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Hungarian is an agglutinative language, which means that words are modified by adding suffixes. Most of the time, there will be 2-3 different forms a suffix can take, and this just depends on vowel harmony – i.e. whether the vowels in the word are back vowels, or front vowels.
We can divide vowels into 2 basic groups: back vowels, and front vowels. It’s essentially determined by the way you say the letters – whether they’re produced from the back of your throat or at the front of your mouth.
In addition, front vowels can be split up into two groups: un-rounded, and rounded. This makes a difference when you have a 3-fold suffix (a suffix with 3 different forms). One form will be for back vowel words, one for front vowel words, and the last one for rounded front vowel words.
Vowel Groups
- Back vowels: a, á, o, ó, u, ú, (i, í)1
- Front vowels (un-rounded): e, é
- Front vowels (rounded): ö, ő, ü, ű
1The vowels i / í do not determine whether a word is front or back vowel. If the word only contains these letters (such as the verb ír) then it is generally considered a back vowel word, but this is not always the case. In a word with i/í and another vowel, such as the verb segít, the í is ignored and only the e is used to determine whether it is a front or back vowel word.
In general, the last vowel in a word determines whether it is a front or back vowel word.
It might be a foreign concept at first if you’ve never encountered it, but you’ll find it starts coming naturally the more you practice!
I will be color-coding the vowels in this lesson to help you differentiate, but in future posts they will not be designated.
Examples
2-fold suffixes:
Dative: -nak / -nek
a gyerek – a gyereknek
the child – to/for the child
a diák – a diáknak
the student – to/for the student
a süti – a sütinek
the cake – to/for the cake
-Remember: don’t pay attention to i / í !
az erdő – az erdőnek
the forest – to/for the forest
-As there are only 2 forms for this suffix, rounded front vowels will take the same ending as un-rounded front vowels
3-fold suffixes:
Allative: -hoz / -hez / -höz
a busz – a buszhoz
the bus – toward the bus
a templom – a templomhoz
the church – toward the church
-Although this word has both a front and a back vowel, we determine based on the last vowel in the word!
a Jupiter – a Jupiterhez
Jupiter – toward Jupiter
a szék – a székhez
the chair – toward the chair
az erdő – az erdőhöz
the forest -> toward the forest
a repülő – a repülőhöz
the airplane -> toward the airplane
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