Adjectives and Comparison

Hungarian adjectives are pleasantly simple. They have no gender, and when they stand in front of a noun they never change at all. This page covers when adjectives do take endings, how to compare them ("bigger", "the biggest"), and how to turn them into adverbs ("quickly", "well"). The plural of adjectives is introduced in Lesson 6.

Before a noun: no endings

An adjective in front of a noun stays in its basic form, whatever happens to the noun:

▶a nagy ház (the big house)

▶a nagy házak (the big houses)

▶a nagy házban (in the big house)

▶a nagy házakból (out of the big houses)

▶egy szép, régi könyvet (a beautiful old book (object))

After the noun: agreement in number

When the adjective is the predicate, "the house is big", it comes after the noun and takes the plural -k if the noun is plural. In the present tense, ▶van is left out.

▶A ház nagy. (The house is big.)

▶A házak nagyok. (The houses are big.)

▶A leves finom. (The soup is delicious.)

▶Ezek a cipők drágák. (These shoes are expensive.)

Adjectives take the plural with a linking vowel, like nouns. Adjectives ending in a vowel just add -k (with a, e lengthening). Back adjectives ending in a consonant take -ok or -ak: many, especially those ending in -s, take -ak, so learn the plural with the word. Adjectives made with the ending -i, and those ending in -ú/-ű, take -ak/-ek.

Adjectives without a noun

If the noun is left out, the adjective takes over its endings: ▶Melyik ruhát kéred? A pirosat. (Which dress do you want? The red one.) ▶A nagyban lakom. (I live in the big one.)

The comparative: -bb

To say "bigger" or "more beautiful", add -bb. After a consonant, a linking vowel comes first: -abb or -obb for back adjectives, -ebb for front ones. A final a or e lengthens.

Irregular comparatives

A few very common adjectives are irregular. Learn these as a group:

The pattern behind most of these: adjectives ending in -ú or -ű drop it (▶hosszú → ▶hosszabb), and those with a stem change keep it here too (▶nehéz → ▶nehezebb, like ▶nehezek).

Than: mint or -nál/-nél

"Than" can be said in two ways, and both are common.

▶Péter magasabb, mint Anna. (Péter is taller than Anna.)

▶Péter magasabb Annánál. (Péter is taller than Anna.)

▶A vonat gyorsabb, mint a busz. (The train is faster than the bus.)

▶Ma melegebb van, mint tegnap. (It's warmer today than yesterday.)

Use ▶mint when what follows is not a simple noun: ▶Jobb, mint gondoltam. (It's better than I thought.) For "as ... as", use ▶olyan ..., mint: ▶Anna olyan magas, mint Péter. (Anna is as tall as Péter.)

The superlative: leg-

The superlative is the comparative with leg- in front. It almost always has the article ▶a.

▶Ez a legnagyobb város. (This is the biggest town.)

▶Ő a legjobb barátom. (He's my best friend.)

▶Melyik a legolcsóbb? (Which is the cheapest?)

▶Ez a legszebb nap az életemben. (This is the most beautiful day of my life.)

To make it even stronger, use legesleg-: ▶a legeslegjobb (the very best of all).

-ik: the bigger one, the biggest one

When you pick one from a group, and especially from a pair, Hungarian often adds -ik to the comparative or superlative. It works like English "the bigger one".

▶A két fiú közül a nagyobbik Péter. (Of the two boys, the bigger one is Péter.)

▶A legkisebbik lányom hatéves. (My youngest daughter is six.)

▶Melyiket kéred? A nagyobbikat. (Which one do you want? The bigger one.)

The -ik form takes case endings with a linking vowel: ▶a nagyobbikat, ▶a nagyobbikban.

More and more, the more ... the more

▶Egyre jobb. (It's getting better and better.)

▶Egyre többet dolgozik. (She works more and more.)

▶Minél előbb, annál jobb. (The sooner, the better.)

▶Minél többet gyakorolsz, annál könnyebb. (The more you practise, the easier it gets.)

Adverbs: -an, -en, -ul, -ül

To turn an adjective into an adverb ("quick" into "quickly"), add -an/-en, or -ul/-ül for some words. Final a and e lengthen, and many adjectives ending in -ú/-ű drop it.

Adverbs compare like adjectives, with -bb before the adverb ending: ▶gyorsabban (faster), ▶szebben (more beautifully), ▶jobban (better), ▶a legjobban (best). ▶Jobban vagyok. means "I'm feeling better."

Making adjectives

Many adjectives are built from nouns with a few productive endings: