View source for Hungarian language

{{short description|Ugric language}}
{{Redirect-distinguish|Magyar language|Magar language}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2018}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Hungarian
| boxsize          = 
| nativename       = {{lang|hu|magyar nyelv}}
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|hu|ˈmɒɟɒr ˈɲɛlv||audio=Hu-magyar nyelv.ogg}}
| states           = [[Hungary]] and areas of east [[Austria]], [[Croatia]], [[Romania]], northern [[Serbia]], [[Slovakia]], [[Slovenia]], western [[Ukraine]]
| ethnicity        = [[Hungarians]]
| speakers         = 14 million
| date             = 2023
| ref              = <ref name="Hungarian Speakers" />
| familycolor      = Uralic
| fam1             = [[Uralic languages|Uralic]]
| fam2             = [[Ugric languages|Ugric]]
| script           = {{plainlist|
* [[Latin script|Latin]] ([[Hungarian alphabet]])
* [[Hungarian Braille]]
* [[Old Hungarian script]]}}
| nation           = {{plainlist|
* [[Hungary]]
* [[European Union]]
* [[Serbia]] (in [[Vojvodina]])
* [[Slovenia]] (in [[Prekmurje]])}}
| minority         = {{plainlist|
* [[Romania]] (in [[Transylvania]])
* [[Croatia]]<ref name="Prijedlog izvještaja"/>
* [[Slovakia]]
* [[Austria]] (in [[Burgenland]])
* [[Czech Republic]]
* [[Ukraine]]
}}
| agency           = [[Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics]]
| iso1             = hu
| iso2             = hun
| lc1              = hun
| ld1              = Modern Hungarian
| lc2              = ohu
| ld2              = Old Hungarian
| linglist         = ohu
| lingname         = Old Hungarian
| lingua           = 41-BAA-a
| map              = Idioma húngaro.PNG
| mapcaption       = Map of regions where those whose native language is Hungarian represent a majority (dark blue) or a substantial minority (light blue). ''Based on recent censuses and on the CIA World Factbook 2014''.<ref name="cia-hu"/>
| notice           = IPA
| glotto           = hung1274
| glottorefname    = Hungarian
}}
{{Hungarian language}}
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Orsolya speaking Hungarian.webm|thumb|Orsolya speaking Hungarian]]
[[File:WIKITONGUES-_Norbert_speaking_Hungarian.webm|thumb|A man speaking Hungarian]]
'''Hungarian''', or '''Magyar''' ({{Lang|hu|magyar nyelv|italic=yes}}, {{IPA|hu|ˈmɒɟɒr ˈɲɛlv|pron|audio=Hu-magyar nyelv.ogg}}), is an [[Ugric language]] of the [[Uralic language]] family spoken in [[Hungary]] and parts of several neighboring countries. It is the [[official language]] of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary, it is also spoken by [[Hungarians|Hungarian communities]] in southern [[Slovakia]], western [[Ukraine]] ([[Zakarpattia Oblast|Transcarpathia]]), central and western [[Romania]] ([[Transylvania]]), northern [[Serbia]] ([[Vojvodina]]), northern [[Croatia]], northeastern [[Slovenia]] ([[Prekmurje]]), and eastern [[Austria]] ([[Burgenland]]).

It is also spoken by [[Hungarian diaspora]] communities worldwide, especially in North America (particularly the [[Hungarian Americans|United States]] and [[Canada]]) and [[Israel]]. With 14&nbsp;million speakers, it is the Uralic family's most widely spoken language.<ref name="Hungarian Speakers">{{Cite web |title=Hungarian Learning Community and Resources: How many people speak Hungarian? |url=https://academy.europa.eu/mod/page/view.php?id=18586&lang=en |access-date=2024-01-22 |website=academy.europa.eu}}</ref>

==Classification==
{{See also|Phonological history of Hungarian}}
Hungarian is a member of the [[Uralic language family]]. Linguistic connections between Hungarian and other Uralic languages were noticed in the 1670s, and the family's existence was established in 1717. Hungarian is assigned to the [[Ugric languages|Ugric branch]] along with the [[Mansi languages|Mansi]] and [[Khanty languages|Khanty]] languages of [[western Siberia]] ([[Khanty–Mansia]] region of [[North Asia]]).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zemplényi |first=Lili |date=2023-07-08 |title=The Khanty and the Mansi, the Closest Linguistic Relatives of the Hungarians {{!}} Hungarian Conservative |url=https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/culture_society/khanty_mansi_linguistic_relatives_hungarians_siberia_russia/ |access-date=2024-02-10 |website=www.hungarianconservative.com |language=en-US}}</ref> However, there is debate on whether that is a valid grouping.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lehtinen |first=Tapani |title=Kielen vuosituhannet |publisher=[[Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-951-746-896-1 |series=Tietolipas |volume=215 |language=fi |trans-title=The millennia of language}}</ref><ref name=Janhunen2009>{{cite book|last=Janhunen|first=Juha|chapter=Proto-Uralic—what, where and when? |year=2009 |editor= Jussi Ylikoski |title=The Quasquicentennial of the Finno-Ugrian Society |series=Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia 258 |location=Helsinki |publisher=Société Finno-Ougrienne |isbn=978-952-5667-11-0|issn=0355-0230|chapter-url=http://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust258/sust258_janhunen.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Kulonen">{{Cite book |last=Kulonen |first=Ulla-Maija |title=Ennen, muinoin. Miten menneisyyttämme tutkitaan |publisher=[[Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-951-746-332-4 |editor-last=Grünthal |editor-first=Riho |series=Tietolipas |volume=180 |pages=104–108 |language=fi |trans-title=In times gone by. How to study our past |chapter=Kielitiede ja suomen väestön juuret |trans-chapter=Linguistics and the roots of the Finnish population}}</ref><ref name=Michalove/><ref>{{cite book |last=Aikio |first=Ante |author-link=Ante Aikio |date=24 March 2022 |editor-last=Bakró-Nagy |editor-first=Marianne |editor2-last=Laakso |editor2-first=Johanna |editor3-last=Skribnik |editor3-first=Elena |title=The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |chapter=Chapter 1: Proto-Uralic |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/40193033 |isbn=9780198767664}}</ref> The classification of the Hungarian language as Uralic was also historically the subject of intense scholarly debate, with a number of prominent linguists arguing that Hungarian was a [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] language.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yalçınkaya |first=Ali Can |date=2022-01-01 |title=Relatedness between Hungarian and Turkic languages, and the Turkic material in Hungarian: An overview in the concept of diachronic linguistics |url=https://www.academia.edu/104392226 |journal=Jövőformáló humán tudományok - mersz.hu - ISBN 978 963 454 803 4 • 2022}}</ref>

When the [[Samoyed languages|Samoyedic languages]] were determined to be part of the family, some linguists initially assumed that [[Finnic languages|Finnic]] and Ugric were closer to each other than to the Samoyedic branch of the family. That is now frequently rejected.<ref name="SalmTax">{{Cite book |last=Salminen |first=Tapani |script-title=ru:Лингвистический беспредел: сборник статей к 70-летию А. И. Кузнецовой |publisher=Izdatel'stvo Moskovskogo Universiteta |year=2002 |location=Moscow |pages=44–55 |trans-title=Linguistic chaos: a collection of articles on the 70th anniversary of A. I. Kuznetsova |chapter=Problems in the taxonomy of the Uralic languages in the light of modern comparative studies |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190113123959/http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/kuzn.html |archive-date=2019-01-13 |chapter-url=http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/kuzn.html }}</ref><ref name="Michalove">{{Cite journal |last=Michalove |first=Peter A. |date=2002 |title=The Classification of the Uralic Languages: Lexical Evidence from Finno-Ugric |journal=Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen |volume=57}}</ref><ref name=Kulonen/>

The [[name of Hungary]] could be a result of regular sound changes of ''Ungrian/Ugrian'', and the fact that the Eastern Slavs referred to Hungarians as {{lang|zle|Ǫgry/Ǫgrove}} (sg. {{lang|zle|Ǫgrinŭ}}) seemed to confirm that.<ref>{{Citation | last = Lebedynsky | first = Iaroslav | language = fr | title = Les Nomades: Les peuples nomades de la steppe des origines aux invasions mongoles |trans-title=The Nomads: the steppe nomad people from origins to Mongol invasions | page = 191}}.</ref> Current literature favors the hypothesis that it comes from the name of the [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] tribe [[Onoğurs|Onoğur]] (which means {{gloss|ten arrows}} or {{gloss|ten tribes}}).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sugar |first=P. F. |title=A History of Hungary |publisher=University Press |year=1996 |pages=9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Maxwell |first=Alexander |date=2004 |title=Magyarization, language planning, and Whorf: The word uhor as a case study in linguistic relativism |journal=Multilingua |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=319–337 |doi=10.1515/mult.2004.23.4.319|s2cid=143937903 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Marcantonio |first=Angela |title=The Uralic Language Family: Facts, Myths and Statistics |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2002 |pages=19}}</ref>

There are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and the Ugric languages. For example, Hungarian {{IPA|/aː/}} corresponds to Khanty {{IPA|/o/}} in certain positions, and Hungarian {{IPA|/h/}} corresponds to Khanty {{IPA|/x/}}, while Hungarian final {{IPA|/z/}} corresponds to Khanty final {{IPA|/t/}}. For example, Hungarian {{Lang|hu|ház}} {{IPA|hu|haːz|}} {{Gloss|house}} vs. Khanty {{lang|kca|xot}} {{IPA|[xot]}} {{Gloss|house}}, and Hungarian {{lang|hu|száz}} {{IPA|[saːz]}} {{gloss|hundred}} vs. Khanty {{lang|kca|sot}} {{IPA|[sot]}} {{gloss|hundred}}. The distance between the Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular.

==History==
{{Main |History of the Hungarian language}}

===Prehistory===
====Scholarly consensus====
The traditional view holds that the Hungarian language diverged from its [[Ugric languages|Ugric]] relatives in the first half of the 1st millennium BC, in [[western Siberia]] east of the southern [[Ural Mountains|Urals]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Uralic Languages |last= Abondolo |first=Daniel |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |location=London |pages=1–42 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> In Hungarian, Iranian loanwords date back to the time immediately following the breakup of [[Ugric languages|Ugric]] and probably span well over a millennium.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Uralic Languages |last=Abondolo |first=Daniel |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |location=London |pages=453 |chapter=Hungarian}}</ref> These include {{Lang|hu|tehén}} 'cow' (cf. [[Avestan]] {{lang|ae-latn|daénu}}); {{Lang|hu|tíz}} 'ten' (cf. Avestan {{lang|ae-latn|dasa}}); {{Lang|hu|tej}} 'milk' (cf. Persian {{lang|fa-latn|dáje}} 'wet nurse'); and {{lang|hu|nád}} 'reed' (from late [[Middle Iranian]]; cf. [[Middle Persian]] {{lang|pal-latn|nāy}} and Modern Persian {{lang|fa-latn|ney}}).

Archaeological evidence from present-day southern [[Bashkortostan]] confirms the existence of Hungarian settlements between the [[Volga River]] and the [[Ural Mountains]].<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Türk |first=Attila |title=A magyar őstörténet és a szaltovói régészeti kultúrkör |date=2011 |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Szeged |url=http://doktori.bibl.u-szeged.hu/1167/ |doi=10.14232/phd.1167 |doi-access=free |language=hu |trans-title=Hungarian prehistory and the archaeological cultural circle of Saltovo}}</ref> The [[Onoğurs]] (and [[Bulgars]]) later had a great influence on the language, especially between the 5th and 9th centuries. This layer of Turkic loans is large and varied (e.g. {{lang|trk|szó}} {{gloss|word}}, from [[Turkic languages|Turkic]]; and {{lang|mis|daru}} {{gloss|crane}}, from the related [[Permic languages]]), and includes words borrowed from [[Oghur languages|Oghur Turkic]]; e.g. {{lang|hu|borjú}} {{gloss|calf}} (cf. [[Chuvash language|Chuvash]] {{lang|cv-latn|păru}}, {{lang|cv-latn|părăv}} vs. [[Turkish language|Turkish]] {{lang|tr|buzağı}});<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Róna-Tas |first1=András |title=West Old Turkic: Turkic Loanwords in Hungarian. Part 1: Introduction, A-K |last2=Berta |first2=Árpád |publisher=Harrassowitz |year=2011 |location=Wiesbaden |pages=151–2}}</ref> {{lang|hu|dél}} 'noon; south' (cf. Chuvash {{lang|cv-latn|tĕl}} vs. Turkish dial. {{lang|tr|düš}}).<ref>Róna-Tas & Berta, ''WOT'' 2011/1: 291-4.</ref> Many words related to agriculture,<ref>{{cite web|title=Hungary&nbsp;– Early history|url=http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/hutoc.html|work=[[Library of Congress]] (public domain)|access-date=2008-06-29}}</ref> [[Sovereign state|state]] administration and even family relationships show evidence of such backgrounds.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} Hungarian [[syntax]] and [[grammar]] were not influenced in a similarly dramatic way over these three centuries.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}}
[[File:Hu-funeral sermon and prayer OSZK.jpg|thumb|[[Funeral Sermon and Prayer]], 12th century]]
[[File:Komjati sztpal.jpg|thumb|A page from the first book written completely in Hungarian, 1533]]

