[#DuolingoForumGems originally posted on 2021-12-03 on the Duolingo Hungarian for English speakers forum by peter.kristof.hu ]
Expression of possession in Hungarian
Learners may encounter many obstacles in learning the Hungarian language. I have found that possessive constructions are one of the most challenging grammatical areas for Hungarian learners. Therefore, as a help, I will try to give an overview of it. I won't describe the complex system of possessive endings here. I will merely explain the different possessive constructions and their use with examples. Please see Hungarian possessive suffixes or other sources for the several forms of possessive endings.
In Hungarian, possession can be expressed in the following way:
(1) The possessive personal markers
| A tanuló könyve / A tanulónak a könyve | The student's book. |
(2) The possessive sentence
| A tanulónak van egy könyve. | The student has a book. |
(3) The possession marker
| A könyv a tanulóé | The book belongs to the student |
1. Expressing possession by possessive personal markers
The possessor can be a personal pronoun or a nominal, usually a noun. the possessed can be a nominal.
1.1. The possessor in the nominative case
| A tanuló könyve | The student's book |
The suffix of the possessed noun denotes the possessive relationship. It is the so-called possessive personal marker, which indicates the person and number of the possessor (könyvem, könyved, könyve etc). The suffix "i"' can be appended as a plural possessive marker. It denotes the plural of the possessed noun (könyveim, könyveid, könyvei etc). If the possessor is a personal pronoun, it must always have a definite article. The possessed nominal, which is in most cases a noun, usually has no article.
The possessor and possessed agree in person and number, with two exceptions. For example, for "az én könyvem", the possessor "én" is in 1st person singular, and the ending of the possessed noun "em" also indicates the 1st person singular. In most cases, the personal pronoun can be omitted, because the possessed noun's ending indicates the person and number of the possessor.
The table below shows the inflection of "a tanuló könyve" in all persons.
| Possessor | Possessed |
|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| az én | könyvem | könyveim |
| a te | könyved | könyveid |
| az ő a tanuló | könyve | könyvei |
| a mi | könyvünk | könyveink |
| a ti | könyvetek | könyveitek |
| az ő a tanulók | könyvük könyve | könyveik könyvei |
In English:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| my | book | books |
| your | book | books |
| his/her the student's | book | books |
| our | book | books |
| your | book | books |
| their the students' | book | books |
As I mentioned, the personal pronouns may be omitted unless it is emphatic or we want to avoid ambiguities when using formal addresses (ön, önök, maga, maguk). The word order is strictly possessor-possessed, although an adjective or numeral may be included between the two (a tanuló új könyve, a tanuló két könyve, a tanuló összes könyve).
In the case of plural possessors, we can find two irregular forms where there is no agreement in number between the possessor and the possessed:
(1) In the case of a nominal possessor with the 3rd person plural, the possessed nouns are given the same suffixes as the singular ones (a tanulók könyve/könyvei). However, if the possessor has been previously named and referred to (e.g. in a next sentence), the regular form should be used:
| János és Erzsi Budán laknak. Házuk egy csendes kis utcában áll. | János and Erzsi live in Buda. Their house is in a quiet little street. |
In contrast:
| János és Erzsi háza egy csendes kis utcában áll. | The house of János and Erzsi stands in a quiet little street |
(2) For multiple possession, a pronoun possessor is in the singular ("ő"), not in the plural ("ők").
In summary:
| Possessor | Possessed |
|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| az ő (sg) | könyve | könyvei |
| a tanulók (pl) | könyve | könyvei |
| a tanulók |
| Possessor | Possessed |
|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| az ő (pl) | könyvük | könyveik |
| könyvük | könyveik |
1.2. The possessor in the dative case
| A tanulónak a könyve. | The student's book. |
This dative form can be used wherever the nominal possessor can be used, the two grammatical phrases are equivalent, but the dative form has a wider use. It should be mentioned that there are also "(én)nekem a könyvem, (te)neked a könyved, (ö)neki a könyve" etc. forms (instead, az én könyvem, etc.), but these are less used, therefore, I will only describe the 3rd person nominal forms.
| Possessor | Possessed |
|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| a tanulónak | a könyve | könyvei |
| the student's | book | books |
| a tanulóknak | a könyve | könyvei |
| the students' | book | books |
The possessed nominal is usually preceded by an article or other determinant. For 3rd person plural possessors, the situation is the same as in 1.1. part, as you can see, in the table above for "a tanulónak a könyve", there is no number agreement. However, if the possessor is a 3rd person plural noun, it takes the regular ending in some cases. I will describe it in detail in the next section.
The possessor and the possessed can be separated, and their order can be reversed:
| A szándéka változott meg Péternek. | It is Peter's intention that changed. |
We can express multiple possession:
| A tanuló könyvének a címe. | The title of the student's book. |
This structure is used for the possessive sentences, in which case the verb "van" and other components can be included in the sentences.
| A tanulónak a könyve -> A tanulónak van (egy) könyve. | The student's book -> The student has a book. |
2. The possessive sentence
| A tanulónak van (egy) könyve. | The student has a book. |
The word "van" has mainly two meanings: existence and possession. The infinitive is "lenni". Its conjugation in the present tense is as follows: én vagyok, te vagy, ő van, mi vagyunk, ti vagytok, ők vannak. The English equivalent is "to be". The forms of the 3rd person are "van/vannak". They negative forms are "nincs/nincsenek".
