Grammar Notes

For the Duolingo Hungarian course:  

The Tips and Notes that used to be available in the website version are not visible anymore since the Path redesign, but I copied them to a separate Google doc, you can find them here:
Hungarian Tips and Notes
I even added the "skill descriptors" so it will be easier to find the lesson you are looking for.

Maybe you are already familiar with https://duome.eu/tips/en/hu
The grammar notes on Duome.eu contain Tips from the old version and the new version of the Hungarian course mixed together, and there are some duplicates.

Missing the Stories? You can find some unofficial stories here: https://duostories.org/hu-en

Duolingo: Alignment Tree and Path for the Hungarian course (71 units)

In the old layout, the Tree, each skill had a skill name.
Now in the Path, every bubble has a "skill descriptor" instead.

sometimes I included more name variants, because we had a "short name" but also a "grammary name" for the same skill

1 Basics = Name things and people (unit 1 )
2 Intros = talk about nationalities and languages (unit 1 )
3 Qualities = Describe people and things (unit 2 )
4 Phrases = greet people (unit 2 )
5 Where? (-ban -ben ending appears) = Say where people and things are (unit 3 )
6 School = communicate at school (unit 3 )
7 Verbs 1 = Use verbs in present tense (unit 4 )
8 Café = Accusative 1 = Talk about food and drink (unit 4 )
9 Feelings = Express feelings (unit 5 )
10 Jobs = identify professions (unit 5 )
11 Food = Talk about cooking and eating (unit 6 )
12 More = Plurals = form the plural of nouns (unit 7 )
13 Numbers 1 = Express quantities (unit 7 )
14 Verbs 2 = say what we and they do (unit 8 )
15 Places 1 = Locate places in a city (unit 8 )
16 Come & Go = Irregular verbs = use the verbs come and go (unit 9 )
17 Time = Tell time (unit 9 )
18 This That = Use different forms of this and that (unit 10 )
19 Days = Talk about schedules (unit 10 )
20 Shopping = shop for clothes (unit 11 )
21 Hobbies = Infinitive verbs = Talk about hobbies and habits (unit 11 )
22 On Top = superessive case (-on -en -ön -n) = indicate the location (unit 12 )
23 Describing = Adjectives 1 = Describe things and people (unit 12 )
24 There Is = use van and nincs (unit 13 )
25 Weather = Talk about the weather (unit 13 )
26 My Cat (possessive) = form the possessive (unit 14 )
27 Nations = Name nationalities (unit 14 )
28 What? = Accusative 2 = form direct objects (unit 15 )
29 Body Parts = Describe health issues (unit 15 )
30 Numbers 2 = express quantity (unit 16 )
31 I See It = definite- indefinite = Use definite verb forms (unit 16 )
32 Family = talk about your family (unit 17 )
33 I Do It = Definite conjugation 1 = Discuss everyday activities (unit 17 )
34 Me & You = Accusative pronouns = refer to you and me (unit 18 )
35 Verbs 3 = Say what people are doing (unit 18 )
36 Love ( -lak-lek ending) = express emotions (unit 19 )
37 Languages = Say what languages you speak (unit 19 )
38 Stuff = plural accusative 1 = use direct objects in plural form (unit 20 )
39 You Do It = Definite conjugation 2 = Talk about activities (unit 20 )
40 Travel = ask about directions (unit 21 )
41 Cafeteria (-os-es-ös-s ending) = Order food (unit 21 )
42 To have 1 = talk about what you have (unit 22 )
43 Stuff 2 = plural accusative 2 = Express actions (unit 22 )
44 Giving = Dative (-nak -nek) = talk about giving someone something (unit 23 )
45 New Things = plural adjectives = Describe things and people (unit 23 )
46 Arts = Talk about art activities (unit 24 )
47 Sports = Comment on sports (unit 24 )
