-ja or -juk

In the Duolingo lessons about possessives (skills Possess 1, Possess 2, To have 1, To have 2, Plural possessions, and Choices 5), you learn about the possessive suffixes. The forms are as follows:

	Hungarian	English
1SG	-öm, -em, -om, -m	my
2SG	-öd, -ed, -od, -d	your (sg.)
3SG	-je, -ja, -e, -a	his/her/its
1PL	-ünk, -unk, -nk	our
2PL	-(ö)tök, -(e)tek, -(o)tok	your (pl.)
3PL	-jük, -juk, -ük, -uk	their

Sometimes the j sound is not needed, like asztala, asztaluk, but it is not what I'm talking about today. But rather the 3rd person plural. It behaves strangely.

The Tips & Notes say:
Exceptions
As usual, there are a few exceptions to the general rule. When the possessor is third person plural, the forms change in one of two ways. First, when the possessor is a pronoun, ők ‘they’, the pronoun loses its -k. (This only happens with ők, all other pronouns stay intact.)

• az ő cipőjük ‘their shoe’

• az ő asztaluk ‘their table’

So it looks like a singular possessor, but is still plural. Second, when the possessor is a noun in the plural, like a lányok, the possessed noun loses its plural ending -(j)uk or -(j)ük

• a lányok cipője ‘the girls' shoe’

• a lányok asztala ‘the girls' table'

How does it work in general?

First, we have to make a distinction. Do we have a Possessive sentence, like The boy's dog is black. A fiú kutyája fekete.

or a to have sentence: The boy has a dog. A fiúnak van egy kutyája.

So, in total:

	Possessive sentence	To have sentence
they	-juk	-juk
	az ő kutyájuk	(nekik) van egy kutyájuk
	their dog	they have a dog
plural noun	-ja	-juk*
	a fiúk kutyája, a fiúknak a kutyája	a fiúknak van egy kutyájuk
	the boys' dog	the boys have a dog
önök, maguk	-ja	-juk*
	az önök kutyája	önöknek van egy kutyájuk
	your dog	you have a dog
not named	-juk	-juk
	a kutyájuk	van egy kutyájuk
	(their/your) dog	(they/you) have a dog

Starred ones:

Here you saw that TO HAVE sentences use -juk. Well... it is not that simple. It is a topic people argue about. Several native Hungarians use -ja in to have sentences, in those cases where you would use -ja in the possessive sentences. For me, the -ja version sounds more natural.

Duolingo sentences usually use -juk in these cases. But both versions are accepted.

Links (in Hungarian)

http://www.e-nyelv.hu/2010-09-15/birtokos-szemelyjelek-egyeztetese-2/

http://www.e-nyelv.hu/2017-03-21/birtokos-szemelyjelek-egyeztetese-9/

https://www.nyest.hu/hirek/a-valtozasoknak-is-van-elonye

http://seas3.elte.hu/delg/publications/modern_talking/112.html

A similar logic can be used, when the possessed thing is also plural:

	Possessive sentence	To have sentence
they	-ik	-ik
	az ő kutyáik	(nekik) vannak kutyáik
	their dogs	they have dogs
plural noun	-i	-ik*
	a fiúk kutyái, a fiúknak a kutyái	a fiúknak vannak kutyáik
	the boys' dogs	the boys have dogs
önök, maguk	-i	-ik*
	az önök kutyái	önöknek vannak kutyáik
	your dogs	you have dogs
not named	-ik	-ik
	a kutyáik	vannak kutyáik
	(their/your) dogs	(they/you) have dogs

See also this blog post:    Possessive suffixes