Editing Hungarian language (section)

==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.)