Understanding Nominative and Accusative Cases in Hungarian for English Speakers

What Are Grammatical Cases in Hungarian?

In Hungarian, grammatical cases are used to show the role of a noun or pronoun in a sentence. Unlike English, which relies mostly on word order, Hungarian uses suffixes attached to words to indicate their grammatical function. Two of the most important cases to understand are the nominative and accusative cases.

The Nominative Case: The Subject of the Sentence

The nominative case is the base form of a noun and is used for the subject of a sentence - the person or thing performing the action. In Hungarian, the nominative case usually has no suffix, so the noun appears in its dictionary form.

For example, in the sentence A fiú olvas. (The boy reads.), fiú (boy) is in the nominative case because he is the subject doing the reading.

The Accusative Case: The Direct Object

The accusative case marks the direct object of a sentence - the person or thing directly receiving the action. In Hungarian, the accusative is typically formed by adding the suffix -t to the noun, sometimes with vowel harmony adjustments.

For example, in Látom a fiút. (I see the boy.), fiút is the accusative form of fiú, indicating that the boy is the direct object being seen.

Vowel Harmony in the Accusative Suffix

Hungarian vowel harmony affects the form of the accusative suffix. If the noun contains front vowels (e, é, i, í, ö, ő, ü, ű), the suffix is -et. For back vowels (a, á, o, ó, u, ú), the suffix is -ot, -at, or -et depending on the word.

For example:

• ház (house) → házat (house-ACC)
• kert (garden) → kertet (garden-ACC)
• autó (car) → autót (car-ACC)

Comparing English and Hungarian Cases

English relies mostly on word order to show who is doing what to whom. For example, "The boy sees the girl" versus "The girl sees the boy." In Hungarian, the word order is more flexible because the cases indicate the grammatical roles.

Understanding the nominative and accusative cases helps English speakers grasp how Hungarian marks subjects and direct objects differently from English.

Summary of Key Points

• Nominative case marks the subject; usually no suffix in Hungarian.
• Accusative case marks the direct object; formed by adding suffixes like -t, -ot, -et, or -at depending on vowel harmony.
• Hungarian uses suffixes to show grammatical roles, allowing flexible word order.
• English speakers should focus on recognizing these suffixes to understand sentence structure.

Useful Hungarian Words in Nominative and Accusative Cases