After the [[Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin|arrival of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin]], the language came into contact with a variety of [[Sprachbund|speech communities]], among them [[Slavs|Slavic]], [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]], and [[Germans|German]]. Turkic loans from this period come mainly from the [[Pechenegs]] and [[Cumans|Cumanians]], who settled in Hungary during the 12th and 13th centuries: e.g. {{lang|hu|koboz}} "[[cobza]]" (cf. Turkish {{lang|tr|kopuz}} 'lute'); ''[[komondor]]'' "mop dog" (< *''kumandur'' < ''Cuman''). 20% of loanwords in Hungarian borrowed from neighbouring [[Slavic languages]]:<ref name="kenesei-p134">{{Cite book |title=A nyelv és a nyelvek |publisher=[[Akadémiai Kiadó]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-963-05-7959-9 |editor-last=Kenesei |editor-first=István |editor-link=István Kenesei |edition=5., jav., bőv. kiad |location=Budapest |page=134 |language=hu |trans-title=Language and languages |quote=21% finnugor, 9,5% török, 20% szláv, 11% német, 6% latin és görög, 2,5% újlatin, 1% egyéb ismert eredetű és 30% bizonytalan eredetű. NOTE: these percentages add up to 101%. |editor-last2=Bánréti |editor-first2=Zoltán |url=https://www.academia.edu/11616679}}</ref> e.g. {{lang|hu|tégla}} 'brick'; {{lang|hu|mák}} 'poppy seed'; {{lang|hu|szerda}} 'Wednesday'; {{lang|hu|csütörtök}} 'Thursday'...; {{lang|hu|karácsony}} 'Christmas'.<ref>Gábor Zaicz, [http://www.tankonyvtar.hu/hu/tartalom/tinta/TAMOP-4_2_5-09_Etimologiai_szotar/adatok.html ''Etimológiai szótár: Magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303120329/http://www.tankonyvtar.hu/hu/tartalom/tinta/TAMOP-4_2_5-09_Etimologiai_szotar/adatok.html |date=2016-03-03 }}, s.v. "karácsony" (Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2006).</ref> These languages in turn borrowed words from Hungarian: e.g. [[Serbo-Croatian]] {{lang|sh|ašov}} from Hungarian {{lang|hu|ásó}} 'spade'. About 1.6 percent of the [[Romanian language|Romanian]] [[lexicon]] is of Hungarian origin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sala |first=Marius |title=Vocabularul reprezentativ al limbilor romanice |publisher=Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică |year=1988 |location=Bucharest |trans-title=Representative vocabulary of the Romance languages}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schulte |first=Kim |title=Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |year=2009 |editor-last=Haspelmath |editor-first=Martin |location=Berlin |pages=239 |chapter=Loanwords in Romanian |editor-last2=Tadmor |editor-first2=Uri}}</ref>

In the 21st century, studies support an origin of the Uralic languages, including early Hungarian, in eastern or central [[Siberia]], somewhere between the [[Ob River|Ob]] and [[Yenisei River|Yenisei]] rivers or near the [[Sayan Mountains|Sayan mountains]] in the [[Russia]]n–[[Mongolia]]n border region.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Janhunen |first=Juha |title=The Quasquicentennial of the Finno-Ugrian Society |date=2009 |publisher=Société Finno-Ougrienne |isbn=978-952-5667-11-0 |editor-last=Ylikoski |editor-first=Jussi |series=Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia 258 |location=Helsinki |chapter=Proto-Uralic—what, where and when? |issn=0355-0230 |chapter-url=https://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust258/sust258_janhunen.pdf}}</ref> A 2019 study based on genetics, archaeology and linguistics, found that early Uralic speakers arrived in Europe from the east, specifically from eastern Siberia.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tambets |first1=Kristiina |last2=Metspalu |first2=Mait |last3=Lang |first3=Valter |last4=Villems |first4=Richard |last5=Kivisild |first5=Toomas |last6=Kriiska |first6=Aivar |last7=Thomas |first7=Mark G. |last8=Díez del Molino |first8=David |last9=Crema |first9=Enrico Ryunosuke |date=2019 |title=The Arrival of Siberian Ancestry Connecting the Eastern Baltic to Uralic Speakers further East |journal=Current Biology |language=en |volume=29 |issue=10 |pages=1701–1711.e16 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.026 |issn=0960-9822 |pmc=6544527 |pmid=31080083|bibcode=2019CBio...29E1701S }}</ref>

====Alternative views====
{{main|Alternative theories of Hungarian language origins}}
Hungarian historian and archaeologist [[Gyula László]] claims that [[geology|geological]] data from [[pollen analysis]] seems to contradict the placing of the ancient Hungarian homeland near the Urals.<ref>Laszlo Gyula, ''The Magyars: Their Life and Civilization'', (1996). On p. 37 he states: "This seemed to be an impeccable conclusion until attention was paid to the actual testimony of tree-pollen analyses, and these showed that the linguists had failed to take into account changes in the vegetation zones over the millennia. After analysis of the plant pollens in the supposed homeland of the Magyars, which were preserved in the soil, it became clear to scientists that the [[taiga]] and [[deciduous forest]]s were only in contact during the second millennium B.C.E., which is much too late to affect Finno-Ugrian history. So the territory sought by the linguists as the location of the putative 'ancient homeland' never existed. At 5,000-6,000 B.C.E., the period at which the Uralic era has been dated, the taiga was still thousands of kilometres away from the Ural mountains and the mixed deciduous forest had only just begun its northward advance."</ref>

====Historical controversy over origins====
Today, the consensus among linguists is that Hungarian is a member of the [[Uralic languages|Uralic]] family of languages.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Uralic-languages | title=Uralic languages {{pipe}} Britannica | date=21 September 2023 }}</ref>

The classification of Hungarian as a Uralic/Finno-Ugric rather than a [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] language continued to be a matter of impassioned political controversy throughout the 18th and into the 19th centuries. During the latter half of the 19th century, a competing hypothesis proposed a Turkic affinity of Hungarian, or, alternatively, that both the Uralic and the Turkic families formed part of a [[superfamily (linguistics)|superfamily]] of [[Ural–Altaic languages]]. Following an academic debate known as ''Az ugor-török háború'' ("the Ugric-Turkic war"), the Finno-Ugric hypothesis was concluded the sounder of the two, mainly based on work by the German linguist [[Josef Budenz]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Marcantonio |first1=Angela |last2=Nummenaho |first2=Pirjo |last3=Salvagni |first3=Michela |year=2001 |title=The "Ugric-Turkic Battle": A Critical Review |url=http://www.kirj.ee/public/va_lu/l37-2-1.pdf |journal=Linguistica Uralica |volume=2 |access-date=8 October 2017}}</ref>

Hungarians did, in fact, absorb some Turkic influences during several centuries of cohabitation. The influence on Hungarians was mainly from the Turkic [[Oghur languages|Oghur]] speakers such as [[Sabirs]], [[Volga Bulgaria|Bulgars]] of [[Atil]], [[Kabars]] and [[Khazars]]. The Oghur tribes are often connected with the Hungarians whose exoethnonym is usually derived from [[Onogurs]] (> (H)ungars), a [[Turkic tribal confederation]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Golden |first1=Peter B. |title=An introduction to the history of the Turkic peoples: Ethnogenesis and state-formation in medieval and early modern Eurasia and the Middle East |date=1992 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz |location=Wiesbaden |isbn=9783447032742 |pages=102–103}}</ref> The similarity between customs of Hungarians and the [[Chuvash people]], the only surviving member of the Oghur tribes, is visible. For example, the Hungarians appear to have learned [[animal husbandry]] techniques from the Oghur speaking [[Chuvash people]] (or historically [[Suar Principality|Suvar people]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Danver |first1=Steven L. |title=Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues |date=2013 |publisher=Sharpe Reference, an imprint of M.E. Sharpe, Inc |location=Armonk, NY |isbn=978-1317464006 |page=282}}</ref>), as a high proportion of words specific to agriculture and livestock are of Chuvash origin. A strong Chuvash influence was also apparent in Hungarian [[burial]] customs.

===Old Hungarian===
{{More citations needed section|date=January 2020}}
The first written accounts of Hungarian date to the 10th century, such as mostly Hungarian personal names and place names in {{Lang|la|[[De Administrando Imperio]]}}, written in Greek by Eastern Roman Emperor [[Constantine VII]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Tóth |first=Valéria |date=July 2016 |title=Etelköztől Tihanyig. A helynevek és a magyar őstörténet |trans-title=From Etelköz to Tihany. Place names and Hungarian prehistory |url=http://www.rubicon.hu/ma_files/2016_07_96.pdf |language=hu |journal=Rubicon |volume=27 |issue=7 |page=96 |issn=0865-6347 |access-date=May 29, 2020}}</ref> No significant texts written in [[Old Hungarian script]] have survived, because the medium of writing used at the time, wood, is perishable.

The [[Kingdom of Hungary]] was founded in 1000 by [[Stephen I of Hungary|Stephen I]]. The country became a [[Western culture|Western]]-styled Christian ([[Roman Catholic]]) state, with [[Latin script]] replacing [[Old Hungarian script|Hungarian runes]]. The earliest remaining fragments of the language are found in the [[establishing charter of the abbey of Tihany]] from 1055, intermingled with Latin text. The first extant text fully written in Hungarian is the [[Funeral Sermon and Prayer]], which dates to the 1190s. Although the [[orthography]] of these early texts differed considerably from that used today, contemporary Hungarians can still understand a great deal of the reconstructed spoken language, despite changes in grammar and vocabulary.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

A more extensive body of [[Hungarian literature]] arose after 1300. The earliest known example of Hungarian [[Christian poetry|religious poetry]] is the 14th-century ''[[Lamentations of Mary]]''. The first [[Bible translation]] was the [[Hussite Bible]] in the 1430s.<ref name="Kiss2014">{{Cite book |last= É. Kiss |first=Katalin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ExRCBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT76 |title=The Evolution of Functional Left Peripheries in Hungarian Syntax |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-870985-5 |page=76}}</ref><ref name="KaplanBaldauf2005">{{cite book|author1=Robert B. Kaplan|author2=Richard B. Baldauf|title=Language Planning and Policy in Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ei6TGveKcuEC&pg=PA55|year=2005|publisher=Multilingual Matters|isbn=978-1-85359-811-1|page=55}}</ref>

The standard language lost its [[diphthong]]s, and several [[postposition]]s transformed into [[suffix]]es, including ''reá'' "onto" (the phrase ''utu '''rea''''' "onto the way" found in the 1055 text would later become ''út'''ra'''''). There were also changes in the system of [[vowel harmony]]. At one time, Hungarian used six [[verb]] [[Grammatical tense|tenses]], while today only two or three are used.<ref name="MathieuTruswell2017">{{Cite book |last1=Mathieu |first1=Eric |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SCwpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA66 |title=Micro-Change and Macro-Change in Diachronic Syntax |last2=Truswell |first2=Robert |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-874784-0 |pages=66–}}</ref><ref group=note>The future is formed with an [[auxiliary verb]], and so is sometimes not counted as a separate tense. (See also: [[periphrasis]].)</ref>

===Modern Hungarian===
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2018}}
[[File:Esztergom Jordánszky-kódex.JPG|thumb|The [[Bible]] in Hungarian]]
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In 1533, [[Kraków]] printer [[Benedek Komjáti]] published {{ill|Letters of St. Paul in Hungarian|hu|Az zenth Paal leueley magyar nyeluen|vertical-align=sup}} (modern orthography: {{lang|hu|A Szent Pál levelei magyar nyelven}}), the first Hungarian-language book set in [[movable type]].

By the 17th century, the language already closely resembled its present-day form, although two of the past tenses remained in use. German, Italian and French loans also began to appear. Further Turkish words were borrowed during the period of [[Ottoman Hungary|Ottoman rule]] (1541 to 1699).

In the 19th century, a group of writers, most notably [[Ferenc Kazinczy]], spearheaded a process of ''nyelvújítás'' ([[language revitalization]]). Some words were shortened (''győzedelem'' > ''győzelem'', 'victory' or 'triumph'); a number of [[dialect]]al words spread nationally (''e.g.'', ''cselleng'' 'dawdle'); extinct words were reintroduced (''dísz'', 'décor'); a wide range of expressions were [[neologism|coined]] using the various derivative suffixes; and some other, less frequently used methods of expanding the language were utilized. This movement produced more than ten thousand words, most of which are used actively today.

The 19th and 20th centuries saw further [[language standardization|standardization]] of the language, and differences between [[mutually comprehensible]] dialects gradually diminished.

In 1920, Hungary signed the [[Treaty of Trianon]], losing 71 percent of its territory and one-third of the ethnic Hungarian population along with it.
[[File:Magyar Nyelv Múz-2.jpg|thumb|Museum of the Hungarian Language in [[Széphalom (Sátoraljaújhely)|Széphalom]], [[Sátoraljaújhely]]]]
Today, the language holds [[official language|official status]] nationally in Hungary and regionally in [[Hungarians in Romania|Romania]], [[Hungarians in Slovakia|Slovakia]], [[Hungarians in Vojvodina|Serbia]], [[Hungarians in Austria|Austria]] and [[Slovenia]].

In 2014 The proportion of Transylvanian students studying Hungarian exceeded the proportion of Hungarian students, which shows that the effects of [[Romanianization]] are slowly getting reversed and regaining popularity.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gyula |first=Szabó |date=2023-04-24 |title=Fordulat történt az Erdélyben magyar nyelven tanulók arányában |url=https://index.hu/belfold/2023/04/24/erdely-magyar-nyelvtanulas-oktatas/ |access-date=2024-05-26 |website=index.hu |language=hu}}</ref> The Dictate of Trianon resulted in a high proportion of Hungarians in the surrounding 7 countries, so it is widely spoken or understood. Although host countries are not always considerate of Hungarian language users,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Láncos Petra |first=Lea |date=2016 |title=A külhoni magyarok nyelvi diszkriminációja az Unióban – Az EU Közszolgálati Törvényszékének ítélete a román bővítéssel összefüggésben szervezett versenyvizsgáról |url=https://bgazrt.hu/wp-content/uploads/NPKI_folyoiratok/kisebbsegi_szemle/2016_01/ksz201601_11lancospetra.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Az Emberi Jogok Európai Bírósága szerint nem hátrányos a magyarok számára a romániai érettségi rendszer |url=https://ma7.sk/nagyvilag/az-emberi-jogok-europai-birosaga-szerint-nem-hatranyos-a-magyarok-szamara-a-romaniai |access-date=2024-05-26 |website=Az Emberi Jogok Európai Bírósága szerint nem hátrányos a magyarok számára a romániai érettségi rendszer {{!}} ma7.sk |language=hu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Népszava |title=A romániai bíróság szerint nyugodtan lehet a lovak nyelvének nevezni a magyar nyelvet |url=https://nepszava.hu/3079400_a-romaniai-birosag-szerint-nyugodtan-lehet-a-lovak-nyelvenek-nevezni-a-magyar-nyelvet |access-date=2024-05-26 |website=Népszava |language=hu}}</ref> communities are strong. The [[Székelys|Szeklers]], for example, form their own region and have their own national museum, educational institutions, and hospitals.

