How to Use Adjective Agreement and Position in Hungarian

Understanding Adjective Agreement in Hungarian

In Hungarian, adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in number and definiteness. This means that the form of the adjective changes depending on whether the noun is singular or plural, and whether it is definite or indefinite.

Number Agreement

When the noun is singular, the adjective remains in its base form. When the noun is plural, the adjective takes a plural suffix -k. For example, "nagy ház" means "big house" (singular), while "nagy házak" means "big houses" (plural). The adjective nagy does not change in this case, but the noun does.

Definiteness Agreement

Hungarian adjectives also agree with the definiteness of the noun phrase when used with definite or indefinite verbs in predicate position. However, when adjectives are attributive (directly before the noun), they do not change form based on definiteness. This is a more advanced topic often encountered in verb conjugation and predicate adjectives.

Position of Adjectives in Hungarian Sentences

Unlike English, where adjectives usually come before the noun, Hungarian adjectives almost always precede the noun they modify. For example, "piros alma" means "red apple".

Multiple adjectives are also placed before the noun, typically in a fixed order based on their type (size, color, quality, etc.). For example, "nagy piros alma" means "big red apple."

Adjective Order in Hungarian

The general order of adjectives in Hungarian is: quantity, quality, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose. For example, "három szép nagy régi kerek piros magyar fa asztal" translates to "three beautiful big old round red Hungarian wooden tables." Although this sounds complex, in everyday speech, fewer adjectives are used.

Examples of Adjective Agreement and Position