As I mentioned in the overview post, suffixes are used all over Hungarian instead of little words as in English:

autó → autó ban = car → in [a] car

= car → in [a] car kert →kertben = garden → in [a] garden

Sometimes -ban, sometimes -ben? What is going on?

Suffixes don’t just attach to the ends of words as they are – they accommodate themselves to the environment like chameleons. This idea is not so strange if you consider that the English plural can be -s (dogs) or -es (boxes), depending on the end of the word. The new thing is that in Hungarian it can also depend on the vowels in the word. Suffixes twist their vowel(s) to be similar to those in the word.

Each suffix has a certain number of fixed forms and the choice will be based on pronounciation. Examples:

-ért = ‘for’

-ság/-ség = ‘-ness’ as in “easiness“

-szor/-szer/-ször = ‘times’ as in “5 times”

-nk/-unk/-ünk = ‘our’

-n/-on/-en/-ön = ‘on’

-k/-ak/-ok/-ek/-ök = ‘-s’ the plural suffix

(Some people consider the vowels in the last three types as linking vowels and say that the “real” suffix is just -nk, -n and -k. I find it more practical to view them as suffixes with 3, 4 and 5 forms.)

One striking thing is how diverse the meanings are. And this is very good for you because once you learn this principle, you can use it all over the place: from noun plurals through verb conjugations to comparative adjectives. Although some individual suffixes do have some peculiarities on their own, the basic idea will be the same every time.

That will probably be a recurring pattern you have to face in Hungarian. Things are really quite similar in unexpectedly far parts of the language, but just different enough to drive you crazy. There will be little asterisks popping up every time you dig deeper. That’s why it’s immensely important to listen to movies, songs, tv, radio and read books, articles and to try to imitate them, so you can develop a feel for what sounds right and familiar. Learning all the rules is not practical in Hungarian (I guess that holds for any language).

Nevertheless, a certain type of people prefer to look into the black box so let’s just dive in!

How do I choose the right form exactly?

Most importantly, each Hungarian vowel has a property called “backness”, it can be either back or front.

back: a, á, o, ó, u, ú

front: e, é, i, í, ö, ő, ü, ű

The goal is to match the backness between word and suffix. For example, take -ság/-ség ‘-ness’:

j ó z a n → j ó z a n s á g = ‘sober’ → ‘sobriety’/’soberness’

z n → j z n = ‘sober’ → ‘sobriety’/’soberness’ r é sz e g → r é sz e gs é g = ‘drunk’ → ‘drunkenness’

Great. But as you saw up there, there are suffixes with more forms than just two. To explain that we have to split the front vowels further based on another property called “roundedness”

front rounded: ö, ő, ü, ű

front unrounded: e, é, i, í

Now we’ll also match according to roundedness. Take –szor/-szer/-ször (‘times’):

s o k → s o k sz o r = ‘many’ → ‘many times’

k → s k = ‘many’ → ‘many times’ e gy → e gy sz e r = ‘one’ → ‘once’

gy → gy = ‘one’ → ‘once’ ö t → ö tsz ö r = ‘five’ → ‘five times’

There are also some suffixes that have a separate form for words ending in a vowel. For example with -n/-on/-en/-ön (‘on’):

ajtó → ajtó n = ‘door’ → ‘on [the] door’

= ‘door’ → ‘on [the] door’ a szt a l → a szt a l o n = ‘table’ → ‘on [the] table’

szt l → szt l = ‘table’ → ‘on [the] table’ sz é k → sz é k e n = ‘chair’ → ‘on [the] chair’

k → sz k = ‘chair’ → ‘on [the] chair’ f ö ld → f ö ld ö n = ‘ground’ → ‘on [the] ground’

Okay that was easy. Up to now we discussed 3 types of vowel quality (back, front rounded, front unrounded). There are, however, some suffixes that have two separate back versions. An example is the plural, -k/-ak/-ok/-ek/-ök. Unfortunately the choice between –ak and –ok is not as straightforward. Usually it’s –ok. The –ak version is used for some short, usually one-syllable words that are not recent loans from foreign languages. The list of those has to be learned. But! Once again, you only have to learn this once and then you can use it for all such suffixes: whether the plural, the adjective-making -s/-as/-os/-es/-ös (‘-like’, ‘having x’) or the possessive -m/-am/-om/-em/-öm (‘my’), it works the same way:

hajó → hajó k = ‘ship’ → ‘ships’

= ‘ship’ → ‘ships’ h o ld → h o ld a k = ‘moon’ → ‘moons’,

ld → h ld = ‘moon’ → ‘moons’, b o r → b o r o k = ‘wine’ → ‘wines’

r → b r = ‘wine’ → ‘wines’ é l e t → é l e t e k = ‘life’ → ‘lives’

l t → l t = ‘life’ → ‘lives’ s ö r → s ö r ö k = ‘beer’ → ‘beers’

But can’t a single word contain different kinds of vowels?