==Geographic distribution==
[[File:Hungarian language in Transylvania.svg|thumb|upright=1.36|Areas of [[Transylvania]], in Romania, where Hungarian has co-official status (areas in which at least 20% of the population is Hungarian)]]

{|class="wikitable"
|-
!Country!!Speakers!!Notes
|-
|[[Hungary]]||align="right"| 9,896,333 ||2011<ref name="Hungarian census">{{Cite web |url=http://www.ksh.hu/nepszamlalas/tablak_teruleti_00 |title=Országos adatok |publisher=Central Statistics Office |language=hu |trans-title=National data |access-date=8 October 2017}}</ref>
|-
|[[Romania]] <small>(mainly [[Transylvania]])</small>||align="right"| 1,038,806 ||2021<ref name="Székelyhon">{{cite web |title=Mintha városok ürültek volna ki |trans-title=As if cities had been emptied |url=https://szekelyhon.ro/aktualis/csikszek/szekelyfoldon-is-fogy-a-nepesseg |last=Széchely |first=István |website=Székelyhon |language=hu |date=3 January 2023 |access-date=24 January 2023}}</ref>
|-
|[[Slovakia]]||align="right"|422,065|| 2021<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pop-stat.mashke.org/slovakia-ethnic-loc2021.htm |title=Number of population by mother tongue in the Slovak Republic at 1. 1. 2021 |website=SODB2021 – The 2021 Population and Housing Census |publisher=Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic |access-date=23 January 2023}}</ref>
|-
|[[Serbia]] <small>(mainly [[Vojvodina]])</small>||align="right"|241,164|| 2011<ref>Stojšin, S. (2015). Ethnic Diversity of Population in Vojvodina at the Beginning of the 21st Century. European Quarterly
of Political Attitudes and Mentalities, 4(2), 25-37. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-428644</ref>
|-
|[[Germany]]||align="right"|217,000
|2023<ref>{{Cite web |title=Statistische Berichte |url=https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bevoelkerung/Migration-Integration/Publikationen/_publikationen-innen-statistische-berichte.html |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=Statistisches Bundesamt |language=de}}</ref>
|-
|[[Ukraine]] <small>(mainly [[Zakarpattia Oblast|Zakarpattia]])</small>||align="right"|149,400 ||2001<ref>[http://www.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/language/ Ukrainian census 2001]. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100820175518/http://www.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/language/ |date=August 20, 2010 }}.</ref>
|-
|[[United States]]||align="right"|117,973 ||2000<ref>{{cite web|url=http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_QTP16&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U|title=American FactFinder - Results|publisher=United States Census Bureau|website=factfinder.census.gov|access-date=8 October 2017|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200212214529/http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_QTP16&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U|archive-date=12 February 2020|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
|[[Canada]]||align="right"|75,555 ||2001<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/themes/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2001&PID=55670&APATH=3&GID=431515&METH=1&PTYPE=55430&THEME=41&FOCUS=0&AID=0&PLACENAME=0&PROVINCE=0&SEARCH=0&GC=0&GK=0&VID=0&FL=0&RL=0&FREE=0|title=File Not Found|website=12.statcan.ca|access-date=8 October 2017|archive-date=13 February 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213074431/http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/themes/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2001&PID=55670&APATH=3&GID=431515&METH=1&PTYPE=55430&THEME=41&FOCUS=0&AID=0&PLACENAME=0&PROVINCE=0&SEARCH=0&GC=0&GK=0&VID=0&FL=0&RL=0&FREE=0|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
|[[Israel]]||align="right"|70,000||
|-
|[[Austria]] <small>(historical minorities</small> <small>in [[Burgenland]])</small>
| align="right" |40,583||2001<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 2001 |title=Bevölkerung nach Umgangssprache und Staatsangehörigkeit |url=http://www.statistik.at/gz/umgangssprache1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050512113957/http://www.statistik.at/gz/umgangssprache1.pdf |archive-date=2005-05-12 |access-date=2018-06-06 |website=Statistik Oesterreich}}</ref>
|-
|[[Australia]]||align="right"|20,883||2011<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sbs.com.au/censusexplorer/|title=SBS Census Explorer|website=Sbs.com.au|access-date=8 October 2017|archive-date=7 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151207012947/http://www.sbs.com.au/censusexplorer/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
|[[Croatia]]||align="right"|16,500||
|-
|[[Slovenia]] <small>(mainly [[Prekmurje]])</small>||align="right"|9,240||
|-
!Total||12–13 million||
|}
:''Source: National censuses, [[Ethnologue]]''

Hungarian has about 13 million<ref name=Ethnologue>{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/language/hun|title=Hungarian|website=Ethnologue.com|access-date=8 October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vpNOCLJImNkC&pg=PA9 |title=Hungarian Practical Dictionary: Hungarian-English, English-Hungarian |last=Szabó |first=Éva |date=2005 |publisher=Hippocrene Books |location=New York |pages=9 |language=en|isbn=9780781810685 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ox89vJtDfMYC&pg=PA1 |title=Hungarian-English/English-Hungarian: Dictionary & Phrasebook |last=Ward |first=Judit Hajnal |date=2002 |publisher=Hippocrene Books |pages=1|isbn=9780781809191 }}</ref> native speakers, of whom more than 9.8 million live in Hungary. According to the 2011 Hungarian census, 9,896,333 people (99.6% of the total population) speak Hungarian, of whom 9,827,875 people (98.9%) speak it as a first language, while 68,458 people (0.7%) speak it as a [[second language]].<ref name="Hungarian census" /> About 2.2 million speakers live in other areas that were part of the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] before the [[Treaty of Trianon]] (1920). Of these, the largest group lives in [[Transylvania]], the western half of present-day [[Romania]], where there are approximately 1.25 million [[Hungarians in Romania|Hungarians]]. There are large Hungarian communities also in [[Hungarians in Slovakia|Slovakia]], [[Hungarians in Vojvodina|Serbia]] and [[Hungarians in Ukraine|Ukraine]], and Hungarians can also be found in [[Austria]], [[Croatia]], and [[Slovenia]], as well as about a million additional people scattered in other parts of the world. For example, there are more than one hundred thousand Hungarian speakers in the [[Hungarian American]] community and 1.5 million with Hungarian ancestry<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov|title=U.S. Census website|publisher=United States Census Bureau|website=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=8 October 2017}}</ref> in the [[United States]].

===Official status===
[[File:Vojvodina hungarian map.png|thumb|upright=1.36|Official usage of Hungarian language in Vojvodina, Serbia]]
Hungarian is the [[official language]] of Hungary, and thus an official language of the European Union. Hungarian is also one of the official languages of [[Serbia]]n province of [[Vojvodina]] and an official language of three municipalities in [[Slovenia]]: [[Hodoš]], [[Dobrovnik]] and [[Lendava]], along with [[Slovene language|Slovene]]. Hungarian is officially recognized as a [[minority language|minority]] or [[regional language]] in [[Austria]], [[Croatia]], [[Romania]], [[Zakarpattia Oblast|Zakarpattia]] in [[Ukraine]], and [[Slovakia]]. In [[Romania]] it is a recognized minority language used at local level in communes, towns and municipalities with an ethnic Hungarian population of over 20%.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1096369.html |title=Romania: Law Allows Use Of Minority Languages In Public Administration |newspaper=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |date=9 April 2008 |language=en |access-date=2018-10-30|last1=Tomiuc |first1=Eugen }}</ref>

===Dialects===
{{main|Hungarian dialects}}
The [[dialects]] of Hungarian identified by [[Ethnologue]] are: Alföld, West Danube, Danube-Tisza, King's Pass Hungarian, Northeast Hungarian, Northwest Hungarian, Székely and West Hungarian. These dialects are, for the most part, [[mutually intelligible]]. The Hungarian [[Csángó]] dialect, which is mentioned but not listed separately by Ethnologue, is spoken primarily in [[Bacău County]] in eastern Romania. The Csángó Hungarian group has been largely isolated from other [[Hungarian people]], and therefore preserved features that closely resemble earlier forms of Hungarian.

==Phonology==
{{Main|Hungarian phonology}}
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2018}}
[[File:Hungarian vowel chart with rounded short a.svg|right|thumb|upright=1.36|Hungarian vowels]]

Hungarian has 14 vowel phonemes and 30 consonant phonemes (or 31, it depends on the dialect). The vowel phonemes can be grouped as pairs of short and long vowels such as {{Lang|hu|o}} and {{Lang|hu|ó}}. Most of the pairs have an almost similar pronunciation and vary significantly only in their duration. However, pairs {{Lang|hu|a}}/{{Lang|hu|á}} and {{Lang|hu|e}}/{{Lang|hu|é}} differ both in closedness and in length.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+ Consonant phonemes of Hungarian<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Szende|1994|p=91}}</ref>
!
! colspan="2" | [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2" | [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! colspan="2" | [[Postalveolar consonant|Post-{{br}}alveolar]]
! colspan="2" | [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! colspan="2" | [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! colspan="2" | [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! [[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
| style="border-right:0;" |  || style="border-left:0;" | {{IPA link|m}}
| style="border-right:0;" |  || style="border-left:0;" | {{IPA link|n̪|n}}
| colspan="2" | 
| style="border-right:0;" |  || style="border-left:0;" | {{IPA link|ɲ}}
| style="border-right:0;" |  || style="border-left:0;" | ({{IPA link|ŋ}})
| colspan="2" | 
|-
! [[Stop consonant|Stop]]
| style="border-right:0;" width="25px" | {{IPA link|p}} || style="border-left:0;" width="25px" | {{IPA link|b}}
| style="border-right:0;" width="25px" | {{IPA link|t}} || style="border-left:0;" width="25px" | {{IPA link|d}}
| colspan="2" | 
| style="border-right:0;border-top:0;" | {{IPA link|c}} || style="border-left:0;border-top:0;" | {{IPA link|ɟ}}
| style="border-right:0;" width="25px" | {{IPA link|k}} || style="border-left:0;" width="25px" | {{IPA link|ɡ}}
| colspan="2" | 
|-
! [[affricate consonant|Affricate]]
| colspan="2" | 
| style="border-right:0;" | {{IPA link|t͡s}} || style="border-left:0;" | {{IPA link|d͡z}}
| style="border-right:0;" width="25px" | {{IPA link|t͡ʃ}} || style="border-left:0;" width="25px" | {{IPA link|d͡ʒ}}
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" | 
|-
! [[fricative consonant|Fricative]]
| style="border-right:0;" | {{IPA link|f}} || style="border-left:0;" | {{IPA link|v}}
| style="border-right:0;" | {{IPA link|s̪|s}} || style="border-left:0;" | {{IPA link|z̪|z}}
| style="border-right:0;" | {{IPA link|ʃ}} || style="border-left:0;" | {{IPA link|ʒ}}
| style="border-right:0;" | ({{IPA link|ç}}) || style="border-left:0;" | ({{IPA link|ʝ}})
| style="border-right:0;" | ({{IPA link|x}})  || style="border-left:0;" |
| style="border-right:0;" width="25px" | {{IPA link|h}} || style="border-left:0;" width="25px" | ({{IPA link|ɦ}})
|-
! [[Trill consonant|Trill]]
| colspan="2" | 
| style="border-right:0;" |  || style="border-left:0;" | {{IPA link|r̪|r}}
| colspan="2" | 
| colspan="2" | 
| colspan="2" | 
| colspan="2" | 
|-
! [[approximant consonant|Approximant]]
| colspan="2" | 
| style="border-right:0;" |  || style="border-left:0;" | {{IPA link|l̪|l}}
| colspan="2" | 
| style="border-right:0;" |  || style="border-left:0;" | {{IPA link|j}}
| colspan="2" | 
| colspan="2" | 
|-
![[Lateral consonant|Lateral Approximant]]
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| style="border-right:0;" |  || style="border-left:0;" | ({{IPA link|ʎ}})
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
|}

[[Consonant length]] is also distinctive in Hungarian. Most consonant phonemes can occur as [[Consonant length|geminates]].

The sound [[voiced palatal plosive]] {{IPA|/ɟ/}}, written {{angle bracket|gy}}, sounds similar to 'd' in [[British English]] 'duty'. It occurs in the name of the country, "{{Lang|hu|Magyarország}}" (Hungary), pronounced {{IPA|/ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ/}}. It is one of three [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatal]] consonants, the others being {{angle bracket|ty}} and {{angle bracket|ny}}. Historically, and mostly in some northern dialects (for example, the modern Palóc dialect), a fourth palatalized consonant {{IPA link|ʎ}} existed, written {{angle bracket|ly}}.

{{IPA|/ç/}} and {{IPA|/ʝ/}} are only found at the end of words in the vocative case after a voiceless/voiced consonant, both written "j", as in "''kap'''j'''''" (get!) or "''varr'''j'''''" (sew!), as an allophone of {{IPA|/j/}}.

{{IPA|/x/}} is also rare, and it is mostly just an allophone of "h". It is spelled as "ch", and is from German loanwords, like the name ''Ba'''ch'''''. A similar consonant is {{IPA|/ɦ/}}. This is also spelled as "h", and is also found in German loanwords, like a'''ch'''át (agate).

{{IPA|/ŋ/}} is an uncommon consonant, written "ng". It mostly appears in loanwords from English such as "tréni'''ng'''" or "brendi'''ng'''". And in native words like "ri'''ng'''" (to swing). "ng" is a digraph; however unlike other digraphs, it is not a letter of the Hungarian alphabet.

