Simplified Grammar of the Hungarian Language/Adjectives

by Ignácz Singer

THE ADJECTIVE.

The adjective never changes its form, if standing before the substantive. But if the substantive whose quality it determines is not written out in the sentence, but only understood, the adjective will come into its place and take all the suffixes of the substantive; in fact, it becomes then a substantive itself. In the sentence—Egy fehér rózsát találtam, I have found a white rose—the substantive is in the accusative, rózsá-t. If we ask, now, What kind of a rose did you find? the answer will be, egy fehér-et, a white one. Here the substantive "rose" has been omitted, as it is already understood of what we speak. In English the pronoun "one" is put in its place; but in Hungarian it is represented by the adjective, which takes its suffixes. In the present example, for instance, it took -et, the termination of the accusative case.

Adjectives are inflected the same as substantives. In forming the plural, however, they make the following exceptions: if ending in ü, they take in the plural -ek; and if ending in i, they take -ek or -ak, acccording as the word takes flat or sharp suffixes (substantives take in both cases only -k). In all other cases they follow the same rules as the substantive.

Note.—To adjectives are also reckoned the participles of the verb, which, if used as adjectives, may be inflected in the same manner.

Comparison of Adjectives.

Adjectives have three degrees of comparison:—1, the positive; 2, the comparative; and 3, the superlative degree.

The comparative is formed by adding -bb to adjectives ending with a vowel, or -abb -ebb to those ending with a consonant. After sibilants, which would admit the sound b to be heard without an intermediate vowel, often a -b is only added to form the comparative, but it is preferable to use a vowel, unless it is not desirable to lengthen the word with a syllable, as, for instance, in poetry. It is therefore equally grammatical to write magasb (higher), or magasabb.

Note.—Final a and e become lengthened at the end of a word, if the comparative suffix -bb is joined to it—e.g., drága, drágább; fekete, feketébb, &c.; ó shortens its sound only in jó; jobb, legjobb.

The superlative is invariably formed by prefixing leg- or legesleg- to the comparative. The first is rendered in English with the superlative; the second by putting the adverb "very" before it.

The following are somewhat irregular:—

szép,	beautiful;	comparative	: szebb
könnyű,	easy, light (in weight);	„	: könnyebb
ifju,	youthful, young;	„	: ifjabb
hosszú,	long;	„	: hosszabb
sok,	much;	„	: több

But the superlative is formed regularly.

 

Table of Numerals.
	Cardinals.	Ordinals.	Distributives.		Multiplicatives.
1	egy	első	egyed	1/1	egyszer	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	Proportionals are formed by affixing -es or -os to the Multiplicatives; kétszeres, hatszoros, &c.
2[1]	kettő	második	másod	1/2	kétszer
3	három	harmadik	harmad	1/3	háromszor
4	négy	negyedik	negyed	1/4	négyszer
5	öt	ötödik	ötöd	1/5	ötször
6	hat	hatodik	hatod	1/6	hatszor
7	hét	hetedik	heted	1/7	hétszer
8	nyolc	nyolcadik	nyolcad	1/8	nyolcszor
9	kilenc	kilencedik	kilenced	1/9	kilencszer
10	tíz	tízedik	tízed	1/10	tízszer
11	tízenegy	tízenegyedik	tízenegyed	1/11	tízenegyszer
12[1]	tízenkettő	tízenkettedik	tízenketted	1/12	tízenkétszer
20	húsz	húszadik	húszad	1/20	húszszor
21	húszanegy	huszanegyedik	huszanegyed	1/21	huszonegyszer	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	Proportionals are formed by affixing -es or -os to the Multiplicatives; kétszeres, hatszoros, &c.
22[1]	huszankettő	huszankettedik	huszanketted	1/22	huszonkétszer
30	harminc	harmincadik	harmincad	1/30	harmincszor
40	negyve	negyvenedik	negyvened	1/40	negyvenszer
41	negyvenegy	negyvenegyedik	negyvenegyed	1/41	negyvenegyszer
50	ötven	ötvenedik	ötvened	1/50	ötvenszer
60	hatvan	hatvanodik	hatvanad	1/60	hatvanszor
70	hetven	hetvenedik	hetvened	1/70	hetvenszer
80	nyolcvan	nyolcvanodik	nyolcvanad	1/80	nyolcvanszor
90	kilencven	kilencvenedik	kilencvened	1/90	kilencvenszer
100	száz	századik	század	1/100	százszor
1,000	ezer	ezredik	ezred	1/1000	ezerszer
10,000	tizezer	tizezredik	tízezred	1/10000	tízezerszer
100,000	százezer	százezredik	százezred	1/100000	százezerszer
1,000,000	millióm	milliómodik	milliómod	1/1000000	milliómszor

 

 

Note.—The ending -ik of the ordinals is sometimes dropped if another word is joined to it. This is not universally done, however, and is almost exclusively used to express age; for instance, másodéves, in the second year; ("two years old" would be kétéves).

Cardinals take—with the exception of the plural endings—all suffixes of the substantive, if this is not written out—i.e., they follow the same rules as the adjectives. They form also adverbs, which answer to the question, How many? and the respective verb; for instance, How many ran away? hárman.^[2] The terminations of the adverb are -an and -en, as négy-en, öten, &c.

Egy=egyedül; and kettő=ketten form their adverbs irregularly. Három and ezer become contracted; hárman, ezren. The rest are regular.

Ordinals follow the same rules as cardinals—that is, they are adjectives and declinable. They form their adverbs by dropping the ending -ik and taking -szor or -szer instead. Első is irregular, and its adverb is először. The English rendering of the ordinals is as follows:—

Adjectives.		Adverbs.
első,	the first.	először,	firstly.
második,	the second.	másodszor,	secondly.
harmadik,	the third, &c.⁠	harmadszor,	thirdly, &c.

Distributives are also adjectives, and therefore declinable, but form no adverbs. They may be put in the plural, however; as, negyedek, quarters (i.e., more than one quarter).

The multiplicatives are adverbs, and, therefore, inflexible. By affixing them with -es or -os adjectives are formed which are called—

Proportionals, and are then declinable. There is also another form of proportionals, constructed by combining the cardinals with rétü:—egyrétü, kétrétü, hatrétü, single, double, sixfold, &c. Both forms have adverbs, made by the affixes -en or -an (those with -rétü always -en), and have a plural; a kétrétüek, the twofold ones.

Száz (100), ezer (1,000), and millióm may be used as substantives, and form a plural if the number of thousands be undefined, &c.; as, százak, hundreds; ezrek, thousands; milliómok, millions.

Temporal numerals are: évtized, decennium; század, century; ezred or évezred, a thousand years. These are all substantives.

The indefinite numerals are: sok, much; sokan, many; kevés, few; annyí, so much; számtalan, innumerable; egynehány, a few, &c.

They are all adjectives, and some of them form also the degrees.

---

1. Kettő if standing by itself, and két if followed by a substantive; for instance két ember, two men. On the question: How many? kettő.
2. Not hároman; the o is here dropped for euphonic reasons.