Geography

[This is taken from the Duolingo Hungarian Tips and Notes, Geography skill]

Németországban, Magyarországon

In Germany is Németországban, but in Hungary is Magyarországon. But why do they have different endings?

Most towns in Hungary take surface suffixes (-n,-on -en -ön ), while the majority of places outside of Hungary use inside suffixes (-ban, -ben ):

• Szegedre - Szegeden - Szegedről: to, in, from Szeged

• Bécsbe - Bécsben - Bécsből: to, in, from Vienna

• Magyarországra - Magyarországon - Magyarországról: to, in, from Hungary

• Svédországba - Svédországban - Svédországból: to, in, from Sweden

Exception to these rules are Hungarian towns that end with : -i, -j, -m, -n, -ny, and -r (unless it is in -vár ... ) ! These take the inside suffixes: Tamásiból, Tokajban, Veszprémben, Debrecenből, Tihanyba, Egerben.

Takes the -ban-ben case	Takes the -on -en -ön case
Countries:	Countries:
Most foreign countries	Magyarország
(a few islands)	most islands
Japánban, Kubában	Izlandon, Máltán, Korzikán, Krétán, Madagaszkáron
-	ending with -föld
-	Thaiföldön
Cities/Towns:	Cities/Towns:
Cities outside Hungary	Most Hungarian towns
Londonban, Berlinben	Budapesten, Szegeden
Hungarian cities ending -i, -j, -m, -n, and -ny	In neighboring countries, towns with Hungarian names
Debrecenben, Veszprémben	Kassán, Aradon (but: Bécsben)

See also this link: Myhunlang blog: Suffixes / Adverbs of Place

Irregular towns

In the case of Pécs and a few other towns there's a third, archaic, suffix in use: Pécsett, Győrött. But Duo also accepts the regular forms: Pécsen, Győrben.

  Nowadays, more and more people use the Pécsen, Győrben forms and the  -ett -ött ending is falling out of use, but they are technically correct...

Articles

Names of rivers, lakes, islands, hills, mountains, roads, streets, squares, buildings, and institutes tend to have a definite article, even if it's not used in the English translation.

A Margitsziget
A Parlament
A Budai Vár
A Kékestető
A Duna
A Tisza
A Balaton

A Margitszigetre megyek. - I am going to Margaret Island.

A Duna mellett sétálunk. - We are walking next to the Danube.

City and town names are used without an article.

Budapesten lakom. - I live in Budapest