Possession

English says "my house" with a separate word. Hungarian adds an ending to the noun instead: ▶ház (house), ▶házam (my house), ▶házad (your house). The endings follow vowel harmony, and they can be followed by case endings, so ▶házamban means "in my house". Possessive endings are introduced in Lesson 9 and covered in full in Lesson 19.

The endings for one thing

• Final a and e lengthen, as with every ending: ▶alma → ▶almám, ▶mese → ▶mesém.
• Lowering words, which take a as their linking vowel in the plural, also take it here: ▶ház → ▶házam, ▶házad, ▶házatok. Front words of this type take e: ▶könyv → ▶könyvem, ▶könyvetek.
• -a or -ja? After a vowel, always -ja/-je: ▶autója, ▶kávéja. After s, sz, z, zs, cs, j, ly, ny and gy, almost always -a/-e: ▶lakása, ▶pénze (his money), ▶lánya (her daughter). After other consonants it varies, so learn it with the word: ▶ablaka (its window) but ▶kabátja (his coat); ▶füzete (her exercise book) but ▶kertje (his garden). The "their" form follows the same choice: ▶ablakuk, ▶kabátjuk.

The endings for several things

When the owner has more than one of something, the plural sign is not -k but -i-, which goes before the personal ending. After a consonant it becomes -ai- or -ei-, and if the word takes -ja/-je in the "his/her" form, it becomes -jai- or -jei-.

▶A barátaim Budapesten laknak. (My friends live in Budapest.)

▶Hol vannak a kulcsaid? (Where are your keys?)

▶A gyerekeik már nagyok. (Their children are already grown up.)

Six model nouns

lakás (flat): back word ending in a consonant

kert (garden): front word ending in a consonant, with -je

főnök (boss): front rounded word ending in a consonant

autó (car): word ending in a long vowel

iskola (school): word ending in -a, which lengthens

mese (story): word ending in -e, which lengthens

Family words

Several family words have short or irregular possessive forms. They are worth learning as a set, because you will use them all the time.

In everyday speech, ▶báty, ▶öcs and ▶húg nearly always carry a possessive ending, because you say whose brother or sister you mean. The plural of ▶fiam (my son) is ▶fiaim (my sons).

Saying "I have"

Hungarian has no everyday verb "to have". Instead, it says "to me there is my dog": the owner goes in the dative (-nak/-nek), the thing owned takes a possessive ending, and the verb is ▶van (there is). The dative pronoun is usually left out, because the ending already shows who the owner is.

▶Van egy kutyám. (I have a dog.)

▶Neked van testvéred? (Do you have any brothers or sisters?)

▶Péternek van autója. (Péter has a car.)

▶Nincs időm. (I don't have time.)

▶Két gyerekünk van. (We have two children.)

The negative is ▶nincs: ▶Nincs pénzem. (I have no money.) In the past, use ▶volt and ▶nem volt: ▶Volt egy macskám. (I had a cat.)

"Péter's house": the possessor

To name the owner, put the owner first and give the thing owned the "his/her" ending. The owner itself usually takes no ending at all.

▶Péter háza (Péter's house)

▶a fiú könyve (the boy's book)

▶a barátom anyja (my friend's mother)

▶a gyerekek szobája (the children's room)

Notice the last example. Even when the owners are plural, the thing owned takes the singular "his/her" ending: ▶a gyerekek szobája, not szobájuk. The "their" ending is only used with a pronoun: ▶az ő szobájuk (their room).

The -nak/-nek form

The owner can also take the dative ending -nak/-nek, and then the thing owned needs its article: ▶a fiúnak a könyve (the boy's book). Both forms mean the same, but the -nak/-nek form is needed when the owner is a question word or a demonstrative, or when the two are separated:

▶Kinek a könyve ez? (Whose book is this?)

▶Annak a lánynak a neve Kata. (That girl's name is Kata.)

▶Péternek nagyon szép a háza. (Péter's house is very nice.)

Possessives with case endings

The case ending simply goes after the possessive ending. Possessed nouns are always definite, so as objects they take the definite conjugation.

▶A házamban lakik. (He lives in my house.)

▶Látod a kertjüket? (Can you see their garden?)

▶Az autómmal megyünk. (We're going in my car.)

▶Írok az anyámnak. (I'm writing to my mother.)

▶Kaptam egy levelet a barátaimtól. (I got a letter from my friends.)

In the accusative, the "his/her" ending adds -t with a long vowel: ▶háza → ▶házát, ▶kertje → ▶kertjét. The "my" and "your" forms add -at/-et: ▶házamat, ▶kertedet.

Whose? The -é ending

To say "it's Péter's" without naming the thing, add -é to the owner. The question word is ▶kié? (whose?).

▶Kié ez a táska? Péteré. (Whose bag is this? Péter's.)

▶Ez a kocsi a tanáré. (This car is the teacher's.)

▶Ez a toll nem az enyém, hanem Annáé. (This pen isn't mine, it's Anna's.)

Final a and e lengthen as usual: ▶Anna → ▶Annáé. For several things owned, add -i: ▶Péteréi (Péter's ones). The pronoun forms (▶enyém, ▶tiéd, ▶övé...) are on the Pronouns page.