[#DuolingoForumGems originally posted on 2021-09-23 on the Duolingo Hungarian for English speakers forum by peter.kristof.hu ] 

Hungarian word order reloaded

If you want to master the Hungarian word order, which is considered an intricate part of grammar, you must first understand the word order of the neutral sentence*. A sentence without focus is considered a neutral sentence. It is also characterized by stress and intonation. The diagram below shows the intonation of positive and negative neutral sentences. The word with the primary stress in the sentence is marked in bold.

János elutazott Párizsba. -- János travelled to Paris.
János nem utazott el Párizsba -- János did not travel to Paris.

The central part of the Hungarian sentences is the conjugated verb. In the following, I highlight four positions in the analysis of sentences. The most important of these is the verb and the focus.

The focus is known to be the emphatic element of a sentence. It is a piece of new information. The focus position is immediately before the verb, and this is where the verb modifiers or the focus itself is located. If a focus exists in the sentence, it displaces the verb modifiers from the focus position to the postverbal area. The verb and the negative ("nem, ne") are considered as one semantic unit.

It is important to understand the concept of the verb modifiers. It consists of preverb and bare nominals. Preverbs are a familiar concept. Bare nominals cover a wide range of word types. It can be a noun or an adjective with or without a suffix, a noun or adjective with the copula "van", or an infinitive. The following examples illustrate these:

Vendég jött. -- A guest has come.
Imre könyvet olvas. -- Imre is reading a book.
Imre moziba ment. -- Imre went to the movie.
Imrét orvosnak vélték. -- Imre was thought to be a doctor.
Imre pirosra festette a kerítést. -- Imre painted the fence red.
Imre orvos lesz. -- Imre is going to be a doctor.
Imre gazdag lesz. -- Imre will be rich.
Imre úszni akar. -- Imre wants to swim.

1 Neutral sentences

1.1 Declarative sentences without verb modifiers

• Positive sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
		Villámlik.
It		is	lightning.
Minden gyerek		szereti	a fagylaltot.
Every child		likes	ice cream.
Kati már tíz éve		tanul	kitartóan a Duolingon.
Kati		has	been studying persistently at Duoling for ten years.
		Van	pénzem.
I		have	money.

• Negative sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
		Nem villámlik.
It		is not	lightning.
Néhány gyerek		nem szereti	a fagylaltot.
Some children		do not	like ice cream.
Kati		nem beszél	kínaiul.
Kati		does not	speak Chinese.
		Nincs	pénzem.
I		do not	have money.

1.2 Declarative sentences with preverbs

• Positive sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
	Be-	jött	egy macska.
A cat		has	come in.
A macska	be-	jött	a szobába.
The cat		came	into the room.
A sakkfigurák közül	el-	veszett	a bástya.
The castle		has	disappeared among the chess pieces.

• Negative sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
A macska		nem jött	be a szobába.
The cat		did not	come into the room.
Reggel a tanulók		nem mennek	el az iskolába.
In the morning the students		do not	go to school.

1.3 Declarative sentences with bare nominals before the verb

• Positive sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
Reggel a tanulók	iskolába	mennek.
In the morning the students		go	to school.
	Levelet	ír.
She		is	writing a letter.
Marianna	lekvárt	főzött.
Marianna		made	the marmalade.

• Negative sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
Reggel a tanulók		nem mennek.	iskolába
In the morning the students		do not	go to school.
		Nem ír.	levelet.
She		is not	writing a letter.
Marianna		nem főzött.	lekvárt.
Marianna		did not	make the marmalade.

1.4 Declarative sentences with "van"

• Positive sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
Minden ember	halandó	Ø.
All humans		are	mortal.
Péter	álmos	volt.
Péter		was	sleepy.
Péter	álmos	Ø.
Péter		is	sleepy.
Péter	álmos	lesz.
Péter		will	be sleepy.

• Negative sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
Péter		nem volt	álmos.
Péter		was not	sleepy.
Péter		nem Ø	álmos.
Péter		is not	sleepy.
Péter		nem lesz	álmos.
Péter		will not	be sleepy.

