Hungarian and English

Genders

Subject

In Hungarian, there are no distinctions between „she” or „he”. We only differentiate „it”, but not always. We use „ő” if it refers to a person (or a beloved pet or car...), and we do not put the personal pronouns in the sentence if it refers to an object.

(hu) Ő fut. → He/She/It is running.
(hu) Ő elment haza. → He/She/It went home.
(hu) Az óra leesett, de („it”) működik. → The clock fell down, but it works.

Object

We do not differentiate the object form of personal pronouns according to genders. If it refers to a person (or a beloved pet,car...) we use „őt”. If it refers to an object we use „azt”.

(hu) (Én) szeretem őt. → I love him/her.
(hu) (Én) szeretem azt. → I love it.
(hu) Ceasar a kutyám. (Én) szeretem őt. → Ceasar is my dog. I love him.

Possessive Pronouns

In Hungarian we use a lot of suffixes. We also put the possesive pronouns at the end of the noun, unlike English which uses a plus word to express it.

(hu) Itt van a házam. → Here is my house.
(hu) Itt van a házad. → Here is your (singular) house.
(hu) Itt van a háza. → Here is his/her/its house.
(hu) Itt van a házunk. → Here is our house.
(hu) Itt van a házatok. → Here is your (plural) house.
(hu) Itt van a házuk. → Here is their house.

Past tense

In Hungarian we use „-t” or „-tt”at the end of the verbs to express past tense. However it is before the suffix of the personal pronoun.

(hu) Levelet írtam. → I wrote a letter.
(hu) Sokat futottam. → I ran a lot.
(hu) Jól aludtam. → I slept well.

Tenses

There are only three tenses in Hungarian, but we can use adverbs to modify their time or meaning. However in English there are more tenses of present, past and future.

(hu) Ő futott. → He ran.
(hu) Ő futott. → He was running.
(hu) Ő futott. → He had run.

(hu) Ő fut. → He runs.
(hu) Ő fut. → He is running.

(hu) Ő futni fog. → He will run.
(hu) Ő futni fog. → He will be running.
(hu) Ő futni fog. → He is going to run.

Word separation

Simple words

In English we do not separate words at the end of the line, but in Hungarian we do it a lot. We separate words such that at the beginings of the syllable there should be one consonant, except for when we have two vowels next to each other.

krumpli (potatao) → krump-li
dió (nut) → di-ó
nyomtatható (printable) → nyom-tat-ha-tó

Complex words

However if it is a complex word, we separate it between the two words it consists of.

szemüveg (glasses) → szem-ü-veg
kerekasztal (roundtable) → ke-rek-asz-tal
hóember (snowman) → hó-em-ber

Writing of names

While in English the names are written as „first name” „surname”, in Hungarian it is just the opposite. We write names as „surname” „first name”.

(hu) Kiss Péter → Péter Kiss
(hu) Nagy Bence → Bence Nagy
(hu) Kovács Kata → Kata Kovács

Writing of dates

In Hungarian we write the dates in a different order. The first is the year, the second is the month and the last one is the day.

(hu) 2016.01.24. → 24.01.2016.
(hu) 1998.08.22. → 22.08.1998.
(hu) 2000.03.12. → 12.03.2000.

Articles

Definite article

The definite articels are „a” or „az” in Hungarian, while in English there is just one, „the”.We put „a” before a word that starts with a consonant, and we put „az” before a word that starts with a vowel.

(hu) az ablak → the window
(hu) az elefánt → the elephant
(hu) a krokodil → the crocodile
(hu) a telefon → the telephone

Indefinite article

While in English there are two types of indefinite articles („a” and „an”), in Hungarian there is only one, „egy”.

(hu) Ez egy szép fa. → This is a nice tree.
(hu) Van egy almám. → I have got an apple.
(hu) Van egy barna kutya az utcán. → There is a brown dog on the street.

Person agreement with the verb

In English person agreement only appears at third-person singular, in the present verb form (additional „s”), and at the different forms of to be. In Hungarian there is always person agreement.

(hu) Én futok mindennap. → I run everyday.
(hu) Te futsz mindennap. → You run everyday.
(hu) Ő fut mindennap. → He runs everyday

(hu) Én boldog vagyok. → I am happy.
(hu) Te boldog vagy. → You are happy.
(hu) Ő boldog. → He is happy (there is no „to be” in present tense of the third-person singular in Hungarian)

(hu) Én szomorú voltam. → I was sad.
(hu) Te szomorú voltál. → You were sad.
(hu) Ő szomorú volt. → He was sad.

Word order

There are a lot of differences between Hungarian and English word order. English word order is very rigid (usually SVO), whereas the Hungarian one is really flexible (however it has very little difference in meaning according to different word orders, and it is also affected by the emphases).

(hu) Sütöttem tortát tegnap. → I baked a cake yesterday.
(hu) Sütöttem tegnap tortát. → I baked a cake yesterday.
(hu) Tegnap sütöttem tortát. → I baked a cake yesterday.
(hu) Tegnap tortát sütöttem. → I baked a cake yesterday.
(hu) Tortát sütöttem tegnap. → I baked a cake yesterday.

Marking of cases on nouns

Hungarian uses suffixes at the end of the nouns to express different cases, whereas English uses plus words.

Nominative case

(hu) autó → car (as a subject)
(hu) szék → chair (as a subject)
(hu) alma → apple (as a subject)

Accusative case

(hu) autót → car (as an object)
(hu) széket → chair (as an object)
(hu) almát → apple (as an object)

Dative case

(hu) autónak → to the car
(hu) szék'nek → to the chair
(hu) almának → to the apple

Instrumental-comitative case

(hu) autóval → with the car
(hu) székkel → with the chair
(hu) almával → with the apple

Causal-final case

(hu) autóért → for the car
(hu) székért → for the chair
(hu) almáért → for the apple

Translative case

(hu) autóvá → (turn) into a car
(hu) székké → (turn) into a chair
(hu) almává → (turn) into an apple

Terminative case

(hu) autóig → up to the car
(hu) székig → up to the chair
(hu) almáig → up to the apple