Languages Around the World

A

In hungarian you usually leave out the indefinite article unless you're specifying. This is also the word for one and it is egy.

More Plurals

In hungarian the question word has to be pluralized if the subject is plural.

Who? Ki? Kik?
What? Mi? Mik?
this. these. ez. ezek.
that. those. az. azok.

What are those?
Mik azok?

Pronouns

I - én
you (familiar) - te
he/she/it - ő
you (formal) - ön
you (familiar-formal) - maga

we - mi
you (familiar) - ti
they = ők
you (formal) önök
you (familiar-formal) - maguk

Maga and Maguk are somewhere between ön/önök and te/ti and can be offensive if used incorrectly and it is safer to use ön and önök. Also the plural you's are conjugated for the 3rd, not 2nd person.

Be

Present tense of to be

vagyok
vagy
van

vagunk
vagytok
vannak

It is required to use this verb when you are modifying it with an adverb.

The knife is on the left.
Balra van kés.

The knife is ugly.
Kés csúnya.

Negation

While nem does mean no or not, to negate van you replace it with nincs or nincsen and you replace vannak with nincsenek.

There are no pillows here.
Itt nincsenek parnák.

Here is a pillow.
Itt parnák van.

The girl is not at home.
A lány nincs otthon.

The girl is home.
A lány otthon van.

Word Order

Word order can be quite tricky in hungarian. Usually hungarian is SVO but the so-called focus wordss disrupt this. A focus word can be negation, questions, answers to questionss and emphasized words. When there is a focus word it must precede the verb and the kicked out word must come immediately after the verb.

I am a teacher.
Tanár vagyok.

I am not a teacher.
Nem vagyok tanár.

We are there.
Ott vagyunk.

Are we there?
Vagyunk ott?

We am there.
Mi vagyunk ott.

It is us who's there.
Mi vagyunk ott.

In addition questions asking is/are there almost always start with the verb.

Is there an American boy?
Van itt amerikai fiú?

If it is a yes-no question otherwise it has the same word order as a normal sentence.

Are you fat?
Kövérek vagy?

To Be

There is a verb for to be but it is not used when describing people.

Who is that?
Ki az?
Who that?

She's a teacher too.
Ő is tanár.
She also teacher.

Pronouns

There is one word for both he and she and it is ő. The word for they is ők.

He is American.
Ő amerikai.

Who are they?
Kik ők?

Notice for plurals, everything pluralizes, including question words (see below).

But if the subject is already clear you can even leave out this.

This is the mother.
Is she a muscician?
Ez az anya.
Zenész?
This mother.
Musician?

Adjective Place Names

To say someone is from a certain place zou add an i to the end to form an adjective

Budapesten
budapesti

London dweller
Londoni

However if the word does not end in an i, like angol or finn or magyar it is considered a noun and pluraliyes differently (see below).

Vowel Harmony

Back Vowels: a á o ó u ú
Front Unrounded Vowels: e é i í
Front Rounded Vowels: ö ő ü ű

Words contain only front or back vowels. The front unrounded vowels are considered neuttral vowels. If a word has back and neutral vowels it is a back word and if it contains neutral and/or front rounded vowels it is a front word.

Because of this vowel harmony when adding word endings there are two possible endings depending on if it is a front or back word.

Noun Plurals

For plurals you have an ending on the noun, so there are 3 possible endings, one for each category - while usuallz there are only 2 endings sometimes there are 3.

Back: ok
front unrounded: ek
front rounded: ök

An important note is that choosing between ek and ök is based on the last vowel in the front word, not on the overall definition.

The first set of plurals are those ending in a vowel. If the last vowel is an a then it becomes ák and if it is e then it becomees ék. Otherwise just add a k.

student - students
egyetemista - egyetemisták

cup - cups
csésze - csészék

boat - boats
hajó - hajók

Otherwise you use the previously described word endings.

notebook - notebooks
füzet - füzetek

lawyers - lawyers
jogász - jogászok

acquaintence - acquaintences
ismerős - ismerősök

Adjective Plurals

If it ends in -a or -e then you lengthen it to á and é and add k

black
fekete
feketék

dear
drága
drágák

If it ends in i, ú, or ű then an ak or ek is added.

bostonian
bostoni
bostoniak

simple
egyszerű
egyszerűek

long
hosszú
hosszúak

Adjectives ending in ó or ő are unpredictable.

good
jó
jók

comprehensible
érthető
érthetőek or érthetők

Adjectives ending in consonants add ak or ek.

Position of Is

Is means too, also and it usually comes right after what is being referred to.