Abstract Postpositions: Forms and Core Pattern

Hungarian uses postpositions not only for space and time but also for abstract relations: cause with miatt, viewpoint with szerint, substitution with helyett, opposition with ellen, and comparison with képest. Most follow an otherwise unmarked noun phrase, and many replace an independent personal pronoun with a possessive-style ending. Their mixed behavior is the important pattern: they are separate words after nouns, but their personal paradigms resemble inflected relational words.

The core noun-first pattern

Most postpositions on this page follow the entire noun phrase. Articles, adjectives, plurals, and possessive suffixes remain inside that phrase.

The ordinary complement before these postpositions has no case ending selected by the postposition: a köd miatt, not a ködnek miatt. Képest is the principal exception in this set. It requires allative -hoz/-hez/-höz: a tavalyi eredményhez képest “compared with last year's result.” This makes it a bridge to the patterns on the case-governing postpositions page.

Cause and purpose: miatt and végett

Miatt gives a reason or cause. The cause can be negative, neutral, or positive; any sense of blame comes from context, not from the postposition itself.

Végett traditionally marks purpose: adatellenőrzés végett “for the purpose of checking the data.” In contemporary standard Hungarian it is largely restricted to official, administrative, or deliberately old-fashioned style (formal/old-fashioned). Causal uses meaning “because of” also occur historically and regionally, so there is no perfectly clean logic across every text. For active neutral use, choose miatt for cause and -ért or a purpose clause for purpose.

The personal forms of miatt are miattam, miattad, miatta, miattunk, miattatok, miattuk. Végett does not have a productive personal paradigm in present-day neutral Hungarian. Historical and literary texts contain forms such as végette (archaic/literary), but modern speakers normally recast the relation with miatta, érte, az ő érdekében, or a purpose clause, according to the intended meaning.

Viewpoint and substitution: szerint and helyett

Szerint identifies a source of information, opinion, rule, or classification. With a document or rule, it often means “according to/in accordance with.” Its personal forms commonly report an opinion: szerintem “in my opinion,” szerinted “in your opinion,” szerinte “in his/her opinion.”

The full series is szerintem, szerinted, szerinte, szerintünk, szerintetek, szerintük. Helyett uses helyettem, helyetted, helyette, helyettünk, helyettetek, helyettük. It signals that one participant, object, or action occupies another's role.

With clauses, Hungarian usually uses ahelyett, hogy “instead of/rather than”: Ahelyett, hogy panaszkodnál, mondd el, mire van szükséged. This fused deictic form does not change the noun-first behavior of ordinary helyett.

Opposition, attitude, and orientation

Ellen marks opposition, resistance, or action directed against something: a javaslat ellen szavaz, a fertőzés ellen véd. Personal forms are ellenem, ellened, ellene, ellenünk, ellenetek, ellenük.

Iránt selects an attitude, feeling, duty, demand, or interest oriented toward its complement. Its forms are irántam, irántad, iránta, irántunk, irántatok, irántuk. Physical movement generally uses felé, not iránt.

Felé marks physical or metaphorical direction: a kijárat felé, a kompromisszum felé. Its personal paradigm is less transparent: felém, feléd, felé, felénk, felétek, feléjük. The third-person singular form is identical to the base felé, so context supplies “toward him/her/it.”

Képest and personal baselines

Képest never builds a series such as képestem. The allative complement carries person: hozzám képest, hozzád képest, hozzá képest, hozzánk képest, hozzátok képest, hozzájuk képest. With a demonstrative, use ehhez/ahhoz képest.

The second construction compares reality with an expectation created by the hogy clause. English often translates it as “considering/given that,” but the Hungarian logic is still comparison with a baseline.

Attributive forms in -i

Several abstract postpositions accept -i when the whole relation modifies a following noun. The complement still comes first: a késés miatti panasz “the complaint about/because of the delay,” a szerződés szerinti ár “the price specified by the contract,” a terv elleni tiltakozás “the protest against the plan,” az ügy iránti érdeklődés “interest in the case.”

The -i form is not a personal ending. It turns the relation into an attributive modifier, while personal reference remains inside it when needed: az irántam érzett bizalom “the trust felt toward me,” rather than an invented iránti-m form. Not every postposition forms an equally idiomatic -i adjective, so learn frequent combinations such as miatti, szerinti, elleni, and iránti.

Compact personal-form map

Segmentation exercise

1. a rossz idő miatt = complete unmarked noun phrase + miatt.
2. szerint-etek = szerint
   • second-person plural ending -etek.
3. helyett-ünk = helyett
   • first-person plural ending -ünk.
4. felé-jük = directional base + third-person plural ending -jük.
5. a terv-hez képest = noun + allative -hez
   • case-governing képest.
6. hozzá-m képest = personal allative stem hozzá-
   • first-person -m
     • képest.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Most abstract postpositions follow an unmarked noun phrase: a hiba miatt, Péter helyett, a terv ellen.
• Personal reference is normally encoded on the postposition: miattam, szerinted, helyette, ellenünk.
• Felé has the distinctive series felém, feléd, felé, felénk, felétek, feléjük.
• Képest requires allative marking: a tervhez képest, hozzám képest.
• Neutral miatt expresses cause; purpose végett is chiefly formal or old-fashioned.
• Iránt selects attitudes and interest, while felé selects physical or metaphorical direction.