In Hungarian grammar, the unmarked order of elements in the noun phrase is determiner, adjective, noun.
Grammatical marking Grammatical gender Hungarian does not have grammatical gender and uses a single third‑person singular pronoun ("he, she, it") which does not distinguish gender or animacy; this uniformity extends to verb conjugation and related forms.
Grammatical distinction between animate and inanimate things The kinds of grammatical distinctions present between animate and inanimate things are corresponding to English's, although it appears different because, contrary to Hungarian, in English the distinction can only be explicit. In addition, just like English, a definite article may refer to an inanimate object rather than to a sentient being.
However, there are some more drastic differences regarding the Hungarian language: The words "this", and "that" ("", and "") are often used to refer to people instead of "she", and "he" ("") "" is often used to refer to inanimate objects People are often referred to by putting the definitive article "", or "" right before their names For example, in English, it would be similar to saying "I told you that the John is absent"
Plurality Generally speaking, Hungarian words can either be singular or plural. Unlike in the English language, there are no countable or uncountable plural cases. However, in Hungarian there are possessed and not possessed plural cases. Since the possessor may also be plural, the plural case is marked with either or both of two possible marks: k i Neither i, nor k marks are the complete mark itself, but the main part of the mark. Every other vowel, or consonant around these are procedural The presence of such additional consonant, or vowel are pronounced in its entirety, and either has, or has nothing to do to the meaning
The k mark k mark is for nouns, verbs, and adjectives Adjectives are in case that they are used predicatively (see adjective marking) There are many verb exceptions (some example are -ik verbs, and certain indefinite conjugations) So very basically k mark is used to mark for verbs: the number of actors for both nouns, and adjectives the plurality of things the plurality of a single thing's possessors the plurality of multiple things' possessors
k mark is also used specifically for proper nouns specifically with vowel "é" right before it, and that means a group of people related to that proper name. It is possible... ...to refer to a family using the family name itself, or a family member's name ...to refer to a team using a member's name from the team ...to refer to a faction using one of its member's name etc... For example "Boldizsáréknál ma lecsó volt vacsorára" means "Boldizsár's family (, or team) had ratatouille for dinner today (, or they had it in his house, or at his place)"
The i mark Contrary to English, Hungarian language tells the kind of plural case apart when multiple objects are possessed by something using i instead of k mark
For example, in Hungarian language... ...in case of "dogs" the k mark is used ...in case "his dogs" the i mark is used So very basically a noun's, or an adjective's count is marked with the i mark, but only when it is possessed by something This renders the k mark in the same noun, or adjective to mark the count of its possessors if the possessor is plural Note that verbs can not be possessed so the i mark is not for verbs For verbs there is going to be ni suffix (no longer a mark) which is going to cast the verb into a special type of verb that can be used in place of a noun, although its plurality must be singular implicitly, but maybe infinitive verbs can be considered as the "possessed" verbs in Hungarian language Verbs used as nouns specifically with the s verb mark (or according to some "-ás", "-és" verb suffixes) can be possessed, and marked with the i mark when such nouns are plural
Plural mark generally For both marks a different vowel may be present right before it Even in case of the i mark: it makes the i often pronounced as "yee" or "" despite letter j is not written
In case the addition of a new vowel would result in way too many vowels in the same place, the words last vowel (last by that time) is changed instead of a new vowel added In case the root word only consists of two vowels, no vowel is taken away, or changed, except "é" is added between i, and the last vowel Hungarian people often refers to Europe as "Eu" , or the female Greek name "Io" are susceptible to such pronunciation Which vowel to put before either of the two marks is based on vowel harmony, that is demonstrated with underlines in the next examples
The addition, or change of a vowel is necessary when i mark is used, but conventional to the usage of the k mark
In case of i: the i part of the word is emphasized with an additional vowel right before the i because it changes its meaning. i alone at the end of a noun, or even at the end of an adjective would mean "from there", "at there" rather than the thing was possessed, and plural For example, root word "" (meaning "corner") with i: "" means "polar", or "from the pole", or "at the corner" (also - "polar" not so much, but the others) "" means "her, his, its corners" (also - it is less common) note that "" logically also means "from her, his, its corners", but it is uncommon to be meant that way because that meaning is rather expressed explicitly Also note that from the word the vowel is even missing before the i mark, although means "her, his, its corner" singular Consonant clutters that are easy to pronounce (e.g.: "rk" ) are often more advantageous to pronounce compared to them with a vowel between generally speaking in Hungarian language, although , and are intelligible, and even used often