1.5 Declarative sentences with the auxiliary verb "fog"

• Positive sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
Holnap sokfelé		fog	esni.
Tomorrow it		will	rain in many places.
Reggel a tanulók	el	fognak	menni az iskolába.
Students		will	go to school in the morning.
Reggel a tanulók	iskolába	fognak	menni.
Students		will	go to school in the morning.

• Negative sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
Holnap néhány megyében		nem fog	esni.
It		won’t	rain in some counties tomorrow.
Reggel a tanulók		nem fognak	elmenni az iskolába.
Students		will not	go to school in the morning.

1.6 Declarative sentences with modal auxiliary verbs (e.g. "akar")

• Positive sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
Reggel a tanulók	el	akarnak	menni iskolába.
Students		want	to go to school in the morning.
Reggel a tanulók	iskolába	akarnak menni.
Students		want	to go to school in the morning.

• Negative sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
A emberek		nem akarnak	pihenni.
People		don't	want to relax.
Reggel a tanulók		nem akarnak	elmenni az iskolába.
Students		don't	want to go to school in the morning.
Reggel a tanulók		nem akarnak	iskolába menni.
Students		don't	want to go to school in the morning.

2 Emphatic sentences

2.1 Declarative sentences

Positive sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
	A macska	jött	be a szobába.
The cat		came	into the room.
A tanulók	reggel	mennek	iskolába.
It is morning when the students		go	to school.
	A bástya	veszett	el a sakkfigurák közül.
It's the castle that		has	disappeared among the chess pieces.
	Londonban	élünk.
We		live	in London.
	Marianna	főzött	lekvárt.
Marianna		made	the marmalade.
Csak az	ember	Ø	halandó.
Only humans		are	mortal.
	Holnap	fog	esni sokfelé.
It’s tomorrow when it		rains	in many places.
A emberek	vasárnap	akarnak	pihenni.
It's Sunday when people		want	to relax.

Negative sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
	Nem a macska	jött	be a szobába.
It's not the cat that		came	into the room.
	Nem Londonban	élünk.
We		don't	live in London.
	Nem Marianna	főzött	lekvárt.
It's not Marianna who		made	the marmalade.

2.2 Interrogative sentences

	Focus pos.	Verb
	Honnan	indul	a busz?
Where		does	the bus leave from?
	Vonattal	utazol?
		Do	you travel by train?
	Miért	olvastad	a Hamletet?
Why		did	you read Hamlet?
Miért	a Hamletet	olvastad?
Why was Hamlet what you	read?

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Grammatical explanation

A sentence can be divided into two major parts, the topic and comment. The topic is a known piece of information that is being talked about, and the comment is what is being said about the topic.

The central part of the comment and the whole sentence is the conjugated verb. The focus is part of the comment and immediately precedes the verb. As for the order after the verb, here the word order is an arbitrary, mostly stylistic question.

Topic	Comment

Topic	Focus pos.	Verb	Others

In Hungarian, the focus is often marked by morphological (by verb modifiers), but sometimes only prosodic (by stress) means. Often, whether it is a topic or a focus can only be decided by emphasis. The focus semantically conveys new information that cannot be inferred or predicted from the previous discourse. It is a choice and emphasis among the relevant possibilities. For instance:

Kati jövő héten Görögországba megy nyaralni.
(Kati is going on holiday to Greece next week.)
Kati had the following options:
{Horvátország, Olaszország, Görögország, Egyiptom}
Kati's choice was "Görögország".

or

Kati jövő héten megy Görögországba nyaralni.
(Kati is going on holiday to Greece next week.)
There was the following options:
{május, július, jövő hét, két hét múlva}
She chose "jövő hét".

In the focus position, there can be an arbitrary phrase (this is actually the focus) or a verb modifier. If a focus exists in the sentence, it displaces other elements out of this position.

The difference between sentences with similar word order can be understood by asking a question. It creates a context for the sentence. For example:

What happened?

Topic	Focus pos.	Verb	Others
		Bejött	a macska a szobába.

What came into the room?

Topic	Focus pos.	Verb	Others
	A macska	jött	be a szobába.

Where did the cat come in?

Topic	Focus pos.	Verb	Others
	A szobába	jött	be a macska.

It can be translated from Hungarian into English either by emphasizing the focus or by a cleft sentence, among others.

See my previous post on this: Hungarian in focus -- Word order