Existence
In this sense, the conjugated forms of the verb "lenni" make a compound predicate with a nominal (which in some cases to be omitted). This verb is often referred to as a copula.Possession The other use of "van" is to express possession. There is no specific verb to possess in Hungarian than in Indo-European languages, such as "to have" in English.
The verb "van" expresses possession with a dative nominal (with the -nak/-nek ending). Personal pronouns are also used in the dative case. You may understand, for example, that "nekem van" means approximately "there is that for me". (Other verbs expressing possession: bír, birtokol, rendelkezik.)
Then possessive sentences look like this:
| Possessor | Possessed |
|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nekem | van könyvem | vannak könyveim |
| I have | a book | books |
| neked | van könyved | vannak könyveid |
| you have | a book | books |
| neki a tanulónak | van könyve | vannak könyvei |
| he/she/ student has | a book | books |
| nekünk | van könyvünk | vannak könyveink |
| we have | a book | books |
| nektek | van könyvetek | vannak könyveitek |
| you have | a book | books |
| nekik a tanulóknak | van könyvük van könyvük/(könyve) | vannak könyveik vannak könyveik/(könyvei) |
| they /students have | a book | books |
The "énnekem, teneked, etc." variants are also used.
You can see that the verb takes two forms, in the third person singular and plural ( "van" and "vannak"). Also, the negative forms of "van/vannak" are "nincs/nincsenek", e.g.: "Nekem nincs könyvem".
The previous irregularities also occur here. For the 3rd person plural possessor, both endings are acceptable if it is a noun. Recently the tendency is that there is no agreement between possessors and possessed objects, especially if the two components are close to each other.
The possessed noun takes the regular ending in the following cases, that is, the possessor and possessed agree in number:
- The possessed noun is given special emphasis:
| A lányoknak a születésnapjuk volt tegnap, nem a névnapjuk. | The girls had a birthday yesterday, not their name day. |
- Other components are placed between the possessor and the possessed:
| A szomszédoknak Balaton van nyaralójuk. | Neighbors have a holiday home on Lake Balaton. |
| Péter és Anna csak öt éve házasok, de már van két gyerekük. | Peter and Anna have only been married for five years, but they already have two children. |
3. Expressing possession by the possession marker -é
| A könyv a tanulóé. | The book belongs to the student. |
| A tanulóé. | The student's one. |
There is little mention of this grammatical structure in textbooks. Indeed, it is a difficult part of Hungarian grammar. It's just a taste of it.
Here, the possessor's ending "-é" denotes the possessive relationship. The "i" suffix is the plural marker that refers to the plural possessed. The possessed must be a definite, known object. Often the possessor is used on its own, and may refer to a previously occurring possessed word.
The possessive pronouns also evolved from the personal pronouns with the "-é" ending. You can see the possessive pronouns here.
| Possessor | Possessed |
|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Sg | A tanulóé. | A tanulóéi. |
| The student's one. | The student's ones. | |
| Pl | A tanulóké. | A tanulókéi. |
| The students' one. | The students' ones. |
An example in a sentence:
A felnőtt társadalom a saját érdekeit sok esetben a gyerekekéi elé helyezi.
Adult society often puts its interests before those of its children.
The form of "gyerekeké" is also acceptable.
4. Summary
A comparison of the different forms looks like this:
| A tanuló(nak a) könyve. | The student's book. |
| A tanuló(nak az) új könyve. | The student's new book. |
| A tanuló(nak a) két könyve. | The student's two books. |
| A tanuló(nak az) összes könyve. | All the books of the student. |
| A tanuló(nak a) könyve az asztalon van. | The student's book on the table. |
| A tanulónak az asztalon van a könyve. | The student's book on the table. |
| A könyve van az asztalon a tanulónak. | It's the student’s book that is on the table. |
| A tanulónak van könyve. | The student has a book. |
| A tanulónak nincs könyve. | The student doesn't have a book. |
| A tanulónak van egy könyve. | The student has a book. |
| Van legalább tíz könyve a tanulónak. | The student has at least ten books. |
| A könyv a tanulóé Ø. | The book belongs to the student. |
| A könyv a tanulóé volt. | The book belonged to the student. |
| A kutyák szaglása sokkal jobb, mint az embereké. | Dogs have a much better sense of smell than humans. |
| Kié ez a könyv? - A tanulóé. | Whose is this book? - It's the student's book. |
(The hidden "van/vannak" is denoted with "Ø".)
I note that in addition to these, there are other forms of expression of possession.
Source:
http://real.mtak.hu/74807/1/016-024.pdf and other articles.
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Thanks for this post. I did not know about that -é form....very interesting. You mentioned that there are other forms of expression of possession besides these ones. What would those be? By the way, the most difficult part of possession so far for me has been to remember when to use the third person singular for third person plural possession.
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95% of cases, the "one -k rule" will help: if you have plural indication ("-k") on the possessor, you will not have it on the possessee and vice versa (in the case of ő(k)).
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Indeed, from a formal point of view:
a tanulók könyve/könyvei
az ő könyvük/könyveik
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Of course, I could not aim for completeness. There are a few implicit possessive structures mentioned in the referenced source, but these are often cannot be perceived as possessive, which are phrases with derived suffixes:
piros tetős ház = red-roofed house
kék szemű lány = blue-eyed girl
elnöki beszéd = presidential speech
hajléktalan ember = homeless man
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