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Hungarian Grammar Question | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Bbcatcher 08 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4416 days ago 130 posts - 154 votes  Speaks: English*, Latin Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Serbo-Croatian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 5 06 January 2013 at 4:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello all,
I have a quick question. I have been going through the Teach Yourself Hungarian book, and in the back portion, where it has the conjugation tables, I noticed that there is a "indefinite" and "definite" conjugation. Can anyone here who has learned the language explain the differences? I have asked natives, and they have no idea how to explain, because it is natural for them. Thanks all! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Astrophel Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5730 days ago 157 posts - 345 votes Speaks: English*, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Cantonese, Polish, Sanskrit, Cherokee | Message 2 of 5 06 January 2013 at 6:37am | IP Logged | ||
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Indefinite means "a/an/some noun", and definite means "the noun". It's really that simple :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5128 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 3 of 5 06 January 2013 at 7:02am | IP Logged | ||
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In Hungarian, the two sentences "I see a car" and "I see the car" require different verb forms for "I see", the first
requires the indefinite conjugation, the second the definite. Which one to choose depends on whether the object of the verb is definite or indefinite (with special rules for personal pronouns). In indo-european languages, there is no such distinction. I see a car. = Látok egy autót. I see the car. = Látom az autót. EDIT: Added the accusative marker -t. (See next comment.) Edited by Bakunin on 06 January 2013 at 4:13pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| gabe76 Triglot Newbie Hungary Joined 4741 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, German, English Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 5 06 January 2013 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Látok/látom requires the accusative ending.
Látok egy autót. látom az autót. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5128 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 5 of 5 06 January 2013 at 1:02pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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