Sociative Case

The sociative case in Hungarian language can express the person in whose company (cf. Latin socius) the action is carried out, or to any belongings of people which take part in the action (together with their owners). It is denoted by the suffixes "-stul/-stül," depending on vowel harmony. This case is obsolete and nowadays the instrumental-comitative case is usually used instead. Nevertheless, it can be used also in modern Hungarian to express a slight pejorative tone against a person. For example: "Karácsonykor egy fillér nélkül, kölyköstül állított be az anyósához" means Without a dime, she wound up in her mother-in-law's house at Christmas with her kids. The use of the sociative case "kölyköstül" (with her kids) signifies the speaker's contempt. The case appears also in some commonly used expressions, which survived the general obsolescence of the sociative case: "Ruhástul ugrott a medencébe" means He jumped into the pool with his clothes on, and "A fenevad szőröstül-bőröstül felfalta a védtelen kis nyuszit" means The monster devoured the helpless little bunny neck and crop.