The minor cases: -ért, -ig, -vá, -ként, -kor and others

After the grammatical and local cases, Hungarian has a set of smaller cases with narrower meanings: "for", "until", "becoming", "as", "at (a time)" and a few distributive and manner suffixes. Some are as productive as any other case; others survive in a handful of fixed words. This page covers each one with its forms, uses and how freely you can use it.

Overview and productivity

"Productive" here means you can attach the suffix to practically any suitable noun and be understood as speaking normal Hungarian. The last column is the practical advice for learners.

The first five are counted in the usual list of 18 Hungarian cases; the rest are the reason some grammars count more than 20 (see Hungarian cases). Note that -ért, -ig, -ként, -kor have one form only: they ignore vowel harmony.

-ért: for, for the sake of, to fetch

-ért attaches directly, with the usual lengthening of a/e (almáért, kávéért). It covers four English uses of "for":

• Hatkor érted jövök. I'll come and pick you up at six.
• Mennyiért adod? How much will you sell it for?
• A szabadságért harcoltak. They fought for freedom.
• Aggódom érted. I'm worried about you.

The question word miért? ("why?") is simply mi + ért, and ezért ("therefore") and azért ("that's why", or with hogy, "so that") are built the same way.

Pronoun forms and a famous ambiguity

The personal forms are értem, érted, érte, értünk, értetek, értük. Four of the six are identical to present-tense forms of the verb ért ("understand"): értem, érted, értünk, értetek.

• Értem. I understand. / for me
• Érted? Do you understand (it)? / for you
• Értünk. We understand. / for us

Context almost always disambiguates: Érted jövök can only mean "I'm coming for you".

-ig: until, as far as, up to

-ig marks an end point in time, space or quantity. It never changes form: házig, kertig, almáig.

• Ötig dolgozom. I work until five.
• Elkísérlek az állomásig. I'll walk you as far as the station.
• Térdig ért a víz. The water came up to our knees.
• Számolj tízig! Count to ten.
• Porig égett a ház. The house burned to the ground.
• Meddig maradsz? How long are you staying?

It pairs with -tól/-től for spans (hétfőtől péntekig; see -nál, -hoz, -tól) and appears in eddig ("so far, until now") and addig ("until then").

"Until" or "by"?

With a time word, -ig can mean either "until" or "by" (a deadline), depending on the verb:

• Péntekig maradok. I'm staying until Friday.
• Péntekig befejezem. I'll finish it by Friday.

For deadlines Hungarian also uses -ra/-re: Péntekre kész lesz ("It'll be ready by Friday").

-vá/-vé: becoming, turning into

The translative marks the result of a change. It behaves like the instrumental: after a vowel it is -vá/-vé (almává, királyfivá); after a consonant the v assimilates (jég → jéggé, ház → házzá, boldog → boldoggá), with the same digraph rule (hegy → heggyé, király → királlyá).

• A víz jéggé fagyott. The water froze into ice.
• A béka királyfivá változott. The frog turned into a prince.
• Boldoggá teszel. You make me happy.
• Elnökké választották. She was elected president.
• Ez a nap szebbé tette az egész hetet. This day made the whole week nicer.

Productivity is real but channelled: the translative appears with a limited set of verbs, mainly válik and változik (become, turn into), tesz (make), választ (elect), kinevez (appoint), alakul (develop into) and verbs like fagy (freeze). With these, any noun or adjective can be used.

-ként, -képp(en) and -ul/-ül: three ways to say "as"

-ként: in the role of

-ként (one form only) means "as, in the capacity of":

• Tanárként dolgozik. She works as a teacher.
• Barátként mondom. I'm telling you this as a friend.
• Gyerekként sokat olvastam. As a child I read a lot.
• Ajándékként kaptam. I got it as a present.
• Első lépésként töltsd ki az űrlapot! As a first step, fill in the form.

Don't confuse it with mint ("like"): tanárként beszél is "he speaks in his capacity as a teacher", while úgy beszél, mint egy tanár is "he talks like a teacher" (but isn't one). Egyébként ("by the way, otherwise") is a lexicalised form of this suffix.