A single 'r' is pronounced as an [[alveolar tap]] ({{Lang|hu|akkora}} 'of that size'), but a double 'r' is pronounced as an [[alveolar trill]] ({{Lang|hu|akkorra}} 'by that time'), like in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and [[Italian language|Italian]].

===Prosody===
Primary stress is always on the first [[syllable]] of a word, as in Finnish and the neighbouring [[Slovak language|Slovak]] and [[Czech language|Czech]]. There is a secondary stress on other syllables in compounds: ''viszontlátásra'' ("goodbye") is pronounced {{IPA|/ˈvisontˌlaːtaːʃrɒ/}}. Elongated vowels in non-initial syllables may seem to be stressed to an English-speaker,{{citation needed|date=October 2020}} as length and stress correlate in English.

==Grammar==
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2018}}
{{Main |Hungarian grammar}}
Hungarian is an [[agglutinative language]]. It uses various [[affixes]], mainly [[suffixes]] but also some [[prefixes]] and a [[circumfix]], to change a word's meaning and its grammatical function.

===Vowel harmony===
Hungarian uses [[vowel harmony]] to attach suffixes to words. That means that most suffixes have two or three different forms, and the choice between them depends on the vowels of the head word. There are some minor and unpredictable exceptions to the rule.

===Nouns===
Nouns have 18 [[Grammatical case|cases]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Both|first=Csaba Attila|date=2015|title=Noun Cases of Hungarian Language in Romanian|url=https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/ausp/6/3/article-p295.xml|journal=Philologica|volume=6|pages=297|via=Sciendo}}</ref> which are formed regularly with suffixes. The nominative case is unmarked (''az alma'' 'the apple') and, for example, the accusative is marked with the suffix ''–t'' (''az almát'' '[I eat] the apple'). Half of the cases express a combination of the source-location-target and surface-inside-proximity ternary distinctions (three times three cases); there is a separate case ending –''ból'' / ''–ből'' meaning a combination of source and insideness: 'from inside of'.

Possession is expressed by a possessive suffix on the possessed object, rather than the possessor as in English (Peter's apple becomes ''Péter almája'', literally 'Peter apple-his'). Noun plurals are formed with ''–k'' (''az almák'' 'the apples'), but after a numeral, the singular is used (''két alma'' 'two apples', literally 'two apple'; not ''*két almák'').

Unlike English, Hungarian uses case suffixes and nearly always [[preposition and postposition|postpositions]] instead of prepositions.

There are two types of [[article (grammar)|articles]] in Hungarian, definite and indefinite, which roughly correspond to the equivalents in English.

===Adjectives===
Adjectives precede nouns (''a piros alma'' 'the red apple') and have three degrees: positive (''piros'' 'red'), comparative (''pirosabb'' 'redder') and superlative (''a legpirosabb'' 'the reddest').

If the noun takes the plural or a case, an attributive adjective is invariable: ''a piros almák'' 'the red apples'. However, a predicative adjective agrees with the noun:  ''az almák piros'''ak''''' 'the apples are red'. Adjectives by themselves can behave as nouns (and so can take case suffixes): ''Melyik almát kéred?&nbsp;– A piros'''at'''.'' 'Which apple would you like?&nbsp;– The red one'.

===Verbs===
{{See also|Hungarian verbs}}

===Word order===
The neutral word order is [[subject–verb–object]] (SVO). However, Hungarian is a [[topic-prominent language]], and so has a [[word order]] that depends not only on syntax but also on the [[topic–comment]] structure of the sentence (for example, what aspect is assumed to be known and what is emphasized).

A Hungarian sentence generally has the following order: topic, comment (or focus), verb and the rest.

The topic shows that the proposition is only for that particular thing or aspect, and it implies that the proposition is not true for some others. For example, in "''Az almát János látja".'' ('It is John who sees the apple'. Literally 'The apple John sees.'), the apple is in the topic, implying that other objects may be seen by not him but other people (the pear may be seen by Peter). The topic part may be empty.

The focus shows the new information for the listeners that may not have been known or that their knowledge must be corrected. For example, "Én vagyok az apád". ('I am your father'. Literally, 'It is I who am your father'.), from the movie ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'', the pronoun I (''én'') is in the focus and implies that it is new information, and the listener thought that someone else is his father.

Although Hungarian is sometimes described as having free word order, different word orders are generally not interchangeable, and the neutral order is not always correct to use. The intonation is also different with different topic-comment structures. The topic usually has a rising intonation, the focus having a falling intonation. In the following examples, the topic is marked with italics, and the focus (comment) is marked with boldface.
*János látja az almát. - 'John sees the apple'. Neutral sentence.
*''János'' '''látja''' az almát. - 'John '''sees''' the apple'. (Peter may not see the apple.)
*'''János''' látja az ''almát''. - 'It is John who sees the apple'. (The listener may have thought that it is Peter.)
*'''Látja''' János az ''almát''. - 'John does see the apple'. (The listener may have thought that John does not see the apple.)
*''János''''' az almát '''látja. - 'What John sees is the apple'. (It is the apple, not the pear, that John specifically sees. However, Peter may see the pear.)
*''Az almát''''' látja''' János. - 'It is the apple that is seen by John'. (The pear may not be seen by John, but it may be smelled, for example.)
*''Az almát''''' János''' látja. - 'It is by John that the apple is seen'. (It is not seen by Peter, but the pear may be seen by Peter, for example.)

==Politeness==
{{Main|T–V distinction in the world's languages#Hungarian}}

Hungarian has a four-tiered system for expressing levels of politeness. From highest to lowest:

*''Ön'' (''önözés''): Use of this form in speech shows respect towards the person addressed, but it is also the common way of speaking in official texts and business communications. Here "you", the second person, is grammatically addressed in the third person.
*''Maga'' (''magázás'', ''magázódás''): Use of this form serves to show that the speakers wish to distance themselves from the person they address. A boss could also address a subordinate as ''maga''. Aside from the different [[pronoun]] it is grammatically the same as "''önözés''".
*''Néni/bácsi'' (''tetszikezés''): This is a somewhat affectionate way of expressing politeness and is grammatically the same as "''önözés''" or "''magázódás''", but adds a certain verb in auxiliary role "''tetszik''" ("like") to support the main verb of the sentence. For example, children are supposed to address adults who are not parents, close friends or close relatives by using "''tetszik''" ("you like"): "''Hogy vagy?''" ("How are you?") here becomes "''Hogy tetszik lenni?''" ("How do you like to be?"). The elderly, especially women, are generally addressed this way, even by adults.
*''Te'' (''tegezés'', ''tegeződés'' or ''pertu'', [[per tu]] from [[Latin]]): Used generally, i.e. with persons with whom none of the above forms of politeness is required, and, in religious contexts, to address [[God]]. The highest rank, the [[king]], was traditionally addressed "per tu" by all, peasants and noblemen alike, though with Hungary not having had any crowned king since 1918, this practice survives only in folk tales and children's stories. Use of "''tegezés''" in the media and advertisements has become more frequent since the early 1990s. It is informal and is normally used in families, among friends, colleagues, among young people, and by adults speaking to children; it can be compared to addressing somebody by their first name in English. Perhaps prompted by the widespread use of English (a language without [[T–V distinction]] [[thou|in most contemporary dialects]]) on the Internet, "''tegezés''" is also becoming the standard way to address people over the Internet, regardless of politeness.

The four-tiered system has somewhat been eroded due to the recent expansion of "''tegeződés''" and "''önözés''".

Some anomalies emerged with the arrival of multinational companies who have addressed their customers in the ''te'' (least polite) form right from the beginning of their presence in Hungary. A typical example is the Swedish furniture shop [[IKEA]], whose web site and other publications address the customers in ''te'' form. When a news site<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kanizsaujsag.hu/hirek/8351/miert-tegezik-a-magyarokat-a-multik/|title=Miért tegezik a magyarokat a multik? - Kanizsa Újság|first=Kanizsa|last=Ujsag|website=Kanizsaujsag.hu|access-date=8 October 2017}}</ref> asked IKEA—using the ''te'' form—why they address their customers this way, IKEA's PR Manager explained in his answer—using the ''ön'' form—that their way of communication reflects IKEA's open-mindedness and the Swedish culture. However IKEA in France uses the polite (''vous'') form. Another example is the communication of [[Yettel Hungary]] (earlier Telenor, a mobile network operator) towards its customers. Yettel chose to communicate towards business customers in the polite ''ön'' form while all other customers are addressed in the less polite ''te'' form.

==Vocabulary==
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-left:1em"
|+ Examples with '''''ad'''''
! Hungarian
! English
|-
| {{Lang|hu|ad}}<!-- yes, ad means gives, to give is adni -->
| gives
|-
!colspan=2|Derived terms with suffixes
|-
|{{Lang|hu|adni}}
|to give
|-
| {{Lang|hu|adás}}
| transmission, broadcast
|-
| {{Lang|hu|adó}}
| tax or transmitter
|-
| {{Lang|hu|adózik}}
| pays tax
|-
| {{Lang|hu|adózó}}
| taxpayer
|-
| {{Lang|hu|adós}}
| debtor
|-
| {{Lang|hu|adósság}}
| debt
|-
| {{Lang|hu|adat}}
| data
|-
| {{Lang|hu|adakozik}}
| gives (practise charity)
|-
| {{Lang|hu|adalék}}
| additive (ingredient)
|-
| {{Lang|hu|adag}}
| dose, portion
|-
| {{Lang|hu|adomány}}
| donation
|-
| {{Lang|hu|adoma}}
| anecdote
|-
!colspan=2|With verbal prefixes
|-
| {{Lang|hu|átad}}
| hands over
|-
| {{Lang|hu|bead}}
| hands in
|-
| {{Lang|hu|elad}}
| sells
|-
| {{Lang|hu|felad}}
| gives up, mails
|-
| {{Lang|hu|hozzáad}}
| augments, adds to
|-
| {{Lang|hu|kiad}}
| rents out, publishes, extradites
|-
| {{Lang|hu|lead}}
| loses weight, deposits (an object)
|-
| {{Lang|hu|megad}}
| repays (debt), calls (poker),{{br}}grants (permission)
|-
| {{Lang|hu|összead}}
| adds (does mathematical addition)
|}

During the first early phase of Hungarian [[language reform]]s (late 18th and early 19th centuries) more than ten thousand words were coined,<ref>Kálmán Szily presented approx. 10,000 words in his book ''A magyar nyelvújítás szótára'' ("Dictionary of Hungarian language reform", vol. 1–2: 1902 and 1908), without aiming to be comprehensive.</ref> several thousand of which are still actively used today (see also [[Ferenc Kazinczy]], the leading figure of the Hungarian language reforms.) Kazinczy's chief goal was to replace existing words of German and Latin origins with newly created Hungarian words. As a result, Kazinczy and his later followers (the reformers) significantly reduced the formerly high ratio of words of Latin and German origins in the Hungarian language, which were related to social sciences, natural sciences, politics and economics, institutional names, fashion etc.
Giving an accurate estimate for the total word count is difficult, since it is hard to define a "word"  in [[agglutination|agglutinating]] languages, due to the existence of affixed words and compound words. To obtain a meaningful definition of compound words, it is necessary to exclude compounds whose meaning is the mere sum of its elements. The largest dictionaries giving translations from Hungarian to another language contain 120,000 words and phrases<ref name="kenesei-p77">''A nyelv és a nyelvek'' ("Language and languages"), edited by István Kenesei. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 2004, {{ISBN|963-05-7959-6}}, p. 77.</ref> (but this may include redundant phrases as well, because of translation issues){{clarify|date=March 2019}}. The new desk lexicon of the Hungarian language contains 75,000 words,<ref name="kenesei-p77" /> and the Comprehensive Dictionary of Hungarian Language (to be published in 18 volumes in the next{{clarify|date=June 2022}} twenty years) is planned to contain 110,000 words.<ref>[http://www.e-nyelv.hu/enyelv.php?page=hir_elem.php~id=41 The first two volumes of the 20-volume series were introduced on 13 November, 2006, at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences] {{in lang|hu}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417043907/http://www.e-nyelv.hu/enyelv.php?page=hir_elem.php~id=41 |date=2008-04-17 }}.</ref> The default Hungarian [[lexicon]] is usually estimated to comprise 60,000 to 100,000 words.<ref name="nadasdy-interview">[http://2000magyar.mindenkinet.hu/vendegszoba/tudomany/20031126amagyar.html?pIdx=3 "Hungarian is not difficult"] (interview with [[Ádám Nádasdy]]).</ref> (Independently of specific languages, speakers actively use at most 10,000 to 20,000 words,<ref name="kenesei-p86">''A nyelv és a nyelvek'' ("Language and languages"), edited by István Kenesei. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 2004, {{ISBN|963-05-7959-6}}, p. 86.</ref> with an average [[intellectual]] using 25,000 to 30,000 words.<ref name="nadasdy-interview" />) However, all the Hungarian [[lexeme]]s collected from technical texts, dialects etc. would total up to 1,000,000 words.<ref name="kenesei-pp76-86">''A nyelv és a nyelvek'' ("Language and languages"), edited by István Kenesei. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 2004, {{ISBN|963-05-7959-6}}, pp. 76, 86.</ref>

Parts of the lexicon can be organized using [[word-bush]]es{{clarify|date=September 2019}} (see an example on the right). The words in these bushes share a common root, are related through inflection, derivation and compounding, and are usually broadly related in meaning.

