Positional Suffixes
Hungarian follows a strict logic for suffixes relating to position. The position can be "in", "on" or "by". The direction can be static (no movement), movement towards or movement away. Combining these gives 9 different options.
| Interior | Surface | Adjacency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static position | -ban/-ben in lakásban in the flat/apartment |
-on/-en/-ön/-n on lakáson on the flat/apartment |
-nál/-nél by, at lakásnál by/at the flat/apartment |
| Movement towards | -ba/-be into lakásba into the flat/apartment |
-ra/-re onto lakásra onto the flat/apartment |
-hoz/-hez/-höz to lakáshoz to the flat/apartment |
| Movement away | -ból/-ből out of lakásból out of the flat/apartment |
-ról/-ről off lakásról off the flat/apartment |
-tól/-től from lakástól from the flat/apartment |
Note 1: -nál/-nél is also used with the meaning "at the home of" (cf. French chez, German bei).
Note 2: -ban/-ben is usually pronounced in the spoken informal speech without the final n, thus coinciding with the into-forms.
Read more about this topic: Hungarian Noun Phrase