A noun case is a role that a noun plays in a sentence or phrase, such as the subject, direct or indirect object.
In English these roles are pretty much the same, but are unmarked (pronouns, however, are marked in English). In Hungarian the word has to be marked according to its role using special endings, very much like in Latin.
This section will detail how to use the many Hungarian noun cases and their endings. Each of the following pages
will list the case, its uses, its Latin-style name, its one/two/three for endings (due to
vowel harmony),
and pronouns placed into the case.
You can use the navigation links on the left to navigate, or see the list below.
Since many of the endings are to do with motion, I have split
nine of them into three triads, which are detailed here:
the triads of movement.
For a reference of how to create nouns,
see the
noun (ság) building page
or the
noun (ás) building page.
Here is a list of the noun cases featured on this site. I have listed them in the
order that I think is the most important for you as a student.
- -t - accusative - direct object of verbs
- -nak/nek- dative - indirect object of verbs (for, to)
- -ba/be- illative - into, to
- -ban/ben - inessive - in, inside
- -ból/ből - elative - out of, from
- -hoz/hez/höz - allative - towards, to
- -nál/nél - adessive - at, by
- -tól/től - ablative - away from
- -ra/re- sublative - onto, to
- -n- superessive - on, in
- -ról/ről - delative - from, from off; about
- -val/vel - instrumental - with
- -ért - causal-final - for, because of
- -ig - terminative - until
- -kor - temporal - age, -time, -hood, era
- -vá/vé - translative - turning into
- -féle - kinds of