48 Inside = inessive case (-ban-ben) = Talk about being inside (unit 25 )
49 Beside = adessive case (-nál-nél) = Say what and who is beside something else (unit 25 )
50 Clothing = describe outfits (unit 26 )
51 Household = Talk about your home (unit 26 )
52 Ownership (possessive) = discuss possession (unit 27 )
53 Better = Comparative adjectives = Compare things and people (unit 27 )
54 Year = express dates and times (unit 28 )
55 Digital = Talk about technology (unit 28 )
56 This That 2 = use different forms of this and that (unit 29 )
57 Party = Talk about celebrations (unit 29 )
58 Memories = Past tense = describe past events (unit 30 )
59 Animals = Talk about animals (unit 30 )
60 With (-val -vel) = say who you do things with (unit 31 )
61 Colors = Talk about colors (unit 31 )
62 First! = ordinal numbers = use ordinal numbers (unit 32 )
63 No! = negation = Make negative statements (unit 33 )
64 To Have 2 = say what others have (unit 33 )
65 Now & Then = Past & Present = Distinguish past and present (unit 34 )
66 Into (-ba -be) = describe movement into (unit 34 )
67 Onto (-ra -re) = Discuss direction (unit 35 )
68 Toward (-hoz -hez -höz) = describe movement toward (unit 35 )
69 Moving 1 = Preverbs 1 = Clarify directions (unit 36 )
70 Moving 2 = Preverbs 2 = use verbal prefixes in negative sentences (unit 36 )
71 Into 2 = Indicate movement into places (unit 37 )
72 Onto 2 = describe direction (unit 37 )
73 Toward 2 = Describe movement toward a place (unit 38 )
74 Geography = state geography facts (unit 38 )
75 Memories 2 = Make statements about the past (unit 39 )
76 Linking = form complex sentences (unit 39 )
77 ThisThat 3 = Discuss choices (unit 40 )
78 Story 1 = talk about experiences and changes (unit 40 )
79 Describe 2 = Adjectives 2 = Describe things and people (unit 41 )
80 Moving 3 = Preverbs 3 = use verbal prefixes (unit 41 )
81 Travel 2 = Talk about travel (unit 42 )
82 Story 2 = say what happened (unit 42 )
83 Out of = elative case (ból-ből) = Discuss origins (unit 43 )
84 Down from = delative case (ról-ről) = indicate the starting point (unit 43 )
85 Away from = ablative case (tól-től) = Describe distances (unit 44 )
86 ThisThat 4 = combine postpositions with this and that (unit 44 )
87 Future = Discuss future plans (unit 45 )
88 Names and Family = talk about neighbors and friends (unit 45 )
89 To & From = Clarify locations (unit 46 )
90 Cooking = talk about cooking and eating (unit 46 )
91 Places 2 = Discover a city (unit 47 )
92 Directions = ask about directions (unit 47 )
93 Now&Then 2 = Past & Present 2 = Talk about the past (unit 48 )
94 Which? = use relative pronouns (unit 48 )
95 My Horse (possessive) = Talk about belongings (unit 49 )
96 Math = make calculations (unit 49 )
97 Someone = Use everybody and somebody (unit 50 )
98 Somewhere = use everywhere and somewhere (unit 50 )
99 To have 3 = Describe what people have (unit 51 )
100 This That 5 = use different forms of this and that (unit 51 )
101 Rain On Me = Adverbial possessives = Combine suffixes (unit 52 )
102 Origin = Ablative Postpositional Pronouns = indicate the starting point (unit 52 )
103 Position = Adessive Postpositional Pronouns = Talk about position (unit 53 )
104 Goal = Allative Postpositional Pronouns = use postpositions (unit 53 )
105 My Cats = plural possessive = Form plural possessives (unit 54 )
106 Do It! = imperative = tell others what to do (unit 54 )
107 Numbers 3 = Talk about how many (unit 55 )
108 Practice = use verb conjugations (unit 55 )
109 Quoting = Express opinions (unit 56 )
110 All Mine = possessive object = combine suffixes (unit 56 )

