Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
57 lines (39 loc) · 2.53 KB

postpositions.md

File metadata and controls

57 lines (39 loc) · 2.53 KB
layout title
page
Spatial Postpositions

In English, there are prepositions. They dictate relationships between nouns. Here are some examples of spatial relationships.

  • The bird flies above the city.
  • The man is below the bridge.
  • The boy is in front of the building.

In Hungarian, there are postpositions. They are placed after the noun relationship instead of between. Here are the translations.

  • A madár a város felett repül.
  • A férfi a híd alatt van.
  • A fiú az épület előtt van.

Challenge! A kutya és a lány

A kutya a lány mellett ül. (Original image, merging free images together)

The dog sits next to the girl.

These postpositions don't indicate relative movement between the nouns, i.e. at that specifc point of time, they are not moving away from each other. Spatial postpositions can also represent the relationship of a noun moving towards the other noun or away from that noun.

Postposition Moving towards (to) No relative movement Moving away (from)
Next to Mellé Mellett Mellől
Above Fölé Felett/Fölött Fölül
Below Alá Alatt Alól
Infront of Elé Előtt Elől
Behind Mögé Mögött Mögül
Between/Among Közé Között Közül

Felett and fölött were a result of dialectual differences, however now they are virtually interchangeable.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Postpositions cannot be used with standalone pronouns, such as én, te or ő. Instead, the postposition gets a possessional suffix to indicate who or what it is referring to.

  • István sat next to me.

    • István én mellé ült.
    • István mellém ült. (Sitting implies moving to sit somewhere, thus mellém is used instead of melletem)

  • The man came out from behind you.

    • A férfi te mögül kijött
    • A férfi kijött mögüled.

Yet to Learn

Got questions? Join our discord server!: https://discord.gg/VsqppQ6