Better Hungarian

Vous pouvez trouver la version française de cette leçon ici.

I’ll be going over adjectives in accusative in a separate post (here!), so that this doesn’t end up too horribly long.

As always, if you haven’t already, please take a look at Vowel Harmony and Vowel Lengthening first.

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If you’re familiar with romance languages, then you know how adjectives in those languages always have to match the noun in gender and number. However, in Hungarian, this very often isn’t the case! MOST of the time, you do not actually have to decline adjectives.

You ONLY decline adjectives when they are used predicatively. Predicatively, typically, means the adjective comes after the noun, as it is being used to describe a subject previously mentioned. The sentence structure “(noun) IS (adj)” is usually predicative.

For example: The cats are very cute (A macskák nagyon cukik)
-In this case the adjective is predicative (referring back to the cats), so “cuki” has to agree in number with “macskák”

If an adjective is used attributively, as a modifier (typically before the noun), then it is NOT declined, and stays in the singular.

For example: I see cute cats (Látok cuki macskákat)
-The adjective “cuki” does not have to agree in case or number to the noun in this case, because it is directly modifying the noun “macskák”.

So fortunately, you don’t always have to worry about declining the adjectives to match the nouns. Only when they are being used predicatively.

Now, let’s look at how to decline them:

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ADJECTIVES ENDING IN A VOWEL

Ending in -a / -e

Make sure to lengthen the vowel! (a – á / e – é) Then add -k¹.

¹-k essentially marks the plural in Hungarian, as it will always be present in plural nouns and adjectives. Not every word ending in -k will be a plural, but all plurals will end in -k.

barna – barnák (brown/brunette)

fekete – feketék (black)

Ending in -i / -ú / -ű¹

These take linking vowels -a (back vowel words) and -e (front-vowel words). Then you add -k. So it will look something like this:

• back-vowel word: -ak
• front-vowel word: -ek

hosszú – hosszúak (long)

egyszerű – egyszerűek (simple)

könnyű – könnyűek (easy)

minőségi – minőségiek (qualitative, quality)

¹There will be exceptions to these, but you will learn as you come across them.

Ending in -ó / -ő

For participles (this means a word formed from a verb – burned, visible, working, etc), they can either take the linking vowels -a/-e, OR they can be left out.

látható – láthatóak / láthatók (visible)

érthető – érthetőek / érthetők (available)

Other regular adjectives ending in -ó/-ő do NOT take a linking vowel. Simply add -k.

jó – jók (good/well)

apró – aprók (small/tiny)

olcsó – olcsók (cheap)

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ADJECTIVES ENDING IN A CONSONANT

These take linking vowels -a (back-vowel words) or -e (front-vowel words)

• back-vowel words: -ak
• front-vowel words: -ek

csinos – csinosak (pretty)

erős – erősek (strong)

érdemes – érdemesek (worthy)

türelmes – türelmesek (patient)

Exceptions

Some nouns take the linking vowel -o instead of -a/-e. Here are some examples:

nagy – nagyok (big)

gazdag – gazdagok (rich)

szabad – szabadok (free)

boldog – boldogok (happy)

más – mások (other, different)

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ADJECTIVES WITH -ATLAN / -ETLEN CONSTRUCTION

These adjectives decline as nouns, so they take linking vowels o/e/ö. Therefore:

• back-vowel words: -ok
• front-vowel words: -ek
• rounded front-vowel words: –ök¹

¹these technically don’t exist, as these types of adjectives will never have a rounded front vowel as their last vowel

egészségtelen – egészségtelenek (unhealthy)

boldogtalan – boldogtalanok (unhappy)

türelmetlen – türelmetlenek (impatient)

láthatatlan – láthatatlanok (invisible)

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ETHNONYMS

An ethnonym is a name applied to a given ethnic group. In Hungarian, ethnonyms are not capitalized.

Ethnonyms ending in -i

These decline as adjectives, so they take the linking vowels -a (back-vowel words) and -e (front-vowel words).

pesti – pestiek (from Budapest)

bécsi – bécsiek (Viennese – from Vienna)

amerikai – amerikaiak (American – from the USA)

All other Ethnonyms

These decline as nouns, so they take the linking vowels o/e/ö for back, front, and rounded front vowels respectively.

magyar – magyarok (Hungarian – from Hungary)

spanyol – spanyolok (Spanish – from Spain)

görög – görögök (Greek – from Greece)

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NOTE: Some adjectives will have stem changes (i.e. an accent or letter will be removed). Here are some examples:

nehéz – nehezek (difficult, heavy)

derék – derekak (brave, sturdy)

kevés – kevesek (few, little)

bátor – bátrak (brave, courageous)