The Delative -ról/-ről: Forms and Core Pattern

The delative -ról/-ről is the source member of the Hungarian surface case family. Its clearest meaning is movement off a surface: asztalról “off/from the table.” The same form also marks departure from surface-family places, topics of speech and thought, objects of removal, and things renounced. Those meanings are developed on the delative usage page; here the focus is the suffix's form, position, and special pronominal patterns.

The two harmonic variants

Back-vowel words take -ról; front-vowel words take -ről. Front rounded vowels also select -ről, so there is no third rounded-front form. The vowels ó and ő are long: ó keeps its acute accent and ő its double acute in every standard written form.

Words containing only e, é, i, í can belong to different lexical harmony classes. Compare front-harmonic vízről and back-harmonic hídról. This difference is not shown by the isolated vowels, so learners must sometimes store a suffixed form with the noun.

Final vowels and stem selection

Final short a and e lengthen before the suffix: szoba → szobáról, posta → postáról, megye → megyéről. Other final vowels remain: kávéról, autóról, időről.

As with other case suffixes, use the stem selected before -ról/-ről rather than copying the plural or accusative stem mechanically. Bokor gives bokorról, although its plural is bokrok; kéz gives kézről, although its plural is kezek. The surface-source ending itself remains regular.

Position after plural and possession

Delative follows ordinary plural: asztal-ok-ról, szék-ek-ről, város-ok-ról. It also follows the complete possessed form: asztal-om-ról “from/about my table,” könyv-ei-m-ről “about my books,” terv-ei-nk-ről “about our plans.”

English places “off,” “from,” or “about” before a noun phrase. Hungarian completes number and possession first and adds the case at the outside edge. The delative cannot precede the stem or appear inside the possession complex.

Demonstratives and agreement

With ez “this” and az “that,” both demonstrative and noun take delative: erről az asztalról, arról a székről. The final z assimilates completely to the suffix's initial r, creating written rr.

The article depends on the next sound: erről az asztalról, but arról a székről. Marking only the demonstrative, as in erről az asztal, breaks the normal agreement pattern.

Interrogative and indefinite forms are equally regular: miről? “about/from what?”, amiről “about/from which,” valamiről “about something,” and semmiről “about nothing.”

Personal forms: rólam, rólad, róla

The delative does not attach to ordinary nominative pronouns. It has a personal paradigm built on ról-/ről-.

Forms such as énről and őkről are not standard personal delatives. The separate nominative pronoun may be added for contrast—énrólam, terólad, őróluk—but the ordinary neutral forms are rólam, rólad, róluk.

One form, several environments

The same delative form appears in several constructions. Physical removal uses levesz valamit valamiről “take something off something.” Surface-family place source gives Budapestről, egyetemről, and koncertről. Topic predicates include beszél valamiről “talk about something,” szól valamiről “be about something,” and hall valamiről “hear about something.” Renunciation predicates include lemond valamiről “give something up” and leszokik valamiről “quit a habit.”

These are not separate spellings of English “from” and “about.” They are extensions and lexical selections within one Hungarian case network. Neighboring choices such as Berlinből “from Berlin” and Pétertől “from Péter” depend on a different locative family.

Segmentation exercise

Analyze each form from the stem outward.

1. székekről = szék-ek-ről: chair + plural + off/from
2. postáról = postá-ról: post office, with final a → á, + from
3. könyveimről = könyv-ei-m-ről: book + possessed plural + my + about
4. erről = ez + ről, with complete z → r assimilation
5. rólunk = delative pronominal base + first-person plural ending
6. 2026-ról = written number + hyphen + delative chosen from the spoken form's harmony

The hyphens above are analytical except in 2026-ról, where standard spelling uses a hyphen after the figure.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Back-vowel words take -ról; front-vowel words, including rounded-front words, take -ről.
• Final a/e lengthens: posta → postáról, megye → megyéről.
• Delative follows plural and possession: asztalokról, könyveimről.
• Demonstratives agree as erről ... -ről / arról ... -ról; pronouns use rólam, rólad, róla and their plural forms.
• The form covers surface source, topic, place source, removal, and selected renunciation constructions.
• Preserve ó/ő, stem alternations, consonant length, and multigraph spelling in every form.