Appendix:Hungarian postpositions

Unlike in English where prepositions are placed before the noun they refer to, in Hungarian prepositions are placed after the noun they refer to. For this reason they are usually referred to as postpositions.

a híd alatt - under the bridge

a (“the”) híd (“bridge”) alatt (“under”)

Postpositions are pronounced without stress. Even though they are written as a separate word, in speech they behave just like a suffix and only the main word is stressed.

a híd alatt - IPA^(key): /ɒˈhiːdɒlɒtː/

When contrast is needed, however, the postpositions can be stressed:

A híd FELETT laktak, nem pedig a híd ALATT. - They lived ABOVE the bridge, not UNDER the bridge.

A word can stand with multiple postpositions without repeating the word itself:

a víz alatt és felett - under and above the water

Multiple words can be referenced with a single postposition:

a felhők és a föld felett - above the clouds and earth

Some of the postpositions have three related forms indicating directions or movements: static, moving from, and moving to an object.

A macska az asztal alatt van. - The cat is under the table.

A macska kiugrott az asztal alól. - The cat jumped from under the table.

A macska beugrott az asztal alá. - The cat jumped to under the table.

Postpositions cannot be inflected. However, when they refer to personal pronouns, some of them can be suffixed as listed in the tables below. As of 2019, scholars are still in disagreement about the part of speech of the suffixed forms. The traditional view is that they are adverbs (személyragos/személyjeles határozószók - adverbs with personal/possessive suffix) and most dictionaries still list them as such. The latest interpretation of Hungarian grammar^[1] categorizes them as personal pronouns.

alatt (“under”) +‎ -unk (first-person plural possessive suffix) = alattunk (“under us”)

More emphasis can be expressed when the personal pronoun is also added to the suffixed form. These forms have to be spelled in one word without spaces:

mi (“we”) +‎ alatt (“under”) +‎ -unk (first-person plural possessive suffix) = mialattunk (“under us”)

te (“you”) +‎ alatt (“under”) +‎ -ad (second-person singular possessive suffix) = tealattad (“under you”)

The following table contains the two- and three-directional suffixable postpositions.

Note 1: The 3rd person plural long form uses the personal pronoun ő instead of ők.

Note 2: strictly speaking, (én)köz(öt)tem, (te)köz(öt)ted, (ő)köz(öt)te, (én)közém, (te)közéd, (ő)közé(je), and (én)közülem, (te)közüled, (ő)közüle apparently do not make much sense, except if a group of beings identifies as a single entity (e.g. if a swarm of bees gains a communal, shared consciousness). However, these forms do have an everyday function as well, to express relations where at least one participant is "I", "you" or "he/she/it", such as te és énközöttem or teközötted és énközöttem, i.e. 'between you and me.'

The following table contains suffixable postpositions that have only one base form.

Note: The 3rd person plural long form uses the personal pronoun ő instead of ők.

The following postpositions require the referenced noun to have a specific case.

In English:

1. Éva Dékány: The nanosyntax of Hungarian postpositions
2. Veronika Hegedűs: Hungarian spatial PPs
3. Rounds, Carol. Hungarian: an Essential Grammar. London / New York: Routledge. 2001. →ISBN. Preview at Google Books

In Hungarian:

1. Ádám Nádasdy: A névutó (The Postposition)
2. Park Soo Young: The Hungarian system of postpositions from the point of view of Korean language
3. Threshold: Hungarian as a foreign language - Postpositions