Hello everyone, welcome to this Hungarian lesson, which is about:
The Hungarian personal pronouns
I’m sure that your grammar alert just went off, but trust me, personal pronouns are the basic construction bricks of a language. Personal pronouns are those things in a language that makes for us possible referring to persons without telling their names all the time. I mean these:
I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they and
me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them.
Unlike English, Hungarian is an agglutinative language which means that it expresses relations by stringing together different word endings or suffixes. The English language realizes this through changing the word order. This different approach makes it possible for Hungarians to construct sentences in any order they wish. Hungarian also uses a complex case system, the nouns can be declined with many case suffixes, most of which correspond to English prepositions. This is why we have so many personal pronouns, much more than in English.
In this Hungarian lesson we will start with the simple, most common Hungarian pronouns, and later we will move towards the more sophisticated ones. So, here comes the simple, nominative case (nominative is the person or thing doing the action) of the Hungarian pronouns:
The nominative case:
én – I
te – you
ő – he, she
mi – we
ti – you
ők -they
Examples:
Én budapesti vagyok. –
I am from Budapest.
Te szereted a gulyást? – Do
you like goulash?
Ő nem jön velünk.
He/She doesn’t come with us.
Mi itthon maradunk. –
We stay home.
Ti hazamentek? – Are
you going home?
Ők nem szeretnek horgászni. –
They don’t like fishing.
In Hungarian there is no distinction between genders, there is no masculine and feminine pronoun like the English
he and
she, we use the same pronoun
ő for both genders. The personal pronoun that stands for
I –
én, is only capitalized when it stands at the beginning of a sentence.
Now is the time when things become more complicated.
The accusative case
The personal pronouns can form many cases, among which the nominative one was the simplest. The next case is the accusative case, which you can understand from this example:
I like
him.
In this sentence, the personal pronoun “I” is in the nominative case, but “him” is in the accusative. An accusative pronoun is the object of the sentence, meaning that it is affected by the subject (the nominative pronoun). This sounds like this in Hungarian:
Én nem kedvelem
őt. I don’t like
him/her.
The personal pronoun “őt” is in the accusative case.
Let’s see all the other personal pronouns in accusative:
engem – me
téged -you
őt – him/her
minket / bennünket – us
titeket / benneteket – you
őket – them
You may have noticed that there are two forms for the accusative plural, both of which are in use, however, in modern day language Hungarian people prefer using the
minket/titeket form. The bennünket/benneteket form sounds more old-fashioned and formal, and it has the plus meaning you all, no one is excepted.
e.g.
Ő szeret
engem. He/she loves
me.
Téged is meghívtak a buliba? Have
you been invited to the party?
Őt nem láttam mostanában. I haven’t seen
her/him lately.
Keresett
minket valaki? Was anybody looking for
us?
Titeket nem zavar ez? Are
you not bothered by this?
Őket nem érdekli a politika.
They are not interested in politics.
The dative case
The dative case’s main function is to show the indirect object of a verb. This means that it shows
the noun to which something is given. If a personal pronoun stands in dative case, it indicates
to whom that something is given.
e.g. Petra nekem adta ezt a táskát. Petra gave this bag
to me.
Now let’s see how the dative case of personal pronouns looks like in Hungarian:
nekem – for me
neked – for you
neki – for her/her
nekünk – for us
nektek – for you
nekik – for them
e.g.
Nekem nem jó ez az időpont. This appointment isn’t good
for me.
Neked jó ez? Is this good
for you?
Neki hoztam az ebédet. I brought lunch
for him/her.
Nekünk készült ez a torta? Was this cake made
for us?
Nektek adom ezt a festményt. I give this painting
for you.
Nekik szántam ezt a játékot, ajándékba. I meant this toy as a gift
for them.
The instrumental case
The instrumental case of the personal pronouns is used in Hungarian to indicate the concept of “with”. It expresses “with whom” something is being done.
e.g. Veled megyek moziba. I am going to the movies
with you.
