The 18 Cases

Hungarian nouns take endings to show what they are doing in a sentence. English uses little words like "in", "on", "to" and "with" for this. Hungarian sticks the meaning onto the end of the word instead: ▶ház (house), ▶házban (in the house), ▶házból (out of the house). Each of these forms is called a case, and Hungarian has eighteen of them.

Eighteen sounds like a lot, but the endings are very regular. They never change the word in unpredictable ways, they work the same for every noun, and nine of them are just the "in", "on" and "at" family. The lessons introduce them a few at a time: the accusative in Lesson 4 and Lesson 7, the "in" cases in Lesson 8, the "on" cases in Lesson 11, the "at" cases, -val/-vel and the dative in Lesson 16, and the rest in Lesson 20.

The 18 cases at a glance

The examples use ▶ház (house), a back-vowel word, and ▶kert (garden), a front-vowel word. In the plural, the case ending goes after the plural -k: ▶ház → ▶házak → ▶házakban.

The essive-modal -ul/-ül is not used with ordinary nouns like ▶ház. It survives in a handful of fixed words, the most useful being the names of languages: ▶magyarul (in Hungarian), ▶angolul (in English), and ▶például (for example, literally "as an example").

The nine place cases

Nine cases describe place and movement. They come in three sets of three: "inside", "on the surface" and "next to". Each set answers the questions where to?, where? and where from?

Hungarian is strict about movement. English says "I'm going in the shop" and "I put it in the bag", but Hungarian must use the "into" form for both: ▶Bemegyek a boltba., ▶A táskába teszem. Ask yourself: is there movement towards, no movement, or movement away?

Cities and places that use "on"

Most towns and countries take the "in" cases: ▶Londonban, ▶Bécsben (in Vienna), ▶Győrben, ▶Angliában. But Hungary itself, most Hungarian towns and a few common places take the "on" cases:

▶Magyarországon élek. (I live in Hungary.)

▶Budapesten, Szegeden, Pécsen (in Budapest, in Szeged, in Pécs)

▶Az egyetemen tanulok. (I study at the university.)

▶A postán dolgozik. (She works at the post office.)

▶Budapestre megyek, aztán Bécsbe. (I'm going to Budapest, then to Vienna.)

There is no rule that tells you which towns take which, but the "on" group includes Budapest and most towns in Hungary, while the "in" group includes almost all foreign places and some Hungarian towns, many of them ending in -n, -r or -m, such as ▶Debrecenben, ▶Győrben, ▶Veszprémben.

The cases in sentences

How the endings attach

• Vowel harmony picks the version: back words take -ban, front words take -ben. Three-way endings have a rounded form too: ▶sörhöz, ▶sörön. See Vowel Harmony.
• Final a and e lengthen: ▶alma → ▶almában, ▶mese → ▶meséről.
• Only -t and -n take a linking vowel after a consonant: ▶asztalt, but ▶asztalon; ▶kertet, ▶kerten. All the other endings start with a consonant and go straight on: ▶asztalban, ▶kertből.
• The plural comes first, then the case: ▶kert → ▶kertek → ▶kertekben.
• Adjectives don't take case endings in front of a noun: ▶a nagy házban (in the big house), ▶a nagy házakból (out of the big houses).

-val/-vel and -vá/-vé: the v assimilates

The v of these two endings stays after a vowel, but after a consonant it turns into a copy of that consonant.

Words whose stem changes

A small group of common words change their stem before an ending that starts with a vowel (the accusative, the plural, -on/-en/-ön). The other cases usually use the dictionary form.

Three extra case-like endings

Some grammars count these as cases too, which is why you will sometimes see lists of twenty or more. They are used with fewer words.