Possession in Depth

Welcome to B2! In Lesson 9 you learned how to say "my mother" and "your house". In this lesson we finish the job. You will learn how to say "my houses" (more than one thing), "Peter's car", "the car is Peter's" and "it's mine", and how to add case endings to possessed nouns, as in "in my house". Possession is everywhere in Hungarian, so this lesson will pay you back in almost every sentence you say.

A quick review

Hungarian doesn't have separate words for "my", "your" and so on. Instead, it adds an ending to the noun. Here are four words you will see throughout this lesson: ▶ház (house), ▶kert (garden), ▶autó (car) and ▶könyv (book).

Remember the main points from Lesson 9:

• The endings follow vowel harmony: ▶házunk but ▶kertünk.
• After a consonant you usually need a linking vowel: ▶házam, ▶könyvem. After a vowel you don't: ▶autóm.
• In the third person, some words take -a/-e and some take -ja/-je: ▶háza but ▶kertje. After a vowel it is always -ja/-je: ▶autója. There is no completely safe rule for consonants, so learn the "his/her" form with each new noun. Good dictionaries list it.
• Final a and e become long: ▶táska → ▶táskám, ▶kecske → ▶kecském.

More than one thing: my houses

So far you can only say "my house". To say "my houses", Hungarian does not use the normal plural -k. Instead it puts a special marker, -i-, in front of the personal ending. The easiest way to find it is to start from the "his/her" form and add -i:

▶háza, házai (his house → his houses)

▶kertje, kertjei (her garden → her gardens)

▶könyve, könyvei (his book → his books)

A few words, such as ▶barát (friend), have -ja in the singular but usually just -ai with several things: ▶barátja (her friend), ▶barátai (her friends).

Then add the personal endings: -m, -d, nothing, -nk, -tok/-tek, -k. These are the same for back and front words, apart from -tok/-tek.

▶A könyveim az asztalon vannak. (My books are on the table.)

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

▶A barátaink Debrecenben laknak. (Our friends live in Debrecen.)

▶Az autóik a ház előtt állnak. (Their cars are standing in front of the house.)

Notice that the verb is plural (▶vannak, ▶laknak), because there is more than one thing. And look at the pair ▶autóik (their cars) and ▶autóink (our cars): one small n makes all the difference, so listen carefully.

Possessives with case endings

A possessed noun can take any case ending, just like any other noun. The case ending always comes last, after the possessive ending:

▶a házamban (in my house) ház + am + ban

▶a kertedből (out of your garden)

▶az autójába (into his car)

▶a barátommal (with my friend) -val assimilates to the m: barátommal.

▶a könyveinkről (about our books)

▶a szüleimnél (at my parents' place)

When a -a or -e ending is followed by a case ending, it becomes long, just like a final a or e in any noun:

▶háza, a házában (his house → in his house)

▶kertje, a kertjében (her garden → in her garden)

▶autója, az autójával (his car → with his car)

The accusative

The accusative works the same way. Most forms take a linking vowel before -t. The "his/her" form lengthens its vowel instead (▶házát, ▶könyvét), and with several things it just adds -t (▶házait):

Peter's car: two ways to say it

English puts 's on the owner: "Peter's car". Hungarian does it the other way round. The owner stays as it is, and the thing owned takes the "his/her" ending:

▶Péter autója (Peter's car) Literally "Peter his-car".

▶a fiú könyve (the boy's book)

▶a tanár táskája (the teacher's bag)

▶Budapest utcái (the streets of Budapest)

▶a ház ablakai (the windows of the house)

The same construction covers English "of": ▶a ház ablakai is "the windows of the house".

Plural owners

Here is a surprise. When the owner is a plural noun, the thing owned still takes the singular "his/her" ending, not "their":

▶a szomszédok kutyája (the neighbours' dog) Not "kutyájuk".

▶a gyerekek szobája (the children's room)

▶a diákok könyvei (the students' books)

You only use the "their" forms with the pronoun ▶ők: ▶az ő kutyájuk (their dog).

