Hello!
Maybe you have heard about the "triads of
movement"
(in Hungarian: irányhármasság) when you learned the following 9
cases:
Think of these endings as a 3x3 system.
|
goal |
position |
source |
|
|
SPACES |
-ba -be |
-ban -ben |
-ból -ből |
|
SURFACES |
-ra -re |
-on -en -ön -n |
-ról -ről |
|
SOLIDS |
-hoz -hez -höz |
-nál -nél |
-tól -től |
spaces:
Bemegyek a házba.
A házban vagyok.
Kimegyek a házból.
I go into the house.
I am in the house.
I go out of the house.
surfaces:
Az asztalra rakom a könyvet.
A könyv az asztalon van.
Elveszem az asztalról a könyvet.
I put the book on the table.
The book is on the table.
I take away the book from the table.
solids:
Odamegyek a szoborhoz.
A szobornál várok.
Elmegyek a szobortól.
I go over to the statue.
I wait at the statue.
I go away from the statue.
-----------
Also, remember these postpositions?
előtt - in front of
mögött - behind
mellett - next to
fölött/ felett - above
alatt - below, under, underneath
között - between
a ház előtt - in
front of the house
a fa alatt - under the
tree
a ház mögött - behind the
house
Kati Péter előtt ül. Kati sits in
front of Péter.
Péter Kati mögött ül. Péter sits
behind Kati.
Postpositions come after the noun they refer to.
This time, we will look at postpositions, that sometimes signify movement towards something / still position / movement away from something
- alatt ‘below’
--- alól ‘from below’
- mögött ‘behind’
--- mögül ‘from behind’
- mellett ‘next to’
--- mellől ‘from
next to’
- között 'between' --- közül 'from between'
- a ház mögül ‘from
behind the house’
Here is a chart:
|
English |
movement to |
place |
movement from |
|
beside |
mellé |
mellett |
mellől |
|
under |
alá |
alatt |
alól |
|
in front of |
elé |
előtt |
elől |
|
behind |
mögé |
mögött |
mögül |
|
between, among |
közé |
között |
közül |
But!
It can happen that the sentence talks about some movement,
like "she is walking" and still we use a "place"
postposition from the middle column.
A ház előtt sétál. = She is walking in front of
the house.
A ház elé sétál. = She is walking in front of
the house.
If your Hungarian is good enough, you can see that these two sentences are different (but I used the same English translation for both of them...)
What is the difference?
Think about "in" and
"into".
I go into the house (movement type, házba) Bemegyek a házba.
I am walking around inside the house. (place
type, házban) (Fel-alá sétálok a házban.)
Still, I'm walking, I make some movement, but I do not leave the
house, and don't enter the house.
Now apply the in/into difference to
everything.
I drew a picture in Paint, very beautifully
and precisely drawn :P
A ház előtt sétál. A ház elé sétál.
The dotted lines show the area, which is in front of the house. It is a big house, in front of it is also a big area. So as long as the guy is between the dotted lines, he is a ház előtt, and there he can walk, run, play, whatever.
But if he crosses the line, it is elé.
He was not in the dotted area before, but now he is.
This is előtt/elé , but the same goes for alatt/alá.
See this sentence discussion:
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/24197908/The-young-actress-walks-under-the-lamps
One more sentence, for those Covid quarantine times:
Nem megyek emberek közé. - I do not go among people.
Here you need "közé" and not "között", since we are describing a movement towards something.
See also this sentence discussion: "Őfelőle?"
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/17986625 = https://archive.ph/uqPKq (SD)
