Грамматика венгерского языка

Grammar of the Hungarian language

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 is a highly agglutinative language which 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 (that is, what aspect is assumed to be known and what is emphasized).

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.

The tables below contain some Hungarian variations of the sentence János tegnap elvitt két könyvet Péternek. ("John took two books to Peter yesterday.") Besides the verb, the sentence contains four other elements: János ("John"), Péternek ("to Peter"), két könyvet ("two books") and tegnap ("yesterday"). TopicsFocusVerbThe restSpecial meaningJánostegnap∅elvittkét könyvet Péternek. Two books were taken by John to Peter yesterday. (It was successfully completed, and there is no special emphasis. )Jánostegnapkét könyvetvitt elPéternek. It was two books that John took to Peter yesterday. (As far as John and yesterday are concerned, it was exactly two books that he took to Peter. )János∅tegnapvitt elkét könyvet Péternek. It was yesterday that John took two books to Peter. (John took Peter two books sometime, but it was done specifically yesterday. )∅∅Jánosvitt eltegnap két könyvet Péternek. It was John who took two books to Peter.∅∅Péternekvitt eltegnap János két könyvet. It was to Peter whom John took two books to yesterday. JánostegnapPéternekvitt elkét könyvet. John took two books yesterday specifically to Peter, not to anybody else.∅∅∅ElvittJános tegnap két könyvet Péternek. Two books were taken by John to Peter yesterday. (The action was completed, and the books are at Peter's place now. Emphasis on the action. )Két könyvettegnap∅elvittJános Péternek. Two books were indeed taken by John to Peter. (Perhaps something else was brought to him, as well. However, the two books may not be the most important thing; for example, John may have left Peter's documents at home. )∅∅Két könyvetvitt elJános tegnap Péternek. John took two books and nothing else to Peter yesterday. 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 (vitt el is used instead of elvitt). 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 ("Eve likes [the] flowers"), 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:
SentenceInterpretationÉva szereti a virágokat. Eve likes flowers. Szereti Éva a virágokat. Eve likes flowers (despite what someone thinks). Éva szereti a virágokat. Eve likes flowers (and not someone else).Éva a virágokat szereti. Eve likes flowers (and not something else). A virágokat Éva szereti. It is Eve who likes flowers (and not someone else although something else may be liked by someone else). A virágokat szereti Éva. It is flowers that Eve likes (and not something else).

Hungarian is an agglutinative language. Most grammatical information is given through suffixes: "on the table" = asztalon (space relation), "at 5 o'clock" = öt órakor (time relation). There is also one grammatical prefix (leg for superlatives).

In Hungarian, the endings are common mostly for endings of pronouns with suffixes and postpositions, possessive endings of nouns and endings of verbs. (The accusative of pronouns is also given for comparison, but it is less regular.) PronounCase/postposition stem NounVerbTypical elementNominativeAccusative+ personal suffix+ personal suffix+ possessive suffixIndefinite presentDefinite present"I" etc."me"etc. "by/at me" etc. "under me" etc. "my flat /apartment" etc. "I see" etc. "I see it" etc.énengemnálamalattamlakásomlátoklátom m with link vowel o/( a)/ e/ ö or a/ etetégednáladalattadlakásodlátszlátod d with link vowel o/( a)/ e/ ö or a/ eőőtnálaalattalakásalátlátja a/ emiminketnálunkalattunklakásunklátunklátjuk nk with link vowel u/ ütititeketnálatokalattatoklakásotokláttoklátjátok tok/ tek/ tökőkőketnálukalattuklakásuklátnaklátják k "You" (formal) (When to use which form:
"Maga" when a higher ranking person speaks to a lower ranking person with formality. (ex. : boss to employee)

"Ön" when a lower ranking person speaks to a higher ranking person with formality. (ex. : employee to boss)

When speaking to the elderly the "Ön form" is used, as the "Maga form" can have pejorative undertones. )Ön,Maga ÖntMagát ÖnnélMagánál Ön alattMaga alatt az Ön lakásaa Maga lakása Ön látMaga lát Ön látjaMaga látja ( a/ e)Önök,Maguk ÖnöketMagukat ÖnöknélMaguknál Önök alattMaguk alatt az Önök lakásaa Maguk lakása Önök látnakMaguk látnak Önök látjákMaguk látják ( k)

See Hungarian noun phrase.

As well as the noun suffixes, which are often equivalent to English prepositions, Hungarian also has 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 (see above).

Some postpositions may also precede the noun, thus functioning as prepositions: át (over/across), keresztül (through), együtt (together with), szemben (opposite), túl (beyond), e. g. át a folyón or a folyón át ("across the river").

Adjectives are unmarked for case. Attributive adjectives are unmarked for number but predicative adjectives are marked: piros almák ("red apples") but Az almák pirosak. ("The apples [are] red. ").

In Hungarian adverbs can be used predicatively with van ("is"): Korán van. ("It's early.") Nyitva van. ("It's open.")

Some degree adverbs are formed from adjectives. The suffixes are the same ones that are usually used on nouns:
on/ en/ ön/ n, e. g. nagyon ("very")
vá/ vé, e. g. kissé ("somewhat, to some extent"), eléggé ("quite, fairly")

Verbs are negated with nem except in the subjunctive, when ne is used. Double or multiple negative is mandatory with negative pronouns (like nobody, nothing, never, nowhere).

Ki? is the basic question word for a person ("who? "), and mi? is the basic question word for a thing ("what?"). If it is meaningful, they can take the full range of case and noun suffixes: kit?, miben?, miképp? mi + ért ("for the purpose of") gives the question word miért? ("why?"). Milyen? is used to ask for a description and can be used either to ask about a whole noun phrase (Milyen a tanárod? "What is your teacher like?") or as a determiner (Milyen lakást akarsz? "What kind of flat do you want?"). There is no case suffix lyan/ lyen, but that ending still occurs in ilyen ("this kind of"), olyan ("that kind of"), valamilyen ("some kind of") and semmilyen ("no kind of"). The strict three way distinction in direction that occurs in the positional suffixes also occurs in the question words: hol? ("where? "), hova? /hová? ("where to?") and honnan? ("where from?"). Hány? is used to ask questions about numbers ("how many? "), and mennyi? is used to ask about quantities ("how much?"). 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?

Tag questions are made by adding ugye to the beginning or end of a statement: Elment, ugye? or Ugye elment? ("He has left, hasn't he?"). The latter form more strongly suggests a positive answer.

Subordinate clauses are often used with an antecedent in the main clause, e. g. Kabátot hozott, mert fázott. /Azért hozott kabátot, mert fázott. ("She fetched a coat because she was cold [not for some other reason].) Relative clauses usually have an explicit antecedent in the main clause, e. g. Attól félek/tartok, (hogy) nem mehetek el. ("I'm afraid [of the fact that] I can't go.")