[#DuolingoForumGems originally posted on 2020-04-11 on the Duolingo Hungarian for English speakers forum by jzsuzsi ]
Words always or never in focus
In this forum, we often repeat this advice: "in a sentence, put the focus right before the conjugated verb." The focus is usually the emphasized part of the sentence.
Ok, you might ask, but how should I know what is in the focus?
Let us introduce our little helper here: a verb with a prefix (for example bemegy, kimegy, megeszik). A verb with prefix works as a litmus paper in the following sentences, if the focus is right before the verb, the prefix is separated.
Kati megy be a házba. Focus: Kati. It is Kati who goes into the house.
While, if the word before the verb is not in the focus, the prefix is usually not separated.*
Kati bemegy a házba. Kati goes into the house. (neutral)
[*Exceptions! the prefix can be separated sometimes.... Kati megy be a házba. Ketten jönnek le a hegyről.... in this case, the sentence shows some kind of continuousness. Éppen mentem be a házba, amikor megcsörrent a telefon. I was going into the house, when the phone rang. ]
In the following, I copy a part from Practical Hungarian Grammar by Szita & Görbe, page 270.
WORDS ALWAYS IN FOCUS
These words are always in focus, immediately preceding the conjugated verb. The verb prefix separates.
negative words and phrases:
nem (not), sem (not either), nem a...
Nem jött el a randevúra. She did not come to the date. (1)
Nem a baba ette meg a pürét, hanem az apja. It was not the baby who ate the puree, but his father. (2)
footnote 1: there are exceptions to the nem + preverb rule, see my preverbs post
footnote 2: this is important in nem-hanem sentences, see my nem-hanem post
Many words with negative meaning:
alig (barely) ritkán (rarely) későn (late) rosszul (badly) feleslegesen (unnecessarily) nehezen (with difficulty) unalmasan (in a boring way) kevés (little, a few) ...
Zsófi ritkán meséli el, mi történt az óvodában. Zsófi rarely tells about what happens in kindergarten.
Későn feküdtünk le. We went to bed late.
Ritkán megyek étterembe. I rarely go to a restaurant.
Question words:
mi (what) ki (who) mikor (when) ...
Ki megy be a házba? Who goes into the house?
WORDS NEVER IN FOCUS
In these sentences, these words also precede the conjugated verb but they never receive emphasis. If the verb has a prefix, it does not separate.
Words expressing totality:
mindig (always) mindenki (everyone) nagyon (very) teljesen (totally) maximálisan (to the maximum) állandóan (constantly )...
Péter mindig megeszi a levest. Péter always eats the soup.
Mindenki bemegy a házba. Everyone goes into the house.
Nagyon meglepődtem. I got very surprised.
Words expressing frequency:
gyakran (often), rendszeresen (regularly), általában (generally), néha (sometimes)
Évi általában elmeséli, mi történt az óvodában. Évi generally tells about what happens in kindergarten.
Words expressing likeliness:
biztosan (surely), valószínűleg (likely), talán (perhaps)...
Talán megtudom az igazságot. Perhaps I will find out the truth.
Valószínűleg tudok segiteni. I can probably help.
Words beginning with vala-:
valahol (somewhere), valaki (someone), valamikor (sometime)
Valaki behozta az újságot. Someone brought in the newspaper.
Relative pronouns:
aki (who), ami (what), ahol, ahová (where)
Itt jön az orvos, aki megoperálta apát. Here comes the doctor who did father's surgery.
Tetszett a koncert, amit ajánlottál. I liked the concert that you had recommended.
The word is (too, also) if it is not referring to the verb.
Anitával is megismerkedtem. I also met Anita.
A bárban is megismerkedtem valakivel. I met someone in the bar, too.
Kati is bemegy a házba. Kati also goes into the house.
related sentence discussions
words never in focus (mindenki, sentence discussions):
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/29924594 = https://archive.ph/BCb59
( https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/30020600 = https://archive.ph/d4bIb )
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one more comment by jzsuzsi:
nouns with no article
Here, I should be more careful in wording... I would say, nouns without article often like to be placed before the verb. It is not a 100% sure rule, I will not say they are always in focus. It is more like a rule of thumb.
Autók jönnek ki az erdőből. (Cars are coming out of the forest.) This is fine.
*Autók kijönnek az erdőből. Nope, this sounds unnatural in Hungarian.
Az autók kijönnek az erdőből. This is fine again, but I added a definite article.
Az erkélyen emberek állnak. (This sounds better than "Emberek az erkélyen állnak.")
We went into a long explanation here: "Szép, fehér madarak repülnek át a tengeren." https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/20660206 = https://archive.ph/e7d0y
Note: proper nouns don't count. Proper nouns like Kati, Péter, Budapest, Magyarország are definite by themselves, so they can live happily while not being in focus. Kati bemegy a házba. (Kati goes into the house.) Magyarország belépett az Európai Unióba. (Hungary joined the EU.)
This discussion also deals with the lack of article and word order. Apa emailt ír. Kati fogat mos. Péter magas lányokat lát.
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/30460433 = https://archive.ph/zw2vH
So, article vs no article can affect the word order.
We ran into this when we wanted to add some food related sentences.
Kávét iszom. I am drinking coffee.
Teát iszom. I am drinking tea.
Eszem egy almát. I am eating an apple.
Látom a házat. I see the house.
So, with no article, object verb is more natural. But with article, verb object is more natural.
Egy almát eszem. A házat látom. These are possible, but "A házat látom." is more like "It is the house that I see."
Iszom kávét. Sounds weird. But it can be used in special, (forced) situations.
Te sosem iszol kávét, ugye?
De igen. Iszom kávét.
You never drink coffee, right?
On the contrary, I do drink coffee.
Sometimes, it is because of a phrasal noun+verbs phrase like "fogat mos"
See also MrtonPolgr's comment here:
https://magyarbagoly.blogspot.com/2022/02/neutral-word-order.html
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