Good point. It can. How do we choose then? Well, then the chameleon picks its color based on what he sees nearest to him (at the end).

k e b a b → k e b a b o k = ‘kebab’ → ‘kebabs’

b b → k b b k = ‘kebab’ → ‘kebabs’ ö r e g → ö r e g e k = ‘old’ → ‘olds’ (old people)

But there is an important fact about his vision: front unrounded vowels are somewhat transparent and can let back vowels shine through. This is a bit fuzzy though. A single i or í is always transparent:

t a p í r → t a p í rs á g = ‘tapir’ → ‘tapirness’ (being a tapir)

p r → t p rs g = ‘tapir’ → ‘tapirness’ (being a tapir) t a x i → t a x i b a n = ‘taxi’ → ‘in [a] taxi’

However two of them are not necessarily transparent, depending on dialect, personal preference or just random choice, you can use both:

m a rt i n i → m a rt i n i b e n / m a rt i n i b a n = ‘martini’ → ‘in martini’

Now let’s turn to e and é. They are transparent in some words and “both correct” in some others:

k o nc e rt → k o nc e rt e k = ‘concert’ → ‘concerts’ (only this way)

nc rt → k nc rt k = ‘concert’ → ‘concerts’ (only this way) f o t e l → f o t e l e k / f o t e l o k = ‘sofa’ → ‘sofas’

I’m sorry, this part is something that you can either learn for each word or just rely on listening and subconsciously developing a feel for it.

When the tail wiggles the dog

We have now seen how the suffix changes itself when it attaches on a word. But there is more to the relationship between words and suffixes! The words themselves may also change when they get a suffix. For some suffixes the final a/e turns into á/é. One example is -nak/-nek (‘to’, ‘for’):

k u ty a → k u ty á n a k = ‘dog’ → ‘for [the] dog’

ty → k ty = ‘dog’ → ‘for [the] dog’ k e csk e → k e csk é n e k = ‘goat’ → ‘for [the] goat’

Some other suffixes don’t do this. For example -ság/-ség, which we already got to know above, leaves the word as it is:

k u ty a → k u ty a s á g = ‘dog’ → ‘dogness’ (being a dog)

ty → k ty = ‘dog’ → ‘dogness’ (being a dog) k e csk e → k e csk e s é g = ‘goat’ → ‘goatness’ (being a goat)

A seemingly opposite thing can also happen. For a few specific words, when you attach a suffix that has a short form like -k/-ak/-ok/-ek/-ök then the word may shorten its last vowel if it’s not the very last sound in the word:

m a d á r → m a d a r a k = ‘bird’ → ‘birds’

d r → m d r = ‘bird’ → ‘birds’ k e ny é r → k e ny e r e k = ‘bread’ → ‘breads’ (loafs of bread)

There is a similar but even stronger effect for some words. They have a short vowel so it cannot shorten, so it is dropped entirely!

b o k o r → b o kr o k = ‘bush’ → ‘bushes’

Summary

If the suffix has a form with no initial vowel ( -k /- a k/- o k/- e k/- ö k) and your word ends in a vowel, you use that suffix form.

/- k/- k/- k/- k) and your word ends in a vowel, you use that suffix form. Otherwise you match the vowels between word and suffix. If there are multiple vowels, you decide if the last one is transparent or not and decide based on the last visible one.

Then in some cases the word also changes: it may lengthen a final vowel, shorten the last (but non-final) vowel, or drop the last vowel.

It’s somewhat complex but you don’t have to learn all this in one sitting. In other languages you’d have to learn the irregular verb forms (sing, sang, sung) or arbitrary genders of nouns. Instead of those, you just have to learn these mainly pronunciation-based suffix-attaching rules.

It’s tough at the beginning because even very simple sentences require some knowledge of this but once you practiced it enough, it will feel natural.