Units 57 -71 are personalized practice. 

Hungarian for English speakers, Tree 2, 110 skills, which got transformed into 71 units

-----------

A few more details about the first 7 skills:

Basics: very basic, like “the car and the apple”. Usually not complete sentences.

Intros: Beszélek magyarul. Beszélsz magyarul? Magyar vagyok. Angol vagy? (danger: both magyarul and magyar included.)
The formal “you” (ön) also appears here, along with uram, hölgyem.  

Qualities: sentences where “van” is omitted.

Phrases: similar to the old Phrases (but “paprikást kérek” and “Menj!” was removed)

Where?: sentences where “van” is used.

School: 3 verbs appear: áll, ír, tanul. (állok, írok, tanulok, állsz, írsz, tanulsz) Plus school-related words (szünet, füzet, könyv, tanterem, könyvtár, iskola)

Verbs 1: regular verbs, only singular, present tense, indefinite

Duolingo: Number of skills versus the number of units

 

In the old Duolingo Tree layout, every course had some skills, and now on the new Path (Snake) there are units.
But there is a connection, since in the background, they still have the tree structure, it is just displayed differently.

My guess (based on a few courses I checked) is that there are two new skills appearing in each unit (sometimes only one skill), and there are roughly 10 practice units at the end, so the number of units is close to (skills/2 +10). But not exactly. Sometimes there are more (or fewer) personalized practice units at the end.

The following table was based on https://magyarbagoly.blogspot.com/2022/ ... ourse.html, which in turn was based on http://ardslot.com/duolingocrowns.html

I checked the number of Units on the Duome Forum, based on MatOzone's posts. See also duolingodata.com

Sometimes there are multiple versions of the same course, where I knew, I marked them "old" and "new" .

Here, "old" means that it is old enough to show up in https://liuch.github.io/duolingo_courses_overview/ (FieryCat stopped updating that list in 2021)
"New" means it is the newest version that is available to some users.

I intentionally left out the some numbers for Spanish/French/German/Japanese courses: too many competing versions to keep track.
But I added the number of units for these courses too, and I picked the longest version.

Side note: for Italian, there is a version with 76 skills, which is not included in my beautiful table, but it is newer than the 66 skill version and older than the 98 skill version.

see also:   https://forum.duome.eu/viewtopic.php?t=15140-number-of-skills-versus-the-number-of-units

LANGUAGE	FROM	SKILLS	LESSONS	Words	Units before	Units now
Arabic (AR)	English	46	210	1481	30	30
Chinese (ZS)	English	88	284	1932	57	57
Czech old	English	84	422	2362	54	55
Czech new	English	88	422	2626	57	?
Danish old	English	70	340	2341	45	x
Danish new	English	62	?	?	40	41
Dutch (DN)	English	123	502	2933	79	80
Esperanto (EO)	English	69	364	2389	45	45
Finnish (FI)	English	35	144	1007	23	23
French (FR)	English	a lot	a lot	a lot	[219]	[194]
German (DE)	English	a lot	a lot	a lot	[131]	[102]
Greek old	English	74	278	2010	x
Greek new	English	95	432	3196	61	62
Greek another	English	102	452	3218	?
Haitian Creole (HT)	English	36	125	728	23	23
Hawaiian old	English	38	143	799	24	25
Hawaiian another	English	51	?	?	33	x
Hebrew (HE)	English	84	446	2833	54	56
High Valyrian old	English	38	135	825	?	x
High Valyrian new	English	43	157	982	28	28
Hindi (HI)	English	32	133	656	21	20
Hungarian old	English	78	319	2367	51	x
Hungarian new	English	110	489	3176	71	71
Indonesian (ID)	English	69	310	1882	44	45
Irish (GA)	English	64	292	1711	42	43
Italian old	English	66	405	2784	51	x
Italian new	English	98	565	3753	72	?
Italian newer	English	123	?	?	?	79
Klingon old	English	62	238	1481	x	x
Klingon new	English	65	248	1533	42	43
Korean old	English	65	258	1793	x	x
Korean newer	English	94	351	2230	61	x
Korean newest	English	112	431	2684	72	73
Latin (LA)	English	22	81	538	14	14
Navajo (NV)	English	11	28	143	7	7
Norwegian old	English	172	590	3600	111	x
Norwegian new	English	246	1008	5784	159	161
Polish (PL)	English	67	298	1938	43	44
Portuguese (PT)	English	91	463	2919	75	60
Romanian (RO)	English	62	286	2405	40	41
Russian old	English	79	350	2279	51	x
Russian new	English	95	405	2601	61	62
Scottish Gaelic old	English	107	483	3525	69	?
Scottish Gaelic new	English	120	?	?	?	78
Spanish (ES)	English	a lot	a lot	a lot	[230]	[205]
Swahili old	English	65	195	1257	42	x
Swahili new	English	73	243	1535	47	48
Swedish old	English	66	325	2361	43	x
Swedish new	English	85	376	2549	55	55
Turkish (TR)	English	67	200	1466	43	44
Ukranian (UK)	English	51	209	1108	33	33
Vietnamese old	English	84	320	1661	54	x
Vietnamese new	English	75	336	1775	49	48
Welsh (CY)	English	118	416	2366	69	70
Yiddish (YI)	English	94	382	2297	61	62
Zulu (ZU)	English	20	91	628	13	13
English old	Hungarian	55	285	1952	49	??
English new	Hungarian	?	?	?	?	109?
German (DE)	Hungarian	51	238	1631	44	33?

elé, előtt, elől

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

 

https://archive.ph/eOBzs

Note that elől and elöl are two different words.   

