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Page:Simplified grammar of the Hungarian language.djvu/21

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NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE.
9

of fruits, corn, minerals, metals, &c., and stand in the singular:—e.g.,

alma, an apple or apples.
körte, a pear or pears.


Cases of the Noun.

There are five cases:—

The Nominative.
The Attributive or Possessive.
The Genitive.
The Dative.
The Accusative.

The first three cases are also called "subjective cases," because they can stand as subjectives.

The nominative is the word or name itself. Of suffixes it can take the plural or the personal.

The suffixes for the attributive case are -nak for flat sounding, and -nek for sharp sounding words. It expresses the meaning of possession, or of something belonging to it. It stands in an adjectival relation to the thing, that is, it is the attributive of the thing possessed—e.g., Péter-nek atyja, the father of Peter, or Peter's father. Here Peter is the possessor, and atyja the object possessed. At the same time Peter is the attribute to atyja.

The Hungarian has no words corresponding to the English