hogy? Note that Mit? is accusative case.

More examples with literal translations:

Mit mondtak, mikor érkezünk meg?
When did they say we’ll arrive?
What did they say, when will we arrive?

Mit gondolsz, ki vagy te?
Who do you think you are?
What do you think, who are you?

Mit hallottál, hogyan halt meg a nő?
How did you hear the woman died?
What did you hear, how did the woman die?

Hogy mondtátok, mit követtem el?
What did you say I committed?
How/What did you say, what did I commit?

Mit hittél, honnan került elő?
Where did you think he came up from?
What did you believe, where did he come up from?

Mit mondott, milyen színű a ház?
What color did he say the house is?
What did he say, what color is the house?

Mit képzeltél, melyik felnőtt bárba engednek be?
Which adult bar did you think they’ll let you in?
What did you think, which adult bar will they let you in?

Mit láttak, kinek adta a tolvaj a szajrét?
Who did they see the thief gave the swag to?
What did they see, who did the thief give the swag?

Of course, a language always offers mor possibilities to express something in a different way. The sentences above can be said like this with no double question:

Mikorra mondták, hogy megérkezünk?
Kinek gondolod magad?
Hogy hallottad, hogy a nő meghalt?
Mit mondtatok, hogy elkövettem?
Honnan hitted, hogy előkerült?
Milyen színűnek mondta a házat?
Melyik felnőtt bárba képzelte, hogy beengedik?
Kinek láttad, hogy a tolvaj átadja a szajrét?

If you take my advice, you should use Kinek gondolod magad? without hesitation. However, even if the other sentences are valid, the ones with double questions sound more like Hungarian. Just like English sentences with one question sound more like English.

All right. The next topic will be NEGATION. See ya! 🙂

Word Order – with and without Question Words

QUESTION WITH A QUESTION WORD

If there is a question word, it’s easy to see we have to deal with a question :). You don’t even need to rise your voice. The word order doesn’t change.

–Mit főzöl? -Pörköltet (főzök).
–What are you cooking? -(I’m cooking) stew.

–Miért nem voltál a bulin? -Mert beteg voltam.
–Why weren’t you at the party? -Because I was ill.

Let’s see these sentences without question words:

-Főzöl? -Igen, (főzök).
-Are you cooking? -Yes, I am (cooking).

-Nem voltál a bulin? -Nem, (nem voltam).
-Weren’t you at the party? -No, I wasn’t.

As you see, all you have to do is to put the question word at the beginning of the sentence. Without a question word, it is a yes or no sentence.

If the question word is ’embedded’ in a sentence, English uses direct word order again! Hungarian doesn’t deal with this because there is no inversion for the sake of a question in the first place.

Hány embert láttál a bankban?
How many people did you see in the bank?

Mondd el, hány embert láttál a bankban!
Tell me how many people you saw in the bank.

Next time we’ll take a look at the question words for one more time and we learn how to form questions like these:

Where did you say he went?
Who do you think you are?

Why are these kind of questions worth of more explanation? You’ll see next time. Bye! 🙂

Word Order – Unalterable Rules

UNALTERABLE RULES

The definite/indefinite articles precede the noun:
a vaj – the butter
az iskola – the school
egy lány – a girl

The demonstrative pronouns ez, az are followed by the definite articles a, az in constructions like:
ez a ház – this house
az az ember – that man

Adverbs of manner usually precede the verb they refer to:
Vidáman futkos. – It’s running happily.
Kiválóan énekel. – She’s excellent at singing.
Literally: She sings excellently.

Adverbs of state/condition take a position at the beginning of the sentence:
Nyilván nem jön. – Obviously he won’t come.
Összességében jó gyerek. – All in all, he’s a good child.

The negative word nem precedes the word it refers to:
Nem tudom. – I don’t know
Ő nem a könyvet olvassa. – He’s not reading the book.

The conjunctions is, se follow the word they refer to:
én is/én se – me too/me neither

Accusative and dative pronouns follow the verb if unstressed:
Látom őt. – I see him.
Adok neki egy könyvet. – I give him a book.

Accusative and dative pronouns precede the verb if stressed:
Őt látom. – I see him (not them).
Neki adok egy könyvet. – I give him a book (not them).

Dative pronouns precede impersonal verbs and impersonal contructions (kell, szabad, könnyű, lehetetlen…), but are not mandatory to say:
(Nekem) fel kell kelnem. – I must get up.
(Neked) tilos oda menned. – You must not go over there.
(Nekik) könnyű hazudni. – It’s easy for them to lie.

Word Order – Rearranging

REARRANGING AND REARRANGING AND REARRANGING

Now let’s create a longer sentence with adverbs and things like that, and see how many ways there are to rearrange it in order to suit our need for emphasis. We won’t go through all possibilities. That’s impossible! English uses verbal stress on more important parts of the sentence or there’s another solution: it is…that… I also indicate the words of primary and secondary importance.

Az egér vidáman futkos a padláson egész nap.
The mouse is running happily on the loft all day.

Az egér a padláson futkos vidáman egész nap.
The mouse is running happily on the loft all day.

Az egér futkos a padláson vidáman egész nap.
The mouse is running happily on the loft all day.

Az egér egész nap a padláson futkos vidáman.
The mouse is running happily on the loft all day.

More rearranging:

Vidáman futkos az egér a padláson egész nap.
It is a happy way the mouse is running on the loft all day.

Egész nap vidáman futkos az egér a padláson.
It is all day that the mouse is running happily on the loft.

A padláson futkos vidáman az egér egész nap.
It is the loft where the mouse is running happily all day.

Futkos vidáman az egér a padláson egész nap.
It is running what the mouse is doing happily on the loft all day.

You see there’s actually not much you can mess up in a Hungarian sentence. If you put a word somewhere else, that alone doesn’t make the sentence unintelligible. However, that doesn’t mean there are no rules. So far we’ve been talking about the topic prominent point of view, not rules! And what are the rules? Basically, the same rules any other language has in a way or another.

These are rules you can’t change under any condition!

We’ll discuss them in the next entry. But now let’s see another sentence.

The boy is embracing the girl slowly.

A fiú lassan átkarolja a lányt.
A fiú átkarolja lassan a lányt.
A fiú átkarolja a lányt lassan.
A lányt átkarolja lassan a fiú.
A lányt lassan átkarolja  a fiú.
A lányt a fiú lassan átkarolja.
Lassan átkarolja a fiú a lányt.
Lassan karolja át a fiú a lányt!*
Lassan átkarolja a lányt a fiú.
Átkarolja a fiú lassan a lányt.
Átkarolja a lányt lassan a fiú.
Átkarolja lassan a fiú a lányt.
Átkarolja lassan a lányt a fiú.

These sentences are all possibilities for that one English sentence above. What you see in these sentences is NOT RULES. It is topic-prominent aspect meaning you choose how to speak. You think the verb is more important? Put the verb at the beginning of the sentence. You think the adverb lassan/slowly is not really important? Put it at the end of the sentence if you want.

As I said, English uses verbal emphasis or the construction: it is…that/who…

The sentence marked with an * is an exclamation, so the prefix of the phrasal verb goes after the verb.