The basic vocabulary shares several hundred word roots with other [[Uralic languages]] like [[Finnish language|Finnish]], [[Estonian language|Estonian]], [[Mansi language|Mansi]] and [[Khanty language|Khanty]]. Examples are the verb {{Lang|hu|él}} "live" (Finnish {{lang|fi|elää}}<ref name=Helsinki>{{cite web|title="Related words" in Finnish and Hungarian|url=http://www.helsinki.fi/~jolaakso/f-h-ety.html|publisher=Helsinki University Bulletin|access-date=2008-06-15}}</ref>), the numbers {{Lang|hu|kettő}} (2), {{Lang|hu|három}} (3), {{Lang|hu|négy}} (4) (cf. [[Mansi language|Mansi]] {{lang|mns|китыг|italic=no}} {{lang|mns-latn|kitig}}, {{lang|mns|хурум|italic=no}} {{lang|mns-latn|khurum}}, {{lang|mns|нила|italic=no}} {{lang|mns-latn|nila}}, [[Finnish language|Finnish]] {{lang|fi|kaksi, kolme, neljä}},<ref name=Helsinki/> [[Estonian language|Estonian]] {{lang|et|kaks, kolm, neli}}), as well as {{Lang|hu|víz}} 'water', {{Lang|hu|kéz}} 'hand', {{Lang|hu|vér}} 'blood', {{Lang|hu|fej}} 'head' (cf. Finnish<ref name=Helsinki/> and Estonian {{lang|fi|vesi, käsi, veri}}, Finnish {{lang|fi|pää}},<ref name=Helsinki/> Estonian {{lang|et|pea}} or {{lang|et|pää}}).

Words for elementary kinship and nature are more Ugric, less [[Oghur languages|r-Turkic]] and less Slavic. Words related to agriculture are about 50% r-Turkic and 50% Slavic; pastoral terms are more r-Turkic, less Ugric and less Slavic. Finally, Christian and state terminology is more Slavic and less r-Turkic. The Slavic is most probably proto-Slovakian or proto-Slovenian. This is easily understood in the Uralic paradigm, proto-Magyars were first similar to Ob-Ugors, who were mainly hunters, fishers and gatherers, but with some horses too. Then they accultured to Bulgarian r-Turks, so the older layer of agriculture words (wine, beer, [[wheat]], [[barley]] etc.) are purely r-Turkic, and many terms of statesmanship and religion were, too.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rmki.kfki.hu/~lukacs/DETREHUN.htm|title=Proto-Magyar Texts From the Middle of 1st Millenium<!--sic-->?|website=Rmki.kfki.hu|access-date=8 October 2017}}</ref>

Except for a few Latin and Greek loanwords, these differences are unnoticed even by native speakers; the words have been entirely adopted into the Hungarian lexicon. There are an increasing number of English loanwords, especially in technical fields and slang as well.

{{bar box
| width = 
| title = Proportion of loanwords in modern Hungarian<ref name="kenesei-p134"/>
| titlebar = #ddd
| bars =
{{bar percent|Uncertain|red|30}}
{{bar percent|[[Finno-Ugric]]|green|21}}
{{bar percent|[[Slavic languages|Slavic]]|blue|20}}
{{bar percent|[[German language|German]]|lightgreen|11}}
{{bar percent|[[Turkic languages|Turkic]]|orange|9.5}}
{{bar percent|[[Latin]] and [[Greek language|Greek]]|yellow|6}}
{{bar percent|[[Romance languages|Romance]]|purple|2.5}}
{{bar percent|Other known|brown|1}}
}}

Calculating the percentile fractions of the origins of various words within a language is an essentially meaningless and impossible exercise. There is no definite set number of words within a language that can be tallied up,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.dictionary.com/e/how-many-words-in-english/ | title=How Many Words Are There in the English Language? | date=24 July 2020 }}</ref> and other factors like the frequency of use and dialectal differences also affect the end result.<ref name="arcanum.com">{{cite web | url=https://www.arcanum.com/hu/online-kiadvanyok/pannon-pannon-enciklopedia-1/a-magyarsag-kezikonyve-2/nyelv-es-irodalom-1919/mai-magyar-nyelvunk-1CCD/hany-szavunk-van-1CD7/ | title=Hány szavunk van? {{pipe}} Pannon Enciklopédia {{pipe}} Kézikönyvtár }}</ref> An approximate estimate of the number<ref name="arcanum.com"/> of foreign loanwords<ref name="tavoktatas.mnt.org.rs">https://tavoktatas.mnt.org.rs/sites/default/files/2020-12/A%20magyar%20sz%C3%B3k%C3%A9szlet%20eredete%20%C3%A9s%20a%20j%C3%B6vev%C3%A9nyszavak.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=May 2025}}</ref><ref>https://mek.oszk.hu/13600/13648/13648.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=May 2025}}</ref> in Hungarian can be established, as well as the general frequency of their usage.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://corpus.nytud.hu/mnsz/ | title=Magyar Nemzeti Szövegtár }}</ref>

According to estimates,<ref name="A MAGYAR NYELV SZLÁV JÖVEVÉNYSZAVAI">{{cite web | url=https://www.arcanum.com/hu/online-kiadvanyok/MuMaTu-a-mult-magyar-tudosai-1/kniezsa-istvan-357C/eletmuve-359F/a-magyar-nyelv-szlav-jovevenyszavai-i-35B6/ | title=A MAGYAR NYELV SZLÁV JÖVEVÉNYSZAVAI I. {{pipe}} A múlt magyar tudósai {{pipe}} Kézikönyvtár }}</ref> the most numerous loanwords come from Slavic languages<ref name="tavoktatas.mnt.org.rs"/> (1252 words of proven Slavic origin, around 484 universally used in all dialects of Hungarian, 694 in specific dialects only, and 74 obsolete words<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.arcanum.com/hu/online-kiadvanyok/Lexikonok-a-pallas-nagy-lexikona-2/e-e-7C62/elavult-szok-8174/ | title=Elavult szók, {{pipe}} A Pallas nagy lexikona {{pipe}} Kézikönyvtár }}</ref>).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-an-obsolete-word-1691356#:~:text=Obsolete%20word%20is%20a%20temporal,use%20in%20speech%20and%20writing | title=An Introduction to Obsolete Words }}</ref> An additional 382 words are classified as "possibly Slavic", 147 of them present in all dialects, 209 present in certain dialects, and 26 no longer in common use, bringing the final number of potentially Slavic loanwords in all dialects to 631, and the total number of potentially Slavic loanwords across all dialects to about 1634.<ref name="A MAGYAR NYELV SZLÁV JÖVEVÉNYSZAVAI"/>

The second largest group of loanwords are made up of Turkic loanwords, which can be divided into pre-Conquest, and Ottoman layers, with the pre-Conquest words making up the absolute majority of them. Due to centuries of cohabitation with Turkic peoples such as the Volga Bulgars and Khazars, the exact origin of certain words can be hard to pin down.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.arcanum.com/hu/online-kiadvanyok/MuMaTu-a-mult-magyar-tudosai-1/gombocz-zoltan-1CCC/a-magyar-nyelv-regi-torok-jovevenyszavai-torok-szemelyneveink-1CF9/ | title=A MAGYAR NYELV RÉGI TÖRÖK JÖVEVÉNYSZAVAI. TÖRÖK SZEMÉLYNEVEINK {{pipe}} A múlt magyar tudósai {{pipe}} Kézikönyvtár }}</ref> The number of Turkic loanwords can be difficult to enumerate from the pre-Conquest period due to a lack of written sources from R-Turkic languages from the period, and even later, but generally the number of Turkic loanwords are estimated to be between 300-500.<ref>https://mnytud.arts.unideb.hu/tananyag/gyorffye/torok_jovevenyszavak.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=May 2025}}</ref>

The third largest group is made up of German loanwords, which number around 400.<ref name="tavoktatas.mnt.org.rs"/> These started appearing in the language as early as the 11th century, but became especially prominent during the Habsburg-era, starting in the 16th century.<ref>https://mnytud.arts.unideb.hu/tananyag/gyorffye/nemet_jovevenyszavak.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=May 2025}}</ref>

A much smaller but also much older layer of loanwords are Iranian loanwords,<ref name="Iráni jövevényszavak {{pipe}} Pannon">{{cite web | url=https://www.arcanum.com/hu/online-kiadvanyok/pannon-pannon-enciklopedia-1/magyar-nyelv-es-irodalom-31D6/a-magyar-nyelv-tortenete-34AE/nyelvunk-oskora-gerstner-karoly-34E3/irani-jovevenyszavak-34FC/ | title=Iráni jövevényszavak {{pipe}} Pannon Enciklopédia {{pipe}} Kézikönyvtár }}</ref> which only number in the dozens but serve as an important layer of the vocabulary.<ref name="tavoktatas.mnt.org.rs"/> These words include tehén (cow), tej (milk), asszony (married woman, wife), vám (tax), vár (fortress), vásár (market), üveg (glass) etc.<ref name="Iráni jövevényszavak {{pipe}} Pannon"/>

Other, mostly more technical, religious, or scholarly loanwords also numbering in the dozens are from Latin and Greek, while newer layers may include virtually any European language that Hungarian has been in contact with over the centuries.<ref name="tavoktatas.mnt.org.rs"/>

===Word formation===
Words can be compounds or derived. Most derivation is with suffixes, but there is a small set of derivational prefixes as well.

====Compounds====
Compounds have been present in the language since the [[Proto-Uralic]] era. Numerous ancient compounds transformed to base words during the centuries. Today, compounds play an important role in vocabulary.

A good example is the word ''arc'':

: ''orr'' (nose) + ''száj'' (mouth) → ''orca'' (face) (colloquial until the end of the 19th century and still in use in some dialects) > ''arc'' (face)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nemzetismeret.hu/?id=3.2 |title=It's written in chapter Testrészek |publisher=Nemzetismeret.hu |access-date=2010-01-31}}</ref>

Compounds are made up of two base words: the first is the prefix, the latter is the suffix. A compound can be ''subordinative'': <!-- subordinative is "alárendelő" in Hungarian; it was rather coined by me. I can't find *ANY* reference on this in English. If you can, please translate alárendelő properly. Other "Hunglish" words include subjective, objective, determinative, adjunctive and coordinative. --> the prefix is in logical connection with the suffix. If the prefix is the subject of the suffix, the compound is generally classified as a [[subjective case|subjective]] one. There are [[objective case|objective]], [[determiner (linguistics)|determinative]], and [[adjunct (grammar)|adjunct]]ive compounds as well. Some examples are given below:

: Subjective:
:: ''menny'' ([[heaven]]) + ''dörgés'' (rumbling) → ''mennydörgés'' (thundering)
:: ''Nap'' (Sun) + ''sütötte'' (lit by) → ''napsütötte'' (sunlit)
: Objective:
:: ''fa'' (tree, wood) + ''vágó'' (cutter) → ''favágó'' (lumberjack, literally "woodcutter")
: Determinative:
:: ''új'' (new) + ''já'' (modification of ''-vá, -vé'' a suffix meaning "making it to something")  + ''építés'' (construction) → ''újjáépítés'' (reconstruction, literally "making something to be new by construction")
: Adjunctive:
:: ''sárga'' (yellow) + ''réz'' (copper) → ''sárgaréz'' (brass)

According to current orthographic rules, a subordinative compound word has to be written as a single word, without spaces; however, if a compound of three or more words (not counting one-syllable verbal prefixes) is seven or more [[syllables]] long (not counting case suffixes), a hyphen must be inserted at the appropriate boundary to ease the determination of word boundaries for the reader.

Other compound words are ''coordinatives'': there is no concrete relation between the prefix and the suffix. Subcategories include [[reduplication]] (to emphasise the meaning; ''olykor-olykor''
'really occasionally'), twin words (where a base word and a distorted form of it makes up a compound: {{lang|hu|gizgaz}}, where the suffix 'gaz' means 'weed' and the prefix {{lang|hu|giz}} is the distorted form; the compound itself means 'inconsiderable weed'), and such compounds which have meanings, but neither their prefixes, nor their suffixes make sense (for example, {{lang|hu|hercehurca}} 'complex, obsolete procedures').

A compound also can be made up by multiple (i.e., more than two) base words: in this case, at least one word element, or even both the prefix and the suffix, is a compound. Some examples:

: ''elme'' [mind; standalone base] + (''gyógy'' [medical] + ''intézet'' [institute]) → ''elmegyógyintézet'' ([[Psychiatric hospital|asylum]])
: (''hadi'' [militarian] + ''fogoly'' [prisoner]) + (''munka'' [work] + ''tábor'' [camp]) → ''hadifogoly-munkatábor'' (work camp of prisoners of war)

===Noteworthy lexical items===
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2018}}

====Points of the compass====
Hungarian words for the points of the compass are directly derived from the position of the Sun during the day in the Northern Hemisphere.

* North = észak (from "éj(szaka)", 'night'), as the Sun never shines from the north
* South = dél ('noon'), as the Sun shines from the south at noon
* East = kelet (from "nap(kelte)",literally;'rising of the Sun,waking up of the Sun'), as the Sun rises in the east
* West = nyugat (from "nap(nyugta)",literally;'setting of the Sun,calming of the Sun'), as the Sun sets in the west

====Two words for "red"====
<!-- Must this "red" issue really be this long? -->

There are two basic words for "red" in Hungarian: "piros" and "vörös" (variant: "veres"; compare with Estonian "verev" or Finnish "punainen"). The word "vörös" is related to "vér", meaning "blood" (Finnish and Estonian "veri"). When they refer to an actual difference in colour (as on a colour chart), "vörös" usually refers to the deeper (darker or more red and less orange) hue of red. While many languages have multiple [[colour name|names for this colour]], often Hungarian scholars assume that this is unique in recognizing two shades of red as separate and distinct "[[folk colour]]s".<ref name="basiccolor">Berlin, B. and Kay, P. (1969). ''Basic Color Terms''. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.</ref>

However, the two words are also used independently of the above in [[collocation]]s. "Piros" is learned by children first, as it is generally used to describe inanimate, artificial things, or things seen as cheerful or neutral, while "vörös" typically refers to animate or natural things (biological, geological, physical and astronomical objects), as well as serious or emotionally charged subjects.

When the rules outlined above are in contradiction, typical collocations usually prevail. In some cases where a typical collocation does not exist, the use of either of the two words may be equally adequate.