Here are all the Hungarian personal pronouns in the instrumental case:
velem – with me
veled – with you
vele – with him/her
velünk – with us
veletek – with you
velük – with them
e.g.
Velem jössz? Are you coming
with me?
Veled szeretnék a moziba menni. I would like to go to the cinema
with you.
Vele tanulsz? Are you studying
with him/her?
Velünk akarsz jönni? Do you want to come
with us?
Veletek megyek haza. I am going home
with you.
Velük készülök a versenyre. I am getting prepared for the competition
with them.
The causative case
The causative case in Hungarian means “for whom” the action is performed, who is the one for the sake of whom something is being done.
e.g.
Értem jött el. He came
for me.
Here are all the Hungarian personal pronouns in the causative case:
értem – for me
érted – for you
érte – for him/her
értünk – for us
értetek – for you
értük – for them
e.g.
Ne gyere
értem. Don’t come
for me.
Érted mindent megtennék. I would do anything
for you.
Érte kell mennem? Do I have to go
for her/him (to pick her/him up)?
Siess
értünk, légy szíves! Please, hurry
for us (to pick us up)!
Értetek teszem ezt. I am doing this
for you.
Értük, a családomért dolgozom. I am working
for them, for my family.
You probably have noticed that what we call a case in Hungarian is usually expressed by a preposition in English. So, the entire case system may sound difficult and complicated, but it isn’t, we are just talking about prepositions and pronouns expressed together in a word.
In this Hungarian lesson, we have spoken about the nominative, accusative, dative, instrumental and causative cases of the Hungarian personal pronouns. There are many more cases: the inessive, superessive, adessive, illative, sublative, allative, elative, delative and ablative ones. If you want more, you can learn about all these cases
here. Don’t worry if you find it overwhelming, just don’t try to learn them all at once. Remember: the names of all these cases are not that important, try to learn some examples, and you will do just fine.
Thank you for your interest in Hungarian grammar. If you made this far, you are a true grammar hero! 🙂
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What course materials should you use? Are the free online language courses really good, or are they just a waste of time? Should you learn 2-3 hours straight every day, or should you split your learning time?
Should you come to Hungary, or can you learn in your own country and still become fluent?Should you focus on grammar or on conversation? How can you memorize all that new vocabulary?
I think we could call it naivety if you believed such methods can work; even if nowadays all you can hear about are new relaxation, meditation-based practices, that involve alpha, beta, gamma state of the brain.
If you look deep down in your heart, you know it too: there are no wonder-methods. Just as you cannot loose 100 pounds weight in a month, you cannot reach native-like fluency in Hungarian.
I will tell you the big secret that can help you 
If you are an outgoing kind of person, I would recommend that you go and learn in a group, where you can have a lot of interaction with your classmates. Additionally, you could go to a language-learning club, or join a group online. If speaking is the thing that you enjoy the most, then make your opportunities to 
If you are working, and/or have a family, it might be hard to find time to learn. Don’t get discouraged if you can’t find 2-3 hours for studying each day. You can learn effectively in 5-10 minutes sessions as well, just make sure you spend your idle-time with learning during the day.
You barely woke up and you are drinking your coffee? Best time for opening a language-learning app on your phone, and learning new vocabulary. Are you driving to work? Listen to some Hungarian podcasts or an audio language course. Are you standing in line, waiting for something? Try thinking in Hungarian while you are waiting. It’s evening time and you turn your TV on? Watch a Hungarian movie.
All these 5-10 minutes of learning add up during your day, and you can achieve the same results as if you were learning for hours straight.
What are the best methods that work for you in learning Hungarian? Please, share it with us by adding a comment.
If you liked this article, please, hit the like button, and share it with your friends so they could learn from it, too. Thank you. 
You’re no superhero, after all, just a regular, average language-learner with your ups and downs. Let me reassure you, these thoughts you’re having are perfectly normal. In fact, it shows that you really went over the pros and cons of
As a lot of tourists travel great distances, hundreds of foreign students learn Hungarian each year. Some of them achieve fluency in a short period of time, others don’t. Do you know why? Because they give up. Anything that requires a prolonged effort in time is “hard” to do. It’s hard to learn to play the piano, it’s hard to climb a mountain, it’s hard to learn to dance salsa. But wait! Is it really so?