-képp(en): by way of, in the manner of

This suffix is formal and bookish, and both -képp and -képpen are correct. It survives productively in a few types: ajándékképpen (by way of a gift), büntetésképpen (as a punishment), válaszképpen (by way of reply), példaképpen (as an example). More importantly for learners, it is frozen in several everyday adverbs:

• Ezt másképp csinálom. I do this differently.
• Mindenképpen eljövök. I'll definitely come.
• Semmiképp ne nyisd ki! Don't open it under any circumstances.
• Hasonlóképpen gondolom. I think similarly.

-ul/-ül: languages and fixed expressions

The essive-modal has two forms, -ul (back) and -ül (front). Its living use is with language names: "in (a language)".

• Beszélsz angolul? Do you speak English?
• Hogy mondják ezt magyarul? How do you say this in Hungarian?
• Egy éve tanulok magyarul. I've been learning Hungarian for a year.

Outside languages, -ul/-ül is unproductive and appears in fixed forms: például (for example, from példa), feleségül vesz (marry, literally "take as wife"), segítségül hív (call on for help), and many manner adverbs such as rosszul (badly). See the inner cases for how magyarul differs from a magyarban.

-kor: at a point in time

-kor is invariant and attaches only to words denoting a time or an event: clock times, holidays and action nouns.

• Hatkor találkozunk. We're meeting at six.
• Fél nyolckor kezdődik. It starts at half past seven.
• Éjfélkor koccintunk. We clink glasses at midnight.
• Karácsonykor hazautazom. I'm travelling home at Christmas.
• Érkezéskor fizetünk. We pay on arrival.
• Napnyugtakor indultunk. We set off at sunset.

Clock numbers use their standalone forms: kettőkor (not *kétkor), egykor (which also means "once, formerly"). "At noon" is délben, and parts of the day take no suffix: reggel, este, éjjel. For more, see telling the time. Question and demonstrative forms: mikor? (when?), akkor (then), bármikor (any time).

Distributives and the sociative: -nként, -nta/-nte, -stul/-stül

-nként: per, by

The distributive divides something into equal units. It takes a linking vowel after consonants (-onként, -enként, -önként) and attaches directly after vowels (óránként, kilónként).

• A belépő fejenként ezer forint. Admission is a thousand forints per head.
• Darabonként árulják. They sell it by the piece.
• Egyenként jöjjenek be! Come in one by one, please.
• Időnként eljön hozzánk. He comes to see us from time to time.
• Esténként olvasok. I read in the evenings.

-nta/-nte: every day, every week

This suffix is restricted to units of time and means "every, per". It is fully usable with those units, including compounds with numbers:

• Hetente kétszer edzek. I train twice a week.
• Naponta háromszor vedd be! Take it three times a day.

Naponként and óránként exist too; with most time units the -nta/-nte form is the everyday choice, while for hours óránként is the usual one.

-stul/-stül: along with, including

The sociative means "together with, X and all". It sounds informal and expressive and is used with a limited set of nouns, typically a linking vowel plus -stul/-stül:

• Családostul jöttek. They came with the whole family.
• Ruhástul ugrott a vízbe. He jumped into the water fully clothed.
• Mindenestül megvette a házat. She bought the house with everything in it.
• Szőröstül-bőröstül megette. He ate it all, hide and hair (i.e. completely).

Learners should recognise it rather than build new forms; -val/-vel együtt is the neutral way to say "together with".

A fossil: the old locative -t/-tt

Old Hungarian had a locative -t/-tt ("at, in"). It lives on in itt (here), ott (there), in postpositions such as alatt, mellett, előtt, and in a few town names: Pécsett, Győrött, Vácott, Kolozsvárott. See place names with -ban or -on.

Sources and further reading

• István Kenesei, Robert M. Vago and Anna Fenyvesi, Hungarian (Descriptive Grammars series, Routledge, 1998), on the full case inventory
• Ferenc Kiefer (ed.), Strukturális magyar nyelvtan (Akadémiai Kiadó, 1992 onward), morphology volume
• Carol H. Rounds, Hungarian: An Essential Grammar (2nd ed., Routledge, 2009)

Frequently asked questions