The nine local cases

Nine of the eighteen Hungarian cases describe location and movement, and they are not a random list: they form a tidy 3x3 grid. Once you understand the two questions behind the grid (what kind of place, and which direction), you can produce all nine forms of any noun and understand most of their abstract uses too.

The grid: three places, three directions

Every local case answers two questions at once. The row tells you the spatial relation: inside something, on its surface, or next to it. The column tells you the direction: static location, movement towards, or movement away.

Patterns worth noticing:

• All three "from" suffixes end in -l: -ból, -ról, -tól.
• The inside row shares a b: -ban, -ba, -ból. The surface row has r in two forms: -ra, -ról.
• Only -on/-en/-ön and -hoz/-hez/-höz have three vowel-harmony forms; the rest have two (see vowel harmony).
• Hungarian also has "where to" question words in two forms: Hová? and Hova? are both correct.

Master grid with ház, asztal and orvos

Every noun can take all nine suffixes. The three nouns below were chosen because each is most at home in a different row: a house is something you go into, a table is a surface, a doctor is a person you go to. The other forms exist too, often in abstract meanings, shown in brackets.

• A házban ülünk. Bemegyünk a házba. Kijövünk a házból. We sit in the house. We go into the house. We come out of the house.
• A könyv az asztalon van. Leteszem az asztalra. Leveszem az asztalról. The book is on the table. I put it on the table. I take it off the table.
• Az orvosnál voltam. Orvoshoz megyek. Most jövök az orvostól. I was at the doctor's. I'm going to the doctor. I'm just coming from the doctor's.
• Az asztalnál ülünk. Leülünk az asztalhoz. Felállunk az asztaltól. We sit at the table. We sit down at the table. We get up from the table.

To generate all nine forms of any noun, use the suffix builder.

How to choose the row

The direction column is usually obvious from the verb: van and ül need "where", megy and tesz need "where to", jön and vesz le need "where from". The row is where learners hesitate. Work through these questions:

1. Is it a person? Use the proximity row: Péternél, Péterhez, Pétertől ("at Péter's, to Péter, from Péter"). You go to people, not into them. See -nál, -hoz, -tól.
2. Is it a town, country or other named place? Countries and foreign cities take the inside row (Bécsben, Németországban); most Hungarian towns and Hungary itself take the surface row (Budapesten, Magyarországon). See -ban or -on with place names.
3. Is it something with an inside you can enter or be contained in? Rooms, buildings, containers, water, forests, cars: inside row. See -ban, -ba, -ból.
4. Is it a surface, an open area, or public transport? Tables, walls, streets, squares, fields, islands, buses, trains: surface row. See -on, -ra, -ról.
5. Do you mean "next to" or "at the edge of" rather than in or on? Proximity row: az ablaknál (at the window), a Dunánál (by the Danube).

Conventional choices you must memorise

Some places use a row that does not follow physical logic. The most frequent:

The street row is a neat mini-rule: a named utca takes -ban, while út, körút and tér take -on/-en. Unnamed "in the street" is az utcán.

One noun, three rows: minimal triples

Because the rows encode real distinctions, changing the row changes the meaning. These contrasts are an efficient way to feel the system:

• a Balatonban in (the water of) Lake Balaton: fürdik a Balatonban, swims in the Balaton
• a Balatonon on Lake Balaton: vitorlázik a Balatonon, sails on the Balaton
• a Balatonnál by Lake Balaton, at the lakeside
• a tengerben / a tengeren / a tengernél in the sea / at sea, on the sea / by the sea
• a fában / a fán / a fánál inside the tree (a hollow) / in the tree, on a branch / by the tree

Note the last one: a bird sits a fán, "on the tree", where English says "in the tree".

Local cases with pronouns

Personal pronouns do not take these suffixes directly. Instead, each case has a pronoun stem with personal endings. The six forms below are the most useful to learn as a block:

The third-person forms double as "in it, onto it, about it" and so on, and several of them also serve as verbal prefixes: belenéz (look into), rájön (figure out), hozzászól (comment on).

Metaphorical uses: the grid beyond space

The local cases extend far beyond physical places, and the extensions are fairly consistent:

• Inside row: states and fields. jó egészségben (in good health), bajban van (is in trouble), fából készült (made of wood).
• Surface row: topics and results. -ról means "about" (a filmről), -ra marks result and target (kékre festi, paints it blue).
• Proximity row: sources, standards, comparison. -tól marks a source or cause (fél a kutyától, is afraid of the dog), -nál the standard of comparison (nagyobb nálam, bigger than me).
• Time. Months and years take -ban (májusban, 2024-ben), days take -on (hétfőn), and spans run -tól ... -ig (reggeltől estig).

Verbs that govern a local case

Many verbs require a specific local case that has nothing to do with physical space, and English prepositions are a poor guide. Learn each verb with its case, as Hungarian dictionaries do (gondol valamire).

• Rád gondolok. I'm thinking of you.
• Min gondolkodsz? What are you thinking about?
• Miről beszéltek? What are you (pl.) talking about?
• Nem bízom benne. I don't trust him.
• Mennyibe kerül? How much does it cost?

Sources and further reading

• Carol H. Rounds, Hungarian: An Essential Grammar (2nd ed., Routledge, 2009), on the locative case system
• István Kenesei, Robert M. Vago and Anna Fenyvesi, Hungarian (Descriptive Grammars series, Routledge, 1998), on spatial cases and pronominal forms
• Daniel Abondolo (ed.), The Uralic Languages (Routledge, 1998), chapter on Hungarian

Frequently asked questions