In case of k: the additional vowel conventionally makes the word easier to be pronounced, and it does not create ambiguity For example + k = Unlike i, k may even change the last vowel when it would not result in ambiguity, for example: "tree" is "", and "trees" are "" in Hungarian language
Before specifically the k mark often n is put instead of a vowel, in which case meaning is changed For example + nk = Although in this case k is still plurality marker, but it marks the possessor's plurality It is worth mentioning that in this case written n right before k is pronounced Before k mark t may be present with a vowel between t, and k without the root word ending with t by default For example + t(right after the root, and then) + k = In this case k is still plurality marker, but it marks the possessor's plurality again Also when... ...t appears after k ...or t appears without k ...or two ts appear before, and after k ...the t after means accusative case (see also Accusative case) For example, to the question: - the answers may be: + t = - The hammer + k + t = - The hammers + t + k + t = - Your hammer + i + t + k + t = - Your hammers Note that t is underlined on the verb because it is the mark of past tense, not accusative case
More examples: For example, root word "" (meaning "dog") with i: "" means "from the dog", or "at the dog" "" means "its dogs" (or notably yet uncommonly "from its dogs") "" just means "dogs" There are cases when ambiguity is not avoided for example to the word "" (meaning "cutter") with i: "" means both "from cutter", and "its cutters" Although it does not mean "from its cutters" because that would be "" "" just means "cutters"
Summary for everything above: in English: dog -> dogs -> her dogs, his dogs, its dogs in Hungarian: -> -> , ,
Both plural marks So things that are possessed, and there are multiple of contain the i mark, but when the possessor is plural too both i, and k marks are used.
A single dog is owned by multiple people (using only k):
Multiple dogs are owned by multiple people (using both i, and k):
Note that before the other kind of i mark was mentioned (with meaning "from", or "at the"). That mark comes after k in case any, or both plurality markers are used. It is possible to talk about abstract placement of things generally using the other kind of i marker For example: "A napjainki hírességek már nem annyira szépek" - "Famous people of these days are no longer as beautiful" literally told as: "Famous people of our days are no longer as beautiful"
Hungarian language makes difference between "you" singular, and "you" plural for all of the related words' cases, cases of "you", and even for the word "you" itself (which are "" in singular, and "" in plural forms)
For singular case of "you" the above example is as follows: A single dog is owned by a single person (using no k, no i):
Multiple dogs are owned by a single person (using only i):
Notice that there is no k mark at all because "you" in this case is singular
For the sake of completeness here are the remaining "dog cases": A single dog is owned by a single person (using no k, no i):
Multiple dogs are owned by a single person (using only i):
Usage of plural marks Hungarian uses the plural form sparsely for nouns, i.e. only if quantity is not otherwise marked. Therefore, the plural is not used with numerals or quantity expressions. For example "" means "boys" " " (without "k") means "five boys", but told as "five boy" also " " (without "k") means "many boys", but told as "many boy", or "much boy" because in Hungarian there is no difference between countable, and uncountable plural cases
Unlike in English in phrases that refer to existence/availability of entities, rather than their quantity, the singular is used in Hungarian: " " means "there are chairs in the room", but told as "there is chair in the room" " " means "there are no chairs in the room" told as "there is no chair in the room" The singular may be considered as partitive here Also, product names, things' type's, and kind's are usually written singular, e.g. "" meaning "lamps" (as a kind of product), or exactly "kind of lamp", but written, and meant as "lamp"
Hungarian also often uses a singular noun when the possessor is plural but the thing possessed would be plural too, e.g. "" means "our heads", but told as "our head". Since it is impossible for multiple people to possess the same head, it is immediately clear that it can not mean "our single head", and in case of other contexts with other words in which case the meaning is not clear: it is possible to say explicitly "" that is exactly translated to "our heads" Even in the "our heads"'s case it is ambiguous in both English, and Hungarian languages whether it refers to a group of people with each person possessing multiple heads, or a single head
The word "both" Contrary to English, in Hungarian language there is no word for "both". Instead the word is used before the number of things that are plural (but not plural grammatically as it was mentioned right above) For example: , or , or This allows Hungarian language to say any number of "pairs", not only "pairs" of two For example: would mean "troth" maybe, but it can surely be translated to "all three" Although it is worth mentioning that the word for is without "k", and it means a pair of two specifically
Pairs of items Hungarian language never refers to boots as "boots", but always just "boot". The "boots" translation in Hungarian used to refer to multiple "boot" types, or to multiple "boot" pairs "", and "" are translated to "boots", and "multiple boots"
There are exceptions for example "" meaning "twins", and other things that can be used, or interacted with separately, or things that are less related to one another, yet pairs.
Things that are not functional without its counterparts are never in plural case.
Pairs of body parts