Note: This post has been updated with audio clips of the example sentences spoken by a native speaker. We are currently working on updating all posts with audio examples, but this will take some time.

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Don’t let all the different endings worry you, there’s a very simple rule for which one to use!

Today we’ll be talking about the accusative case in Hungarian. If you’ve studied other languages with cases, then you’ve probably come across the accusative before. In German the cases are marked by the article before the noun, and depending on the gender of the noun, the article can have several different forms. In Hungarian, which is an agglutinative language, the cases are put on the end of words; which variation of a suffix to put is determined by vowel harmony.

Go ahead and read up on Vowel Harmony and Vowel Lengthening so you’ll know which case endings to apply.

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FORMING THE ACCUSATIVE CASE

Words ending in vowels

For words ending in vowels, you simply add “t” to the end.

Remember vowel lengthening as well! If the word ends in a or e, then they will be lengthened to á and é respectively.

Words ending in consonants

back-vowel words: –ot  (sometimes –at¹)
front-vowel words: –et
rounded front-vowel words: –öt

Exceptions: words ending in s, l, r, n, ny, j, ly – simply add “t” to the end, no linking vowel needed.

¹“a” as a linking vowel: this is the same thing I mentioned previously in the post on plurals and possession. While most back-vowel nouns take “o” as a linking vowel, some of them take “a”, and there are no clear-cut rules on how to determine which ones. The best thing I can suggest is to memorise the words that take linking vowel “a” as you come across them.

NOTE: When you have a back-vowel word with a possessive marker in the accusative, then the accusative suffix will always be -at. For example, ‘virág’ (flower) in normal accusative would be ‘virágot’, but if the word is possessive (ex: ‘virágom’ – my flower), then the accusative version will be ‘virágomat‘ (NOT ‘virágomot’). I’m not sure of the exact ‘rule’ for this. Front-vowel words are not included in this (they will take the regular endings regardless).

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Examples

a macska – a macskát (the cat)

a medve – a medvét (the bear)

az ablak – az ablakot  (the window)

a szék – a széket (the chair)

az ördög – az ördögöt (the devil)

a lakás – a lakást (the flat/apartment)

There are, of course, some irregularities/exceptions, but those you will learn with time and practice.

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Stem Changes

There are some nouns (and adjectives) which change their stem in the accusative, typically by removing a letter or accent. If a word changes its stem in accusative, then it very likely changes its stem in the plural and possessive cases too. You can go on wiktionary and look at the charts for a word if you need to doublecheck.

It might not apply 100% of the time, but typically if the word is more than 1 syllable and ends in -or/-er, then the o/e will be removed and -ot/-at/-et will be added.

eper – epret (strawberry)

bátor – bátrat (brave)

gyomor – gyomrot (stomach)

I don’t know if there are any other rules for it, but this is just what I’ve noticed in my experience.

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USES OF THE ACCUSATIVE

Accusative marks the direct object in a sentence. That’s the object (or person) that something is being done TO.

Szeretem a munkámat (I like my job – a munkám)

Megütöttem a fiút (I hit the boy – a fiú)

Dédelgetem ezt a sárkányt  (I pet this dragon – ez a sárkány)

Látom az ördögöt (I see the devil – az ördög)

Eszem a sütit (I eat the cake – a süti)

Nézem a virágot (I look at the flower – a virág)

As you can hopefully see, it’s quite simple, as long as you have an understanding of what a direct object is and how it functions.

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PERSONAL PRONOUNS IN ACCUSATIVE CASE

Pronoun	Accusative Pronoun
én	engem
mi	minket
te	téged
ti	titeket
ő	őt
ők	őket
Ön	Önt
Önök	Önöket
maga	magát
maguk	magukat

The pronouns are used in the same way as regular nouns.

Ő megrúgott engem! (He kicked me!)

Szeretem őt. (I love xem)

Látom őket. (I see them)

If it helps to remember, compare them to the way we change English pronouns when they’re the direct object.

I → me                           we → us

he/she → him/her      they → them

(“you” has no change in English of course)

See, English isn’t necessarily so different! In the same way we wouldn’t say “I see SHE”, but “I see HER”, in Hungarian you’d say “Látom őt”, and not “Látom ő”.

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DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS IN ACCUSATIVE CASE

Pronoun	Accusative Pronoun
ez (this)	ezt
ezek (these)	ezeket
az (that)	azt
azok (those)	azokat

These work the same way as the nouns and personal pronouns.

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There is one aspect of Hungarian that should be briefly explained. Even when the verb is not present, you still apply the cases to the nouns regardless. This is not just for accusative, but for any case where the verb is left out and implied.

-Mit keresel? (What are you looking for?)

-Egy sütit. (A cake)

-Ezt a sütit? (This cake?)

-Nem, azt a sütit. (No, that cake)

Even when the verb “keres (to look for/search)” is left out, we still apply the accusative case to the noun (süti) that the verb affects.