There is no universal measure of how hard learning a certain language can be. It is determined by the individual who learns. By other words: it is up to you. If you decide that you won’t let yourself be diverted because of hardship, that you will overcome the obstacles, then you can really do it.
It is up to you how you deal with difficulties in general. If you train your mind to have a “can do” attitude rather than a pessimistic one, you can achieve more.
Let’s return to language learning. For some people, learning through grammar is the right way, especially if you have an analytical mindset, like to decode complex systems. For other people grammar is the worst thing to start with, it seems like a maze that cannot be seen-through. Learning expressions and ready-to-use sentences might be the solution for them, focusing more on conversation and less on grammar.
Some people are experienced language-learners. If I say “accusative case” they immediately know what I am thinking about. It would be enough for them if I said the accusative case of the personal pronoun in Hungarian was “engem”, “téged”, etc.
Others haven’t got a clue, I might as well speak Chinese if I start with the accusative case. I have to explain to them that the accusative case of a noun is a case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The problem for the beginner language learner is that he doesn’t understand the following words from my explanation: noun, direct object, transitive, verb, case. It would be easier for them to understand if I just said think about the difference between “they” and “them” in English. No grammar words and they can still make progress.
So, what do I recommend you to do then? How to find the best way for you to learn Hungarian?
If you find a method that promises huge advancement in a short period of time, beware: that is a lie. You cannot learn Hungarian in a week, just as you cannot lose 50 pounds. The other methods, the ones that promise you a decent progress in a couple of weeks, months, if you put your hard work in – those are the real thing.
So what is the best way to learn Hungarian? Experiment and find it out for yourself.
If you liked this article, please, hit the like button and share it with your friends, so they could learn from it, too. Thank you.
What about running? Do you prefer running shorter distances and fast, or do you go for the marathon?
These are the questions you should think about when you want to assess whether learning Hungarian is the right thing for you. There is no such thing as a universal measure of difficulty, as you, your way of learning can change everything.
Is this the first foreign language you want to learn? Do you come from a monolingual family? If you do, it will take more effort to reach your goals, but they are reachable, I assure you.
This might scare you, but, as I have said, it all depends on you. The mountain is there to climb it, and it is climbable, as many people have already done so. Hungarian is learnable, and you can do it if you really want to.
This study divides the languages that are spoken all over the world into 5 categories. In the 1st category, there are the easiest languages to learn. For an average language learner, it takes 23-24 weeks (575-600 hours) to learn them. These languages are closely related to English, with similar vocabulary and grammar. These are some examples from the easiest category: Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish.
In the 2nd category, you find only one language (German) that is quite similar to English, and it takes 30 weeks (750 hours) to learn it.
Languages with linguistic and/or cultural differences from English fall in the 3rd category, and it takes 36 weeks (900 hours) to learn them. These languages are Indonesian, Malaysian and Swahili.
The 4th category is interesting because it includes Hungarian. The description for this group states that these are the languages with significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English. According to this study, it takes 44 weeks (1100 hours) to learn them. Hungarian is in this category with the following languages: Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Finnish, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Icelandic, Khmer, Lao, Latvian, etc. Hungarian is marked with a star, which means that it is more difficult for a native English speaker to learn it than other languages from this category.
There is a 5th category, which includes languages that are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers. It takes 88 weeks (2200 hours) to learn them. These languages are Arabic, Cantonese (Chinese), Mandarin (Chinese), Japanese and Korean.
According to this study, from all the languages in the world,
If you look at those 1100 hours, you might see tedious, hard work in front of you, filled with grammar drills and declinations. It doesn’t have to be like this. You don’t have to spend all the 1100 hours with memorization, you can do fun things, too. You can shorten the time you spend studying by living in the language you learn, by