The second way: -nak/-nek

There is a second way to say "Peter's car". You put the owner in the dative (-nak/-nek) and add the article before the thing owned:

▶Péternek az autója (Peter's car)

▶a fiúnak a könyve (the boy's book)

Most of the time this means exactly the same as ▶Péter autója, and the short form is more common. But you must use the -nak/-nek form in three situations:

1. With question words: ▶Kinek a kabátja ez? (Whose coat is this?)
2. When the owner is separated from the thing owned: ▶Péternek nagyon szép a háza. (Peter's house is very beautiful.)
3. In a chain of owners, for every owner except the last: ▶a barátom anyjának a háza (my friend's mother's house).

The second point is the same -nak/-nek that you already use to say "have": ▶Péternek van egy autója. (Peter has a car.) It is all one system.

With pronouns: az én könyvem

Because the ending already shows the owner, you don't normally need a pronoun. You add one only for emphasis or contrast. Note that the pronoun always comes with the article a/az:

▶Ez nem az én hibám! (This isn't my fault!)

▶Az Ön jegye, kérem. (Your ticket, please.) jegy → jegye

▶A mi lakásunk kisebb, mint a tiétek. (Our flat is smaller than yours.)

Notice that ▶Önök takes the singular ending, just like a plural noun owner: ▶az Önök könyve. You will see this on every official letter and website:

▶Az Önök véleménye fontos számunkra. (Your opinion is important to us.)

Mine, yours, Peter's: the -é form

To say "the car is Peter's" or "whose is it?", Hungarian has a special ending: -é. It goes on the owner, and there is nothing after it:

▶Kié ez a táska? (Whose is this bag?) ki + é

▶Péteré. (It's Peter's.)

▶Ez a kabát a tanáré. (This coat is the teacher's.)

▶Annáé. (It's Anna's.) Final a lengthens: Anna → Annáé.

▶Ez a ház a szüleimé. (This house is my parents'.)

▶A labda a gyerekeké. (The ball is the children's.)

The pronouns have their own -é forms, which mean "mine", "yours" and so on. Learn them as words:

The forms ▶tied, ▶mienk and ▶tietek, with a short e, are also correct. Like possessed nouns, these words take the article:

▶Ez a toll az enyém. (This pen is mine.)

▶Ez nem a tiéd! (That isn't yours!)

▶A piros autó az övé. (The red car is hers.)

▶Az ő lakásuk nagyobb, mint a miénk. (Their flat is bigger than ours.)

Family words with irregular stems

The words for family members are among the most common possessed nouns of all, and several of them are irregular. Here are the ones to know:

A few things to notice:

• ▶anya and ▶apa lose their final vowel in the 3rd person: ▶anyja, ▶apja. Many people prefer the softer ▶anyukája, ▶apukája or the respectful ▶édesanyja, ▶édesapja, especially when talking about someone else's parents.
• ▶fiú (boy) becomes ▶fia (his son), with a short u. Be careful: ▶fiúk means "boys", but ▶fiuk means "their son". My sons are ▶fiaim.
• ▶öcs doubles its cs: ▶öccse. When a double digraph is written, only the first letter is doubled: ccs, not "cscs".
• ▶nagybácsi (uncle) has a separate possessed stem: my uncle is ▶nagybátyám.
• "My parents" is ▶szüleim, from an older stem szüle-, not "szülőim".

▶Az öcsém egyetemre jár. (My younger brother goes to university.)

▶Mit csinál a férje? (What does your husband do?) Formal: Ön → férje.

▶A szüleim hétvégén meglátogatnak. (My parents are visiting me at the weekend.)

▶Annának két fia és egy lánya van. (Anna has two sons and a daughter.)

▶A nagybátyám Kanadában él. (My uncle lives in Canada.)

Conclusion

You now know the whole possessive system: one thing or many, with any case ending, with nouns, pronouns and the -é form. That is a big piece of Hungarian grammar. Use the Possessive Tables tab for revision, learn the Vocabulary and try the Exercises. There is more on this topic on the grammar page on possession. In the next lesson you will learn the remaining Hungarian cases and see all eighteen together.