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

 [#DuolingoForumGems originally posted on 2021-12-03 on the Duolingo Hungarian for English speakers forum by peter.kristof.hu ] 

Expression of possession in Hungarian

Learners may encounter many obstacles in learning the Hungarian language. I have found that possessive constructions are one of the most challenging grammatical areas for Hungarian learners. Therefore, as a help, I will try to give an overview of it. I won't describe the complex system of possessive endings here. I will merely explain the different possessive constructions and their use with examples. Please see Hungarian possessive suffixes or other sources for the several forms of possessive endings.

In Hungarian, possession can be expressed in the following way:

(1) The possessive personal markers

A tanuló könyve / A tanulónak a könyve	The student's book.

(2) The possessive sentence

A tanulónak van egy könyve.	The student has a book.

(3) The possession marker

A könyv a tanulóé	The book belongs to the student

1. Expressing possession by possessive personal markers

The possessor can be a personal pronoun or a nominal, usually a noun. the possessed can be a nominal.

[#DuolingoForumGems originally posted on 2018-04-19 on the Duolingo Hungarian for English speakers forum by jzsuzsi ] 

Singular vs plural

There are differences between how Hungarian and English uses plurals.

1,  The main one, as most of you noticed already, if you are doing this course, that after numbers, Hungarian doesn't use the plural form. Egy kutya, két kutya, három kutya (one dog, two dogs, three dogs)

Similarly for Sok/kevés/néhány.

Látok sok kutyát / néhány kutyát.

-ja or -juk

In the Duolingo lessons about possessives (skills Possess 1, Possess 2, To have 1, To have 2, Plural possessions, and Choices 5), you learn about the possessive suffixes. The forms are as follows:

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

Sometimes the j sound is not needed, like asztala, asztaluk, but it is not what I'm talking about today. But rather the 3rd person plural. It behaves strangely.