Examples:
* Expressions where "red" typically translates to "piros": a red road sign, red traffic lights, the red line of [[Budapest Metro]], red (now called express) bus lines in Budapest, a holiday shown in red in the calendar, ruddy complexion, the red nose of a clown, some red flowers (those of a neutral nature, e.g. [[tulip]]s), red peppers and [[paprika]], red card suits (hearts and diamonds), red stripes on a flag (but the [[red flag (politics)|red flag]] and its variants translate to "vörös"), etc.
* Expressions where "red" typically translates to "vörös": a red railway signal (unlike traffic lights, see above), [[Red Sea]], [[Red Square]], [[Red Army]], [[Red Baron]], [[Erik the Red]], [[red wine]], red carpet (for receiving important guests), red hair or beard, red lion (the mythical animal), the [[Red Cross]], the novel ''[[The Red and the Black]]'', [[redshift]], [[red giant]], [[red blood cell]]s, [[red oak]], some red flowers (those with passionate connotations, e.g. roses), red fox, names of ferric and other red minerals, red copper, rust, red phosphorus, the colour of blushing with anger or shame, the red nose of an alcoholic (in contrast with that of a clown, see above), the red posterior of a [[baboon]], red meat, regular onion (not the red onion, which is "lila"), [[litmus paper]] (in acid), cities, countries, or other political entities associated with [[leftist]] movements (e.g. [[Red Vienna]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Red Russia]]), etc.

====Kinship terms====
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2018}}
The Hungarian words for brothers and sisters are differentiated based upon relative age. There is also a general word for "sibling": {{Lang|hu|testvér}}, from {{Lang|hu|test}} "body" and {{Lang|hu|vér}} "blood"; i.e., originating from the same body and blood.
{| class="wikitable"
! || younger || elder || unspecified{{br}}relative age
|-
! brother
| {{Lang|hu|öcs}}<!--yes, it's written as "öcs", not "öccs"--> || {{Lang|hu|báty}}<!-- it is written as "báty", not "bátya" --> || {{Lang|hu|fivér}} or{{br}}{{Lang|hu|fiútestvér}}
|-
! sister
| {{Lang|hu|húg}} || {{Lang|hu|nővér}}{{br}} {{Lang|hu|néne}} (archaic) || {{Lang|hu|nővér}} or{{br}}{{Lang|hu|lánytestvér}}
|-
! sibling
| {{Lang|hu|kistestvér}} || ({{Lang|hu|nagytestvér}}) || {{Lang|hu|testvér}}
|}

(There used to be a separate word for "elder sister", {{Lang|hu|néne}},<!-- NEM NÉNI, HANEM NÉNE, E-VEL--> but it has become obsolete [except to mean "aunt" in some dialects] and has been replaced by the generic word for "sister".)

In addition, there are separate prefixes for several ancestors and descendants:

{| class="wikitable"
!parent||grandparent||great-{{br}}grandparent||great-great-<br />grandparent||great-great-great-{{br}}grandparent||great-great-great-great-<br />grandparent
|-
||''szülő''||''nagyszülő''||''déd(nagy)szülő''||''ük(nagy)szülő''||''szép(nagy)szülő''{{br}}(OR ''ük-ük(nagy)szülő'')
|''ó(nagy)szülő''<br />(OR ''ük-ük-ük(nagy)szülő)''
|-
!child||grandchild||great-{{br}}grandchild||great-great-{{br}}grandchild||great-great-great-{{br}}grandchild||great-great-great-great-{{br}}grandchild
|-
|''gyerek''||''unoka''||''dédunoka''||''ükunoka''||''szépunoka''{{br}}(OR ''ük-ükunoka'')
|''óunoka''{{br}}(OR ''ük-ük-ükunoka'')
|}

The words for "boy" and "girl" are applied with possessive suffixes. Nevertheless, the terms are differentiated with different declension or lexemes:

{| class="wikitable"
! || boy/girl || (his/her){{br}}son/daughter || (his/her){{br}}lover, partner
|-
! male
| {{Lang|hu|fiú}} || {{Lang|hu|fia}} || {{Lang|hu|fiúja}}/{{Lang|hu|barátja}}
|-
! female
| {{Lang|hu|lány}} || {{Lang|hu|lánya}} || {{Lang|hu|barátnője}}
|}

{{Lang|hu|Fia}} is only used in this, irregular possessive form; it has no nominative on its own (see [[inalienable possession]]). However, the word {{Lang|hu|fiú}} can also take the regular suffix, in which case the resulting word ({{Lang|hu|fiúja}}) will refer to a lover or partner (boyfriend), rather than a male offspring.

The word {{Lang|hu|fiú}} (boy) is also often noted as an extreme example of the ability of the language to add suffixes to a word, by forming {{Lang|hu|fiaiéi}}, adding vowel-form suffixes only, where the result is quite a frequently used word:

{|class="wikitable"
| {{Lang|hu|fiú}} || boy
|-
| {{Lang|hu|fia}} || his/her son
|-
| {{Lang|hu|fiai}} || his/her sons
|-
| {{Lang|hu|fiáé}} || his/her son's (singular object)
|-
| {{Lang|hu|fiáéi}} || his/her son's (plural object)
|-
| {{Lang|hu|fiaié}} || his/her sons' (singular object)
|-
| {{Lang|hu|fiaiéi}} || his/her sons' (plural object)
|}

====Extremely long words====
* ''megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért''
: Partition to root and suffixes with explanations:
{|class="wikitable"
|-
| meg- || verb prefix; in this case, it means "completed"
|-
| szent || holy (the word root)
|-
| -ség || like English "-ness", as in "holiness"
|-
| -t(e)len || variant of "-tlen", noun suffix expressing the lack of something; like English "-less", as in "useless"
|-
| -ít || constitutes a transitive verb from an adjective
|-
| -het || expresses possibility; somewhat similar to the English modal verbs "may" or "can"
|-
| -(e)tlen || another variant of "-tlen"
|-
| -ség || (see above)
|-
| -es || constitutes an adjective from a noun; like English "-y" as in "witty"
|-
| -ked || attached to an adjective (e.g. "strong"), produces the verb "to pretend to be (strong)" <!-- cf. "okoskodik", "erősködik"; the "-ik" is dropped due to the further suffixes, thus it is better not to mark it in the table -->
|-
| -és || constitutes a noun from a verb; there are various ways this is done in English, e.g. "-ance" in "acceptance"
|-
| -eitek || plural possessive suffix, second-person plural (e.g. "apple" → "your apples", where "your" refers to multiple people)
|-
| -ért || approximately translates to "because of", or in this case simply "for"
|}

: '''Translation:''' "for your [plural] repeated pretending to be indesecratable"<!-- the element "repeated" comes from -ségeskedés-, which can refer to a constant and annoying habit-->

The above word is often considered to be the longest word in Hungarian, although there are longer words like:
* ''legeslegmegszentségteleníttethetetlenebbjeitekként''
: ''leges-leg-meg-'''''szent'''''-ség-telen-ít-tet-het-etlen-ebb-je-i-tek-ként''
: "like those of you that are the very least possible to get desecrated"

Words of such length are not used in practice and are difficult to understand even for natives. They were invented to show, in a somewhat facetious way, the ability of the language to form long words (see [[agglutinative language]]). They are not compound words but are formed by adding a series of one- and two-syllable suffixes (and a few prefixes) to a simple root ("szent", saint or holy).
There is virtually no limit for the length of words, but when too many suffixes are added, the meaning of the word becomes less clear, and the word becomes hard to understand and will work like a riddle even for native speakers.

====Hungarian words in English====
The English word best known as being of Hungarian origin is probably ''[[paprika]]'', from Serbo-Croatian ''papar'' "pepper" and the Hungarian diminutive ''-ka''. The most common, however, is ''[[Coach (carriage)|coach]]'', from ''kocsi'', originally ''kocsi szekér'' "car from/in the style of [[Kocs]]". Others are:
* [[shako]], from ''csákó'', from ''csákósüveg'' "peaked cap"
* [[sabre]], from ''szablya''
* [[wikt:heyduck|heyduck]], from ''hajdúk'', plural of ''hajdú'' "brigand"
* [[tolpatch]], from ''talpas'' "foot-soldier", apparently derived from ''talp'' "[[sole (foot)|sole]]".

==Writing system==
{{Main|Hungarian alphabet|Hungarian orthography|Hungarian Braille}}
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2018}}
[[File:Tihany 1055.PNG|thumb|The oldest surviving words written in Hungarian, from the founding declaration of the [[Tihany|Benedictine Abbey of Tihany]], 1055. {{br}} It reads "''feheruuaru rea meneh hodu utu rea''" (in modern Hungarian "''Fehérvárra menő hadi útra''", meaning "''to the military road going to [[Székesfehérvár|Fehérvár]]''").]]
[[File:A 4-es táblája.jpg|thumb|Hungarian-language road sign]]
[[File:Codex of munchen - bible in hungarian.jpg|thumb|Medieval Hungarian book (a copy of the [[Hussite Bible]]), 1466]]
[[File:2013.09.09 Balaton (3).JPG|thumb|Street sign with a transcription to the [[Old Hungarian script|runic writing system]], used before [[Stephen I of Hungary|Saint Stephen's]] State formation]]
The Hungarian language was originally written in right-to-left [[Old Hungarian script|Old Hungarian runes]], superficially similar in appearance to the better-known [[futhark]] runes but unrelated. After [[Stephen I of Hungary]] established the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] in the year 1000, the old system was gradually discarded in favour of the Latin alphabet and left-to-right order. Although now not used at all in everyday life, the old script is still known and practised by some enthusiasts.

Modern Hungarian is written using an expanded [[Latin script|Latin alphabet]] and has a [[phoneme|phonemic]] orthography, i.e. pronunciation can generally be predicted from the written language. In addition to the standard letters of the Latin alphabet, Hungarian uses several modified Latin characters to represent the additional vowel sounds of the language. These include letters with acute accents ''(á, é, í, ó, ú)'' to represent long vowels, and umlauts (''ö'' and ''ü'') and their long counterparts [[Double acute accent|''ő'' and ''ű'']] to represent front vowels. Sometimes (usually as a result of a technical glitch on a computer) {{angle bracket|ô}} or {{angle bracket|õ}} is used for {{angle bracket|ő}}, and {{angle bracket|û}} for {{angle bracket|ű}}. This is often due to the limitations of the [[ISO/IEC 8859-1|Latin-1 / ISO-8859-1 code page]]. These letters are not part of the Hungarian language and are considered misprints. Hungarian can be properly represented with the [[ISO/IEC 8859-2|Latin-2 / ISO-8859-2 code page]], but this [[code page]] is not always available. (Hungarian is the only language using both {{angle bracket|ő}} and {{angle bracket|ű}}.) [[Unicode]] includes them, and so they can be used on the Internet.

Additionally, the digraphs (letter pairs) [[Hungarian ny|{{angle bracket|ny}}]], [[Hungarian ty|{{angle bracket|ty}}]], and [[Hungarian gy|{{angle bracket|gy}}]] are used to represent the palatal consonants {{IPA|/ɲ/}}, {{IPA|/c/}}, and {{IPA|/ɟ/}} (roughly analogous to the "d+y" sounds in British "''du''ke" or American "woul''d y''ou")—produced using a similar mechanism as the letter "d" when pronounced with the tongue pointing to the [[palate]].

Hungarian uses {{angle bracket|s}} for {{IPA|/ʃ/}} and [[Hungarian sz|{{angle bracket|sz}}]] for {{IPA|/s/}}, which is the reverse of [[Polish language|Polish]] usage. The letter [[Hungarian zs|{{angle bracket|zs}}]] is {{IPA|/ʒ/}} and [[Hungarian cs|{{angle bracket|cs}}]] is {{IPA|/t͡ʃ/}}. These digraphs are considered single letters in the alphabet. The letter [[Hungarian ly|{{angle bracket|ly}}]] is also a "single letter digraph", but is pronounced like {{IPA|/j/}} (English {{angle bracket|y}}) and appears mostly in old words. The letters [[Hungarian dz|{{angle bracket|dz}}]] and [[Hungarian dzs|{{angle bracket|dzs}}]] {{IPA|/d͡ʒ/}} are exotic remnants and are hard to find even in longer texts. Some examples still in common use are ''madzag'' ("string"), ''edzeni'' ("to train (athletically)") and ''dzsungel'' ("jungle").

Sometimes additional information is required for partitioning words with digraphs: házszám ("street number") = ''ház'' ("house") + ''szám'' ("number"), not an unintelligible ''házs'' + ''zám''.

Hungarian distinguishes between long and short vowels, with long vowels written with acutes. It also distinguishes between long and short consonants, with long consonants being doubled. For example, ''lenni'' ("to be"), ''hozzászólás'' ("comment"). The digraphs, when pronounced as long consonants, are written as trigraphs: {{angle bracket|sz}} + {{angle bracket|sz}} = {{angle bracket|ssz}}, e.g. ''művésszel'' ("with an artist"). But when a word is hyphenated at such a doubled digraph, the digraph is written out in full both before and after the hyphen. For example, ("with a bus"):
: ... ''busz-''
: ''szal''...

When the first lexeme of a compound ends in a digraph and the second lexeme starts with the same digraph, both digraphs are written out: {{lang|hu|jegy}} + {{lang|hu|gyűrű}} = {{lang|hu|jegygyűrű}} ("engagement/wedding ring", {{lang|hu|jegy}} means "sign", "mark". The term {{lang|hu|jegyben lenni/járni}} means "to be engaged"; {{lang|hu|gyűrű}} means "ring").

Almost all trigraphs found in Hungarian text are the result of doubled digraphs, but there are a few exceptions: {{lang|hu|tizennyolc}} ("eighteen") is a concatenation of {{Lang|hu|tizen}} + {{Lang|hu|nyolc}}. Hungarian has [[minimal pair]]s of single vs. double consonants, for example {{Lang|hu|tol}} ("push") vs. {{Lang|hu|toll}} ("feather" or "pen").

While to English speakers they may seem unusual at first, once the new orthography and pronunciation are learned, written Hungarian is almost completely phonemic (except for etymological spellings and "ly, j" representing {{IPA|/j/}}).

==Word order==
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2018}}
The [[word order]] is basically from general to specific. This is a typical analytical approach and is used generally in Hungarian.

