Preverbs

I would like to write about preverbs. We call them preverbs on Duolingo, but they have many names: verbal prefixes, verbal modifiers or coverbs (igekötő in Hungarian).

Think about phrasal verbs in English: give up, look after, run into, hang out... Their meanings are not strictly related to the root verb. This happens in Hungarian as well.

The main questions are:

1. The meaning

2. Telicity, Perfective aspect

3. Word order

4. When to pick a verb with preverb, and when a verb without preverb.

MEANING

Since German uses verb prefixes similarly to Hungarian, I add German translations too.

Hu	En	Ger
be	in	ein
ki	out	aus
fel	up	auf
le	down	unter
el	away, mis...	weg, ver...
át	through, over	durch, um
vissza	back	zurück
ide	here	her
oda	there	hin
meg	?	?

There are cases when the meaning is straightforward

Hu	En	Ger
bemegy	go in, enter	eingehen
kimegy	go out, exit	ausgehen
leül	sit down	sich setzen
feláll	stand up	aufstehen

And sometimes the meaning is not trivial

Hu	En	Ger
elalszik	fall asleep	einschlafen
fellép	step up / perform	auftreten
berúg	get drunk	betrinken
kirúg	fire (an employee)	entlassen, feuern

TELICITY

What does this word even mean? Wikipedia says "In linguistics, telicity (from the Greek τέλος, meaning "end" or "goal") is the property of a verb or verb phrase that presents an action or event as being complete in some sense. "

Here are some good posts: https://magyarbagoly.blogspot.com/2022/02/telicity.html

sentence discussions:
"Ez a ruha nem volt tiszta, kimostam." 
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/22337186 = https://archive.ph/7WRSA

elmennek a .... be 
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/17984850 = https://archive.ph/64Q97

Hova futsz el.... 
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/16753966  https://archive.ph/JwQL9

Compare these:

Eszem az almát. I am eating the apple.

Megeszem az almát. I am eating the whole apple.

Olvasom a könyvet. I am reading the book.

Elolvasom/ Kiolvasom a könyvet. I am reading the whole book.

Megyek a parkba. I am going to the park. (I am on my way)

Elmegyek a parkba. I am going to the park. (I will go all the way there)

MEG does not have a meaning on its own, so it is usually used to show this kind of completeness. EL sometimes shows telicity. And some other preverbs can be used like this as well...

WORD ORDER

As usual, everything depends on the emphasis.

• If you have a verb without a prefix, the word before it or the verb itself is in the focus.

Kati megy a parkba. It is Kati who goes to the park.

Kati megy a parkba. Kati is going to the park.

• Verb+preverb in one piece. The preverb gets the emphasis. Or, the preverb takes away the emphasis from the main verb and we have a pretty neutral sentence.

Kati elmegy a parkba. Kati is going to the park. (neutral)

Nem bemegyek, hanem kimegyek. I am not going in, but going out. (The preverbs got the emphasis, because of the contrast)

• Verb+preverb broken up. The word before the verb is in the focus.

Kati megy el a parkba. It is Kati who goes to the park.

For example, in questions, the question word should be in the focus, so Who enters the house? is Ki megy be a házba?

NEGATION: if a preverb and "nem" meet, they fight for the place in front of the verb. Usually, "nem" wins.

Positive sentence: Felmegyek a hegyre.

Negated: nem megyek fel. This is the default order for verb with preverb + nem. It can be different if something is emphasized.

Normal: Én nem megyek fel a hegyre.

Contrast with something: Én nem felmegyek a hegyre, hanem lejövök róla. I am not going up the mountain, but coming down.

Extra emotion: Én fel nem megyek a hegyre! / Én a hegyre fel nem megyek! (No way, I am not going up to the mountain! )

WITH OR WITHOUT PREVERB?

I would suggest, if you have Subject, Verb, Location, include a preverb (if it makes sense in the sentence)

Kati elmegy a parkba. Kati is going to the park. (as said earlier, it is a pretty neutral word order)

if you have Subject, Location, Verb, you can drop the preverb.

Kati a parkba megy. Kati is going to the park. (park is in the focus here. )

So these two versions are my 2 favourites. But what about the other two versions?

Kati megy a parkba. This emphasises either Kati or megy.

Kati a parkba elmegy. Feels like too much.

(These other two are also grammatically correct, sure, just not my favourites. )

https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/25450864 =  https://archive.ph/mvvZI

Note: A székre ülök. I am sitting down on the chair.

Some people might say: "Sitting down? You wrote ülök, not leülök in the sentence, where is the down? " Answer: it is there, in the re in székre. (A széken ülök. would be I am sitting on the chair. )

In a Hungarian sentence, the case ending is the real boss. It shows whether we have position or movement. The preverb is just a helper. It is sometimes there, sometimes not.

Some more posts: https://myhunlang.com/tag/igekoto/

http://www.hungarianreference.com/Verbs/verbal-prefixes-coverb-coverbs-meg-el-ki-le-be-fel.aspx

http://www.hungarianreference.com/Verbs/splitting-of-coverbs-verbal-prefixes-meg-el-ki-le-be-fel.aspx

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So, when should we separate the verb prefix? I noticed, a lot of people here already know that it is separated in negations and with question words. (most of the time)

Bemegyek a házba.

negative: Nem megyek be a házba. I do not go into the house.

question word: Ki megy be a házba? Who is going into the house?

There are other cases too: Pay attention to no article vs definite article.

Autók jönnek ki az erdőből.
Az autók kijönnek az erdőből.

Emberek futnak ki a házból.
Az emberek kifutnak a házból.

If there is no article, separating creates the more natural word order, if there is a definite article, keeping it in one piece is more natural. See here:
"Szép, fehér madarak repülnek át a tengeren." https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/20660206 = https://archive.ph/e7d0y

Contrast: because contrast can force something into the focus. A férfi a mosdóba fut be, nem pedig a fürdőszobába.

At the end of the day, all of the above are just special cases of the focus being right before the verb.


Oh, and also imperative: Menj be a házba! Go into the house!

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With vehicles: like in English, we travel on a bus or train, but in a car.

Bus, Train, Tram

Felszállok a buszra (vonatra). I get on the bus (train).

Átszállok az egyik buszról a másikra. I change buses.

Leszállok a buszról. I get off the bus.

Car

Beszállok / beülök az autóba. I get into the car.

Átszállok/ átülök az egyik autóból a másikba. I change cars.

Kiszállok az autóból. I get out of the car.

German uses einsteigen, umsteigen, aussteigen, and that works for cars, buses, tram and trains, even planes.

https://archive.ph/e2P53