Page:Simplified grammar of the Hungarian language.djvu/100

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88
A HUNGARIAN GRAMMAR.

If the predicate is an adjective or a substantive, it is put after the subject without any copula; as—

A leány szép, the girl is pretty.
Az épület szálloda, the building is an hotel.

But if these statements are not true at the time of speaking, but have been at some past, or presumably will be at some future period, the time is expressed by putting the appropriate tense of the verb van, "to be" after the predicate; e.g.

A leány szép volt, the girl was pretty.
As épület szálloda fog lenni, the building will be an hotel.

The verb van, when used as a copula between subject and predicate, stands always immediately after the latter. Thus, for instance, if the order of subject and predicate were reversed the above sentence would be: szép volt a leány.

There may be also parenthetical clauses in English for which no other rules need be given than those to be found in English grammars.



THE END.




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