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Noun cases

In Hungarian language there are 18 noun cases which may seem too much compared to German, Slavic languages
or Latin (where they use 4 to 7 cases), but if we understand their meanings, it can become much clearer. Instead of
prepositions (like in, on, from, for, with, etc. in English), Hungarian language likes to use different noun cases. This
practically means that when in English they use prepositions in the sentences e.g. in the house or from the garden,
etc., in the same time a suffix is being put after the word in Hungarian which has the same meaning as the English
preposition. So házban means in house (ház = house, ~ban = in ~).

The hardnesses of the Hungarian declension are that

1. most of the noun cases have one back vowel suffix and one (or two) front vowel suffix(es), and the proper one
has to be added to the words
2. in Accusative- and Supressive cases and in Plurar if the word ends with a consonant then an additional vowel
has to be put between the word and the suffix for which it’s very hard to define an absolute rule when to use
which vowel.

The easinesses of the Hungarian declension compared to the Polish and Latin ones are that

1. there are no grammatical genders in Hungarian at all, so suffixes of the same noun case of different words
differ only in one vowel
2. the different cases never have the same suffixes, so it’s always obvious which is the noun case of a word
3. the plurar form of the noun cases are the sum of the suffix of the plurar (~k) and the suffix of the actual noun
case
4. the etymon never changes

Summarizing the hardnesses and easinesses of Hungarian declension, my opinion is that declension is much less
hard in Hungarian language than for example conjugation (which is truely very hard as one verb have more than 70
different variations). So let’s see the declension:
name of the suffix(es) meaning back vowel (or mixed) front vowel word very front vowel
case of suffix word word

singular plurar singular plurar singular plurar

Nominative – [this word ház házak kert kertek tető tetők

is the (house) (garden) (roof)
subject]

Accusative ~t [this word házat házakat kertet kerteket  *5

is the (house) (garden)
object]

Dative ~nak, for ~, of ~ háznak házaknak kertnek kerteknek

~nek (for (for
house) garden)

Illative ~ba, ~be into ~ házba házakba kertbe kertekbe

(into (into
house) garden)

Inessive ~ban, in ~ házban házakban kertben kertekben

~ben *1 (in (in
house) garden)

Elative ~ból, ~ből from ~, házból házakból kertből kertekből

out of ~ (out of (from
house) garden)

Allative ~hoz, to ~, házhoz házakhoz kerthez kertekhez tetőhöz tetőkhöz

~hez, towards ~ (to (to (to roof)
~höz *2 house) garden)

Adessive ~nál, ~nél at ~, by ~ háznál házaknál kertnél kerteknél

(at (by
house) garden)

Ablative ~tól, ~től away háztól házaktól kerttől kertektől

from ~ (away (away
from from
house) garden)

Sublative ~ra, ~re onto ~ házra házakra kertre kertekre

(onto (onto
house) garden)

Supressive ~n on ~ házon házakon kerten kerteken

(on (on
house) garden)

Delative ~ról, ~ről about ~, házról házakról kertről kertekről

from off ~ (about (about
house) garden)

Instrumental ~val, ~vel with ~ házzal házakkal kerttel kertekkel

3 (with (with
house) garden)
Causal ~ért for ~, házért házakért kertért kertekért
because (for (for
of ~ house) garden)

Terminative ~ig until ~ házig házakig kertig kertekig

(until (until
house) garden)

Temporal ~kor at ~ time – *4 – – –

Translative ~vá, ~vé turning házzá házakká kertté kertekké

*3 into ~ (turning (turning
into into
house) garden)

Modal ~ként as ~ házként házakként kertként kertekként

(as (as
house) garden)

*1: in some local dialects or in case of uneducated speaker, the Inessive case is also used as ~ba’, ~be’, so that it
equals to the Illative case, in standard language this is a huge mistake
*2: in some local dialects or in case of uneducated speaker, in Allative case the suffix ~hoz is sometimes pronounced
as ~ho’ and the suffix ~höz is used in more cases instead of ~hez
*3: the Instrumental- and Translative cases are more tricky than just having one back- and one front vowel form as the
letter v of the suffix assimilates to the last consonant of the word if it ends with a consonant (in case of foreign words
it assimilates according to the pronunciation and written with a hyphen: Pierre-rel = with Pierre), in Székely dialect they
keep the v in every cases
*4: Only numerals, pronouns and the words hour, minute, etc. can be put to Temporal case, for example: 3 órakor / 3-
kor = at 3 o’clock
*5: I declinated the word tető only in Allative case as it differs from the front vowel group only in this case

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