===Name order===
{{Main|Hungarian names}}
The Hungarian language uses the so-called eastern [[Personal name#Name order|name order]], in which the surname (general, deriving from the family) comes first and the [[given name]] comes last. If a second given name is used, this follows the first given name.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

====Hungarian names in foreign languages====
For clarity, in foreign languages Hungarian names are usually represented in the western name order. Sometimes, however, especially in countries neighbouring Hungary&nbsp;– where there is a [[Treaty of Trianon|significant Hungarian population]]&nbsp;– the Hungarian name order is retained, as it causes less confusion there.

For an example of foreign use, the birth name of the Hungarian-born physicist called the "father of the [[hydrogen bomb]]" was '''''Teller Ede''''', but he immigrated to the United States in the 1930s and thus became known as '''''[[Edward Teller]]'''''. Prior to the mid-20th century, given names were usually translated along with the name order; this is no longer as common. For example, the pianist uses ''[[András Schiff]]'' when abroad, not ''Andrew Schiff'' (in Hungarian ''Schiff András''). If a second given name is present, it becomes a middle name and is usually written out in full, rather than truncated to an initial.

====Foreign names in Hungarian====
In modern usage, foreign names retain their order when used in Hungarian. Therefore:

*Amikor ''Kiss János'' Los Angelesben volt, látta ''John Travoltát.'' (means: When János Kiss was in [[Los Angeles]] he saw John Travolta.)
:The Hungarian name ''Kiss János'' is in the Hungarian name order (''János'' is equivalent to ''John''), but the foreign name ''John Travolta'' remains in the western name order.

Before the 20th century, not only was it common to reverse the order of foreign personalities, they were also "Hungarianised": ''Goethe János Farkas'' (originally [[Johann Wolfgang Goethe]]). This usage sounds odd today, when only a few well-known personalities are referred to using their Hungarianised names, including ''Verne Gyula'' ([[Jules Verne]]), ''Marx Károly'' ([[Karl Marx]]), ''Kolumbusz Kristóf'' ([[Christopher Columbus]]; the last of these is also translated in English from the original Italian or possibly Ligurian).

Some native speakers disapprove of this usage; the names of certain historical religious personalities (including popes), however, are always Hungarianised by practically all speakers, such as ''Luther Márton'' ([[Martin Luther]]), ''Husz János'' ([[Jan Hus]]), ''Kálvin János'' ([[John Calvin]]); just like the names of monarchs, for example the king of Spain, [[Juan Carlos I]] is referred to as ''I. János Károly'' or the late queen of the UK, [[Elizabeth II]] would be referred to as ''II. Erzsébet''.

[[Japanese names]], which are usually written in western order in the rest of Europe, retain their original order in Hungarian, e. g. ''Kuroszava Akira'' instead of [[Akira Kurosawa]].

====Date and time====
As in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, the Hungarian convention for date and time is to go from the general to the specific, starting with the year first, then month, then day.<ref name="Béni-2017">{{cite web |last=Béni |first=Alexandra |date=4 September 2017 |title=Mini language lesson #6: Dates, numbers in Hungarian |website=Daily News Hungary |url=https://dailynewshungary.com/mini-language-lesson-6-dates-numbers-hungarian/ |access-date=21 March 2024}}</ref>

==== Addresses ====

Although address formatting is increasingly being influenced by standard European conventions, the traditional Hungarian style is:

'''1052 Budapest, Deák Ferenc tér 1.'''

So the order is: 1) postcode 2) settlement (most general), 3) street/square/etc. (more specific), 4) house number (most specific). The house number may be followed by the storey and door numbers.<ref name="posta">{{cite web |title=A Magyar Posta Zrt. Tájékoztatója a levélküldemények helyes címzéséről, feladásra történő előkészítéséről és a gépi feldolgozásra való alkalmasság feltételeiről |url=https://www.posta.hu/static/internet/download/helyes_cimzes.pdf |website=Helyes címzés |publisher=Magyar Posta |access-date=24 August 2022}}</ref>

Addresses on envelopes and postal parcels should be formatted and placed on the right side as follows:<ref name="posta"/>

Name of the recipient<br />
Settlement<br />
Street address (up to door number if necessary)<br />
(HU-)postcode

The HU- part before the postcode is only for incoming postal traffic from foreign countries.

==Vocabulary examples==
''Note: The stress is always placed on the first syllable of each word.  The remaining syllables all receive an equal, lesser stress.  All syllables are pronounced clearly and evenly, even at the end of a sentence, unlike in English.''

=== Example text ===
[[File:Universal Declaration of Human Rights - hun - dii - Art1.ogg|thumb|Hungarian pronunciation]]
Article 1 of the ''[[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]]'' in Hungarian:
:'''''Minden emberi lény szabadon születik és egyenlő méltósága és joga van. Az emberek, ésszel és lelkiismerettel bírván, egymással szemben testvéri szellemben kell hogy viseltessenek.'''''<ref>{{cite web|title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights|website=ohchr.org|url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/udhr/pages/searchbylang.aspx}}</ref>

Article 1 of the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in English:
:''All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights|title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights|website=un.org}}</ref>

=== Numbers ===
<small>Source: Wiktionary<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Hungarian_cardinal_numbers|title=Category:Hungarian cardinal numbers - Wiktionary|website=en.wiktionary.org|date=22 July 2017|access-date=8 October 2017}}</ref></small>

{|
|valign=top|
{| class="wikitable"
! English || Hungarian || [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]
|-
| zero || {{Lang|hu|nulla}} || {{IPA|/ˈnulːɒ/}}
|-
| one || {{Lang|hu|egy}} || {{IPA|/ˈɛɟː/}}
|-
| two || {{Lang|hu|kettő}} || {{IPA|/ˈkɛtːøː/}}
|-
| three || {{Lang|hu|három}} || {{IPA|/ˈhaːrom/}}
|-
| four || {{Lang|hu|négy}} || {{IPA|/ˈneːɟ/}}
|-
| five || {{Lang|hu|öt}} || {{IPA|/ˈøt/}}
|-
| six || {{Lang|hu|hat}} || {{IPA|/ˈhɒt/}}
|-
| seven || {{Lang|hu|hét}} || {{IPA|/ˈheːt/}}
|-
| eight || {{Lang|hu|nyolc}} || {{IPA|/ˈɲolt͡s/}}
|-
| nine || {{Lang|hu|kilenc}} || {{IPA|/ˈkilɛnt͡s/}}
|-
| ten || {{Lang|hu|tíz}} || {{IPA|/ˈtiːz/}}
|}
|valign=top|
{| class="wikitable"
! English || Hungarian || IPA
|-
| eleven || ''tizenegy'' || {{IPA|/ˈtizɛnɛɟː/}}
|-
| twelve || ''tizenkettő'' || {{IPA|/ˈtizɛŋkɛtːøː/}}
|-
| thirteen || ''tizenhárom'' || {{IPA|/ˈtizɛnɦaːrom/}}
|-
| fourteen || ''tizennégy'' || {{IPA|/ˈtizɛnːeːɟ/}}
|-
| fifteen || ''tizenöt'' || {{IPA|/ˈtizɛnøt/}}
|-
| sixteen || ''tizenhat'' || {{IPA|/ˈtizɛnɦɒt/}}
|-
| seventeen || ''tizenhét'' || {{IPA|/ˈtizɛnɦeːt/}}
|-
| eighteen || ''tizennyolc'' || {{IPA|/ˈtizɛɲːolt͡s/}}
|-
| nineteen || ''tizenkilenc'' || {{IPA|/ˈtizɛŋkilɛnt͡s/}}
|-
| twenty || ''húsz'' || {{IPA|/ˈhuːs/}}
|}
|valign=top rowspan=2|
{| class="wikitable"
! English || Hungarian || IPA
|-
| twenty-one || ''huszonegy'' || {{IPA|/ˈhusonɛɟː/}}
|-
| twenty-two || ''huszonkettő'' || {{IPA|/ˈhusoŋkɛtːøː/}}
|-
| twenty-three || ''huszonhárom'' || {{IPA|/ˈhusonɦaːrom/}}
|-
| twenty-four || ''huszonnégy'' || {{IPA|/ˈhusonːeːɟ/}}
|-
| twenty-five || ''huszonöt'' || {{IPA|/ˈhusonøt/}}
|-
| twenty-six || ''huszonhat'' || {{IPA|/ˈhusonɦɒt/}}
|-
| twenty-seven || ''huszonhét'' || {{IPA|/ˈhusonɦeːt/}}
|-
| twenty-eight || ''huszonnyolc'' || {{IPA|/ˈhusoɲːolt͡s/}}
|-
| twenty-nine || ''huszonkilenc'' || {{IPA|/ˈhusoŋkilɛnt͡s/}}
|-
| thirty || ''harminc'' || {{IPA|/ˈhɒrmint͡s/}}
|-
|forty || ''negyven'' ||  {{IPA|/ˈnɛɟvɛn/}}
|-
|fifty || ''ötven'' || {{IPA|/ˈøtvɛn/}}
|-
|sixty || ''hatvan ''|| {{IPA|/ˈhɒtvɒn/}}
|-
|seventy || ''hetven'' || {{IPA|/ˈhɛtvɛn/}}
|-
|eighty|| ''nyolcvan'' || {{IPA|/ˈɲolt͡svɒn/}}
|-
|ninety|| ''kilencven'' || {{IPA|/ˈkilɛnt͡svɛn/}}
|}
|-
|colspan=2|
{| class="wikitable"
! English || Hungarian || IPA
|-
| one hundred || száz || {{IPA|/ˈsaːz/}}
|-
| one thousand || ezer || {{IPA|/ˈɛzɛr/}}
|-
| two thousand || kétezer {{br}}<small>(kettőezer)</small> || {{IPA|/ˈkeːtɛzɛr/}} {{br}}<small>({{IPA|/ˈkettøːɛzɛr/}})</small>
|-
| two thousand (and) nineteen<br />(2019) || kétezer-tizenkilenc {{br}}<small>(kettőezertizenkilenc)</small>||{{IPA|/ˈkeːtɛzɛrtizɛŋkilɛnt͡s/}} {{br}}<small>({{IPA|/ˈkettøːɛzɛrtizɛŋkilɛnt͡s/}})</small>
|-
| one million || egymillió || {{IPA|/ˈɛɟmilːiʲoː/}}
|-
| one billion (10<sup>9</sup>) || egymilliárd || {{IPA|/ˈɛɟmilːiʲaːrd/}}
|}
|}

===Time===
{|
|valign=top|
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Days of the week
! English || Hungarian || IPA
|-
| Monday || {{lang|hu|hétfő}} || {{IPA|/ˈheːtføː/}}
|-
| Tuesday || {{lang|hu|kedd}} || {{IPA|/ˈkɛdː/}}
|-
| Wednesday || {{lang|hu|szerda}} || {{IPA|/ˈsɛrdɒ/}}
|-
| Thursday || {{lang|hu|csütörtök}} || {{IPA|/ˈt͡ʃytørtøk/}}
|-
| Friday || {{lang|hu|péntek}} || {{IPA|/ˈpeːntɛk/}}
|-
| Saturday || {{lang|hu|szombat}} || {{IPA|/ˈsombɒt/}}
|-
| Sunday || {{lang|hu|vasárnap}} || {{IPA|/ˈvɒʃaːrnɒp/}}
|}
|valign=top|
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Months of the year
! English || Hungarian || IPA
|-
| January || {{lang|hu|január}} || {{IPA|/ˈjɒnuaːr/}}
|-
| February || {{lang|hu|február}} || {{IPA|/ˈfɛbruaːr/}}
|-
| March || {{lang|hu|március}} || {{IPA|/ˈmaːrt͡siʲuʃ/}}
|-
| April || {{lang|hu|április}} || {{IPA|/ˈaːpriliʃ/}}
|-
| May || {{lang|hu|május}} || {{IPA|/ˈmaːjuʃ/}}
|-
| June || {{lang|hu|június}} || {{IPA|/ˈjuːniʲuʃ/}}
|-
| July || {{lang|hu|július}} || {{IPA|/ˈjuːliʲuʃ/}}
|-
| August || {{lang|hu|augusztus}} || {{IPA|/ˈɒuɡustuʃ/}}
|-
| September || {{lang|hu|szeptember}} || {{IPA|/ˈsɛptɛmbɛr/}}
|-
| October || {{lang|hu|október}} || {{IPA|/ˈoktoːbɛr/}}
|-
| November || {{lang|hu|november}} || {{IPA|/ˈnovɛmbɛr/}}
|-
| December || {{lang|hu|december}} || {{IPA|/ˈdɛt͡sɛmbɛr/}}
|}
|}

