Possessive suffixes

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

Possessive suffixes

In many languages, you use possessive adjectives to express who a certain object belongs to :

• my table or her shoe

Hungarian does not have possessive adjectives like my or her instead possessive suffixes. They are similar to possessive adjectives in that they indicate the person and number of the possessor but they are attached to the noun:

• az asztalom ‘my table’

• a cipője ‘her/his shoe’

The forms are as follows:

	Hungarian	English
1SG	-öm, -om, -m	my
2SG	-öd, -ed, -od, -d	your (sg.)
3SG	-je, -ja, -a	his/her/its
1PL	-ünk, -unk, -nk	our
2PL	-(ö)tök, -(e)tek, -(o)tok	your (pl.)
3PL	-jük, -juk, -uk	their

They require vowel harmony so if a noun ends in a vowel... cipő ‘shoe’ has front vowels and ends in a vowel, so its forms are:

	Hungarian	English
1SG	cipő-m	my shoe
2SG	cipő-d	your (sg.) shoe
3SG	cipő-je	her/his shoe
1PL	cipő-nk	our shoe
2PL	cipő-tök	your (pl.) shoe
3PL	cipő-jük	their shoe

asztal ‘table' has back vowels and ends in a consonant, so its forms are:

	Hungarian	English
1SG	asztal-om	my table
2SG	asztal-od	your (sg.) table
3SG	asztal-a	her/his table
1PL	asztal-unk	our table
2PL	asztal-otok	your (pl.) table
3PL	asztaluk	their table

Possessors

Hungarian has two ways of expressing the possessor of something, like the two English constructions a friend's book and a book of a friend.

Possessors can be in the nominative case, e.g. a lány, or dative, e.g. a lánynak:

• a lány cipője ‘the girl's shoe’
• a lánynak a cipője ‘the girl's shoe’

The constructions can mean the same, but they differ in some ways. The dative (a lánynak) is followed by a ‘the’ , and you have to use the dative in questions with whose:

• Ez kinek a cipője? ‘Whose shoe is this?’

whose in this sentence is ki-nek, the dative of ki ‘who’.

Exceptions

As usual, there are exceptions to the rule.
When the possessor is third person plural, the forms can change in one of two ways. 
First, when the possessor is a pronoun, ők ‘they’, the pronoun loses its -k. (This only happens with ők, all other pronouns stay intact.)

• az ő cipőjük ‘their shoe’
• az ő asztaluk ‘their table’

So it looks like a singular possessor, but it is still plural.
Second, when the possessor is a noun in the plural, like a lányok, the possessed noun loses its plural ending -(j)uk or -(j)ük:

• a lányok cipője ‘the girls' shoe’
• a lányok asztala ‘the girls' table'

See also this blog post:    -ja or -juk

mine, yours, ...

Hungarian also has possessive pronouns corresponding to mine, yours, etc. They always include the definite article a/az and are formed as follows:

	Hungarian	English
1SG	az enyém	mine
2SG	a tiéd or a tied	yours (sg.)
3SG	az övé	hers/his
1PL	a miénk	ours
2PL	a tiétek	yours (pl.)
3PL	az övék	theirs

You can use these forms in sentences like:

Ez a cipő az enyém. ‘This shoe is mine.’

Dropping a vowel

Some words drop the last vowel in the plural /in the accusative case / in possessive forms. We can call this a "fleeting vowel".

For example:

étterem - restaurant

éttermek - restaurants

éttermet - restaurant (accusative)

étterme - his/her restaurant

éttermem - my restaurant

Here we show the accusative singular and the 3rd person singular possessive forms, the other possessive forms follow the pattern.

English	HU nominative	accusative	3SG possessive
restaurant	étterem	éttermet	étterme
room, hall	terem	termet	terme
strawberry	eper	epret	epre
mirror	tükör	tükröt	tükre
statue	szobor	szobrot	szobra
monkey	majom	majmot	majma
tail	farok	farkat	farka
bush	bokor	bokrot	bokra
dream	álom	álmot	álma
(lion) cub	kölyök	kölyköt	kölyke

Long forms + this that

As we saw earlier, usually we can choose between a short form and a long form to show possession:

the boy's dog = a fiú kutyája / a fiúnak a kutyája

the girl's cat = a lány macskája / a lánynak a macskája

However, if you use the possessor with this/that, you have to use the longer form (with the -nak-nek ending)

this boy's dog = ennek a fiúnak a kutyája

that boy's dog = annak a fiúnak a kutyája

this girl's cat = ennek a lánynak a macskája

that girl's cat = annak a lánynak a macskája

If the possessor is plural:

these boys' dog = ezeknek a fiúknak a kutyája

those girls' cat = azoknak a lányoknak a macskája

Note:

the long form is also used if you have a chain of possessives, for example

"my friend's daughter's shoe"  = A barátnőm lányának a cipője

see:  https://duolingo.hobune.stream/comment/30370593

The plural of possessed nouns

You've already learned quite a bit about possession in Hungarian. You might have noticed, however, that the examples so far were missing something, namely
plurals of possessed nouns.

While usually plurals of nouns are indicated by the suffix -k (with a vowel preceding it), when we're dealing with a possessed noun, like his bosses, the plural is formed in a different way, with -i. So:

• Péter főnöke ‘Péter's boss’
• Péter főnökei ‘Péter's bosses‘

The great thing about this suffix is that there's no vowel harmony. It's simply -i and remains -i. Thus:

• Éva asztala ‘Éva's table’
• Éva asztalai ‘Éva's tables’

Let's look at the plural forms of the words cipő and asztal that we discussed in the Tips and Notes of "Ownership". Cipő ‘shoe’ has front vowels and ends in a vowel, so its possessed forms are:

	Hungarian	English
1SG	cipő-im	my shoes
2SG	cipő-id	your (sg.) shoes
3SG	cipő-i	her/his shoes
1PL	cipő-ink	our shoes
2PL	cipő-itek	your (pl.) shoes
3PL	cipő-ik	their shoes

asztal ‘table' has back vowels and ends in a consonant, so its possessed forms are:

	Hungarian	English
1SG	asztal-aim	my tables
2SG	asztal-aid	your (sg.) tables
3SG	asztal-ai	her/his tables
1PL	asztal-aink	our tables
2PL	asztal-aitok	your (pl.) tables
3PL	asztal-aik	their tables

Ő, Ők

Be careful, ők gets shortened to ő in some possessive structures, and only the possessive ending shows the possessor:

az ő széke - his/her chair

az ő székük - their chair

az ő székei - his/her chairs

az ő székeik - their chairs

az ő háza - his/her house

az ő házuk - their house

az ő házai - his/her houses

az ő házaik - their houses