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)

Infinitive verbs

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

The knights who say "Ni!" - The infinitive

Here, you will meet the infinitive form of a verb. The infinitive form always ends with -ni. For regular verbs, just take the singular third person form and attach a -ni.

	English	Hungarian
S/3	he/she studies	tanul
infinitive	to study	tanulni
S/3	he/she runs	fut
infinitive	to run	futni
S/3	he/she dances	táncol
infinitive	to dance	táncolni

For verbs ending in -ik, remove the -ik and add the -ni.

	English	Hungarian
S/3	he/she plays tennis	teniszezik
infinitive	to play tennis	teniszezni
S/3	he/she plays football	focizik
infinitive	to play football	focizni

Sometimes you might find two consonants at the end of a verb, it can also happen when you “remove” the “-ik” ending. In this case, you will have to add an extra vowel to glue it to the “-ni”. For example:

	English	Hungarian
S/3	he/she says	mond
infinitive	to say	mondani
S/3	he/she takes a bath	fürdik
infinitive	to take a bath	fürdeni

Finally, of course, there are some irregular verbs. From this list you will meet in this skill “enni, inni, menni, venni, lenni”. But we wanted to show you all the irregular ones, as they are those verbs which usually behave differently.

	English	Hungarian
S/3	he/she goes	megy
infinitive	to go	menni
S/3	he/she eats	eszik
inf	to eat	enni
S/3	he/she drinks	iszik
inf	to drink	inni
S/3	he/she buys	vesz
inf	to buy	venni
S/3	he/she is	van
inf	to be	lenni
S/3	he/she believes	hisz
inf	to believe	hinni
S/3	he/she puts	tesz
inf	to put	tenni
S/3	he/she brings	visz
inf	to bring	vinni

Combining with other verbs

The infinitive form is usually used when there is another verb in the sentence, which can express:

I. a preference (to love, to hate, to like doing / to do something):

• Szeretek táncolni. - I like to dance. /I like dancing.

• Utálok táncolni. - I hate dancing.

II. a capacity or capability to do something:

• Tudok táncolni. - I can dance. / I know how to dance

• Nem tudok táncolni. - I can’t dance. / I don't know how to dance.

Depending on the context, "tud" can be translated as "can" or "know".

III. a desire, a wish (I would like to do something):

• Szeretnék táncolni. - I would like to dance.

• Nem szeretnék táncolni. - I wouldn’t like to dance.

IV. a possibility (It is allowed / It is possible):

• Lehet táncolni. - It is allowed to dance.

• Nem lehet táncolni. - It is not possible to dance. / It is not allowed to dance.

V. expresses a habit: It is like adding “usually” to the sentence. (Or you can imagine "I used to dance", but in the present tense.)

• Szoktam táncolni. - I usually dance. / I dance. 

• Nem szoktam táncolni. - I don’t dance usually. / I don’t usually dance. / I don't dance.

	szokott
(én)	szoktam
(te)	szoktál
(ő/Ön)	szokott
(mi)	szoktunk
(ti)	szoktatok
(ők/Önök)	szoktak

Can it have an object?

Yes, you can say ‘I like eating cheese.’ or ‘I hate eating cheese.’ depending on your taste :). You have to change the word order, and put the object (with the accusative ending ‘-t’) before the infinitive.

Szeretek sajtot enni. = I like eating cheese.

Utálok sajtot enni. = I hate eating cheese.

other examples:

Szeretnék sört inni. = I would like to drink beer.

Szeretnék almát enni. = I would like to eat an apple.

Nem szeretnék tévét nézni. = I would not like to watch tv.

Itt lehet kenyeret venni. = It is possible to buy bread here.

In this case you expressed something in general. If you would like to express your desire to do something with a specific thing, it is also possible. For example, you can say “I would like to eat an apple.” or “I would like to drink a coffee.” As the article “a/an” appeared in the English sentence, it will also appear in the Hungarian, and then we will have the same word order as in English, and the object will come after the infinitive.

Szeretnék enni egy almát. = I would like to eat an apple.

Szeretnék inni egy kávét. = I would like to drink a coffee.

Szeretnék venni egy házat. = I would like to buy a house.

"would like to"

It looks similar, so be careful with "like" and "would like to". (The "would like to" version is the conditional of the verb "szeret".)

	like	would like to
(én)	szeretek	szeretnék
(te)	szeretsz	szeretnél
(ő/Ön)	szeret	szeretne
(mi)	szeretünk	szeretnénk
(ti)	szerettek	szeretnétek
(ők/Önök)	szeretnek	szeretnének