===Conversation===
*Hungarian (person, language): {{Lang|hu|magyar}} {{IPA|[mɒɟɒr]}}
*Hello!:
**Formal, when addressing a stranger: "Good day!": {{Lang|hu|Jó napot (kívánok)!}} {{IPA|[joːnɒpot ki:vaːnok].}}
**Informal, when addressing a close acquaintance: {{Lang|hu|Szia!}} {{IPA|[siɒ]}} {{Lang|hu|Szia}} is a version of the Latin origin loanword [[Servus]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nyest.hu/hirek/latin-szolgak|title=Latin szolgák|website=Nyelv és Tudomány|author=Kálmán László|date=7 September 2010}}</ref>
*Good-bye!: {{Lang|hu|Viszontlátásra!}} {{IPA|[visontlaːtaːʃrɒ]}} (formal) (see above), {{Lang|hu|Viszlát!}} {{IPA|[vislaːt]}} (semi-informal), {{Lang|hu|Szia!}} (informal: same stylistic remark as for "See you" or "Hello!" )
*Excuse me: {{Lang|hu|Elnézést!}} {{IPA|[ɛlneːzeːʃt]}}
*Please:
**{{Lang|hu|Kérem (szépen)}} {{IPA|[keːrɛm seːpɛn]}} (This literally means "I'm asking (it/you) ''nicely''", as in German {{lang|de|Bitte schön}}. See next for a more common form of the polite request.)
**{{Lang|hu|Legyen szíves!}} {{IPA|[lɛɟɛn sivɛʃ]}}  (literally: "Be (so) kind!")
*I would like ____, please: ''{{Lang|hu|Szeretnék}} ____'' {{IPA|[sɛrɛtneːk]}} (this example illustrates the use of the [[conditional tense]], as a common form of a polite request; it literally means "I would like".)
*Sorry!: {{Lang|hu|Bocsánat!}} {{IPA|[botʃaːnɒt]}}
*Thank you: {{Lang|hu|Köszönöm}} {{IPA|[køsønøm]}}
*that/this: {{Lang|hu|az}} {{IPA|[ɒz]}}, {{Lang|hu|ez}} {{IPA|[ɛz]}}
*How much?: {{Lang|hu|Mennyi?}} {{IPA|[mɛɲːi]}}
*How much does it cost?: {{Lang|hu|Mennyibe kerül?}} {{IPA|[mɛɲːibɛ kɛryl]}}
*Yes: {{Lang|hu|Igen}} {{IPA|[iɡɛn]}}
*No: {{Lang|hu|Nem}} {{IPA|[nɛm]}}
*I do not understand: {{Lang|hu|Nem értem}} {{IPA|[nɛm eːrtɛm]}}
*I do not know: {{Lang|hu|Nem tudom}} {{IPA|[nɛm tudom]}}
*Where's the toilet?:
**{{Lang|hu|Hol (van) a vécé?}} {{IPA|[hol vɒn ɒ veːtseː]}} (vécé/veːtseː is the Hungarian pronunciation of the English abbreviation of "Water Closet")
**{{Lang|hu|Hol (van) a mosdó?}} {{IPA|[hol vɒn ɒ moʒdoː]}}&nbsp;– more polite (and word-for-word) version
*generic toast: {{Lang|hu|Egészségünkre!}} {{IPA|[ɛɡeːʃːeːɡyŋkrɛ]}} (literally: "To our health!")
*juice: {{Lang|hu|gyümölcslé}} {{IPA|[ɟymøltʃleː]}}
*water: {{Lang|hu|víz}} {{IPA|[viːz]}}
*wine: {{Lang|hu|bor}} {{IPA|[bor]}}
*beer: {{Lang|hu|sör}} {{IPA|[ʃør]}}
*tea: {{Lang|hu|tea}} {{IPA|[tɛɒ]}}
*milk: {{Lang|hu|tej}} {{IPA|[tɛj]}}
*Do you speak English?: {{lang|hu|Beszél(sz) angolul?}} {{IPA|[bɛseːl / bɛseːls ɒŋɡolul]}} The fact of ''asking'' is only shown by the proper intonation: continually rising until the penultimate syllable, then falling for the last one.
*I love you: {{Lang|hu|Szeretlek}} {{IPA|[sɛrɛtlɛk]}}
*Help!: {{Lang|hu|Segítség!}} {{IPA|[ʃɛɡiːtʃeːɡ]}}
*It is needed: {{Lang|hu|kell}}
*I need to go: {{Lang|hu|Mennem kell}}

==Recorded examples==
<gallery widths="180">
WIKITONGUES-_Orsolya_speaking_Hungarian.webm|A Hungarian speaker
WIKITONGUES-_Norbert_speaking_Hungarian.webm|A Hungarian speaker recorded in Taiwan
WIKITONGUES-_M%C3%A1ria_speaking_Swabian_and_Hungarian.webm|A bilingual speaker of Hungarian and Swabian, recorded in Perbál, Hungary
WIKITONGUES- Gabriel speaking Hungarian.webm|A native Icelandic speaker speaking Hungarian
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Hungarian grammar]]
* [[Hungarian verbs]]
* [[Hungarian noun phrase]]
* [[Hungarian phonology]]
* [[History of the Hungarian language]]
* [[Regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and other Uralic languages]]
* [[Hungarian dialects]]
* [[Hungarian Cultural Institute]]
* [[List of English words of Hungarian origin]]
* [[BABEL Speech Corpus]]
* ''[[Magyar szótár]]'' (Dictionary of the Hungarian Language)
* [[Szabadkai Friss Újság]] (1901), Hungarian language daily newspaper

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group="note"}}

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="Prijedlog izvještaja">{{Cite web |url=https://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/minlang/Report/PeriodicalReports/CroatiaPR5_hr.pdf |title=Peto izvješće Republike Hrvatske o primjeni Europske povelje o regionalnim ili manjinskim jezicima |last=Government of Croatia |author-link=Government of Croatia |date=October 2013 |publisher=[[Council of Europe]] |pages=34–36 |language=hr |trans-title=Croatia's fifth report on the implementation of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages |access-date=18 March 2019}}</ref>

<ref name="cia-hu">{{Cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/hungary/ |title=Hungary |website=The World Factbook |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |access-date=8 October 2017}}</ref>

}}

==Bibliography==
===Courses===
* ''MagyarOK&nbsp;– Text book and exercise book for beginners''.  Szita, Szilvia; Pelcz, Katalin (2013). Pécs; Pécsi Tudományegyetem. [http://www.magyar-ok.hu/ MagyarOK website] {{ISBN|978-963-7178-68-9}}.
* ''Colloquial Hungarian&nbsp;– The complete course for beginners''.  Rounds, Carol H.; Sólyom, Erika (2002). London; New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-24258-4}}.
: This book gives an introduction to the Hungarian language in 15 chapters. The dialogues are available on CDs.

* ''Teach Yourself Hungarian&nbsp;– A complete course for beginners''. Pontifex, Zsuzsa (1993). London: Hodder & Stoughton. Chicago: NTC/Contemporary Publishing.  {{ISBN|0-340-56286-2}}.
: This is a complete course in spoken and written Hungarian. The course consists of 21 chapters with dialogues, culture notes, grammar and exercises.  The dialogues are available on cassette.

* ''Hungarolingua 1&nbsp;– Magyar nyelvkönyv''. Hoffmann, István; et al. (1996). [http://www.nyariegyetem.hu/ Debreceni Nyári Egyetem]. {{ISBN|963-472-083-8}}
* ''Hungarolingua 2&nbsp;– Magyar nyelvkönyv''. Hlavacska, Edit; et al. (2001). [http://www.nyariegyetem.hu/ Debreceni Nyári Egyetem].  {{ISBN|963-03-6698-3}}
* ''Hungarolingua 3&nbsp;– Magyar nyelvkönyv''. Hlavacska, Edit; et al. (1999).  [http://www.nyariegyetem.hu/ Debreceni Nyári Egyetem].  {{ISBN|963-472-083-8}}
: These course books were developed by the University of Debrecen Summer School program for teaching Hungarian to foreigners. The books are written completely in Hungarian and therefore unsuitable for self study. There is an accompanying 'dictionary' with translations of the Hungarian vocabulary into English, German, and French for the words used in the first two books.
* "NTC's Hungarian and English Dictionary" by Magay and Kiss. {{ISBN|0-8442-4968-8}} (You may be able to find a newer edition also. This one is 1996.)

===Grammars===
* ''Gyakorló magyar nyelvtan / A Practical Hungarian grammar'' (2009, 2010). Szita Szilvia, Görbe Tamás. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. 978 963 05 8703 7.
* ''A practical Hungarian grammar'' (3rd, rev. ed.). Keresztes, László (1999). Debrecen: Debreceni Nyári Egyetem. {{ISBN|963-472-300-4}}.
*''[[s:Simplified Grammar of the Hungarian Language|Simplified Grammar of the Hungarian Language]]'' (1882). [[Ignatius Singer]]. London: Trübner & Co.
*''Practical Hungarian grammar: [a compact guide to the basics of Hungarian grammar]''. Törkenczy, Miklós (2002). Budapest: Corvina. {{ISBN|963-13-5131-9}}.
*''Hungarian verbs and essentials of grammar: a practical guide to the mastery of Hungarian'' (2nd ed.). Törkenczy, Miklós (1999). Budapest: Corvina; Lincolnwood, [Ill.]: Passport Books. {{ISBN|963-13-4778-8}}.
*''Hungarian: an essential grammar'' (2nd ed.). Rounds, Carol (2009).  London; New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-77737-2}}.
*''Hungarian: Descriptive grammar''. Kenesei, István, Robert M. Vago, and Anna Fenyvesi (1998).  London; New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-02139-1}}.
*[http://www.rpi.edu/~sofkam/magyar.html Hungarian Language Learning References] (including the short reviews of three of the above books)
*''Noun Declension Tables&nbsp;– HUNGARIAN''. Budapest: [https://www.pons.hu/index.php?action=termek&id=81 Pons]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928153213/https://www.klett.hu/termekcsalad/250 Klett]. {{ISBN|978-963-9641-04-4}}
*''Verb Conjugation Tables&nbsp;– HUNGARIAN''. Budapest: [https://www.pons.hu/index.php?action=termek&id=82 Pons]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928153159/https://www.klett.hu/termekcsalad/253 Klett]. {{ISBN|978-963-9641-03-7}}

===Others===
* Abondolo, Daniel Mario: ''Hungarian Inflectional Morphology''. Akadémiai publishing. Budapest, 1988. {{ISBN|9630546302}}
* Balázs, Géza: ''The Story of Hungarian. A Guide to the Language.'' Translated by Thomas J. DeKornfeld. Corvina publishing. Budapest, 1997. {{ISBN|9631343626}}
* Stephanides, Éva H. (ed.): ''Contrasting English with Hungarian''. Akadémiai publishing. Budapest, 1986. {{ISBN|9630539500}}
* {{cite journal | title = Hungarian | volume = 24 | doi = 10.1017/S0025100300005090 | number = 2 | journal = Journal of the International Phonetic Association | publisher = Cambridge University Press | last = Szende | first = Tamás | date = December 1994 | pages = 91–94| s2cid = 242632087 }}

==External links==
{{wikibooks|Hungarian}}
{{interWiki|code=hu}}
{{wiktionary category}}
{{commons category|Hungarian language}}
{{wikivoyage|Hungarian phrasebook|Hungarian|a phrasebook}}
* [http://magyarora.com Free downloadable Hungarian teaching and learning material] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200828033355/http://www.magyarora.com/ |date=2020-08-28 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041010065220/http://impulzus.sch.bme.hu/info/magyar.shtml Introduction to Hungarian]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110605044626/http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=31&menu=004 Hungarian Profile]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928030415/http://member.melbpc.org.au/~tmajlath/form-suffix.html List of formative suffixes in Hungarian]
* [http://www.histdoc.net/sounds/hungary.html The relationship between the Finnish and the Hungarian languages]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060805202844/http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/languages/hungarian/index.html Hungarian Language Review] at How-to-learn-any-language.com
* [http://stp.ling.uu.se/~bea/publ/megyesi-hungarian.pdf "The Hungarian Language: A Short Descriptive Grammar"] by Beáta Megyesi (PDF document)
* [http://www.indiana.edu/~iuihsl/homethisisoldbutgoodone.html The old site of the Indiana University Institute of Hungarian Studies (various resources)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200414134627/http://www.indiana.edu/~iuihsl/homethisisoldbutgoodone.html |date=2020-04-14 }}
* [http://www.rpi.edu/~sofkam/magyar.html Hungarian Language Learning References] on the Hungarian Language Page (short reviews of useful books)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060210154349/http://users.tpg.com.au/etr/oldhu/halotti.html One of the oldest Hungarian texts&nbsp;– A Halotti Beszéd (The Funeral Oration)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100119064254/http://wiki.langwiki.info/Hungarian WikiLang]&nbsp;– Hungarian Page (Hungarian grammar / lessons, in English)
* [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Hungarian_Swadesh_list Hungarian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words] (from Wiktionary's [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Swadesh_lists Swadesh-list appendix])
* [https://www.livelingua.com/fsi-hungarian-course.php Basic Hungarian language course (book + audio files)] USA Foreign Service Institute (FSI)
* [http://oldhungariancorpus.nytud.hu Old Hungarian Corpus]

===''Encyclopaedia Humana Hungarica''===
* [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01993/html/index2.html Introduction to the History of the Language; The Pre-Hungarian Period; The Early Hungarian Period; The Old Hungarian Period]
* [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01955/html/index2.html The Linguistic Records of the Early Old Hungarian Period; The Linguistic System of the Age]
* [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01949/html/index2.html The Old Hungarian Period; The System of the Language of the Old Hungarian Period]
* [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01919/html/index2.html The Late Old Hungarian Period; The System of the Language]
* [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01911/html/index2.html The First Half of the Middle Hungarian Period; Turkish Loan Words]

===Dictionaries===
* [http://dict.sztaki.hu/english-hungarian Hungarian ↔ English] created by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences&nbsp;– Computer and Automation Research Institute [http://www.sztaki.hu/?en MTA SZTAKI] (also includes dictionaries for the following languages to and from Hungarian : German, French, Italian, Dutch, and Polish)
* [http://hu.bab.la/sz%C3%B3t%C3%A1r/angol-magyar/ bab.la] - Online Hungarian-English dictionary and language learning portal
* [http://www.finnhun.com English-Hungarian-Finnish]&nbsp;– three-language freely editable online dictionary
* [http://www.muszaki-forditas.lap.hu Collection of Hungarian Technical Dictionaries]
* [http://www.dicts.info/dictlist1.php?l=Hungarian Hungarian bilingual dictionaries]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110924083712/http://www.magyarangolszotar.hu/ Hungarian-English dictionary]
* [http://angolmagyarszotar.hu English-Hungarian dictionary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926125343/http://www.angolmagyarszotar.hu/ |date=2011-09-26 }}
* [http://www.jargot.com/hvc/ Hungarian Verb Conjugation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225202158/http://www.jargot.com/hvc/ |date=2021-02-25 }}

{{Hungary topics}}
{{Languages of Hungary}}
{{Languages of Romania}}
{{Languages of Serbia}}
{{Languages of Slovakia}}
{{Languages of Slovenia}}
{{Uralic languages}}
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