Ruhák - Clothes

Exercises (alternative stems)

Put these nouns into plural and into accusative (objective) case singular.

ex. asztal – asztalok – asztalt

NOTE! All of these nouns have alternative stems, and are grouped accordingly. Try to figure out their pattern relying on those you already know:

bokor	bokor
eper	eper
kehely	kehely
pehely	pehely
teher	teher
híd	híd
nyár (summer)	nyár (summer)
kéz	kéz

Az emberi test - The human body

Nominal Stems

A) Regular (monomorphic) Stems

            1. Ending in vowels: hajó (ship), kávé

            2. Ending in consonants: ház, pad (bench), hat

            3. Ending in H: düh (anger), sah (shah), cseh (czech), juh (sheep)

B) Alternative (polymorphic) stems 

NOTE! Alternation only occurs when one of the following grammatical suffixes is added to the root:

-the plural marker (-k)

-the object (accusative) marker (-t)

-the instrumental marker (-val/ -vel), only applies for rule 3

-the possessive plural marker (-ai/-ei)

-derivational suffices (-s/ -l) 

1. Vowel loss (the last vowel in the word is deleted when the suffix is added): köröm (nail), szerelem (love), selyem (silk)

                                    Ex.       köröm-körmök, szerelem-szerelmet

b) Vowel loss with consonant switch (the two consonants surroundig the final vowel, switch places, while the vowel is dropped): kehely (cup), pehely (flake), teher (burden)

                                    Ex.       teher- terhet, pehely- pelyhek

                        c) End-vowel loss (the wirdfinal vowel is dropped): borjú (veal), varjú (crow)

                                    Ex.       borjú-borjak,  varjú-varjak

2.  Inner-vowel shortening (the inner vowel is shortened, almost always occurs with monosyllabic words): kéz (hand), híd (bridge), kút (fountain), tűz (fire), madár (bird)

                                    Ex.       kéz- kezek, híd-hidat

3. Word-final vowel lengthening (the final a becomes á and e becomes é): fa (tree), béke (peace), körte (pear)

                                    Ex.       fa- fát, körte-körtét  

                        4. V- alternation (the word has a varriant ending in v):

a) With vowel shortening before v-variants: ló (horse), kő (rock), fű (grass)  

                                    Ex.       ló- lovak,  fű- füvet

            b) With vowel change before v-variants ó becomes a: hó (snow), tó (lake), szó (word)

                                    Ex.       hó- havat,  tó- tavak

c) With vowel loss before v-variants: falu (village), daru (crane), tetű (flee)

                                    Ex.       falu- falvat, daru- darvak