Breakdown of Feldíszítjük a szobát a girlanddal.
szoba
the room
az
the
girland
a decorative garland
feldíszíteni
to decorate a place
Questions & Answers about Feldíszítjük a szobát a girlanddal.
Why does the verb start with fel-? What does feldíszítjük mean compared with just díszítjük?
Fel- is a verb prefix. In this sentence, it adds the idea of decorating something up, often with a sense of completeness or making it festive.
- díszít = to decorate
- feldíszít = to decorate up, to adorn, to decorate fully
So Feldíszítjük a szobát sounds more like We decorate the room up / We’ll decorate the room nicely, not just We decorate the room in a general sense.
This kind of prefix is very common in Hungarian, and it often changes the nuance of the verb.
Why is it díszítjük and not díszítünk?
Because Hungarian is using the definite conjugation here.
The direct object is a szobát = the room, which is definite.
When the object is definite, Hungarian often uses a special set of verb endings.
Compare:
- díszítünk = we decorate something indefinite / in general
- díszítjük = we decorate it / the specific thing
So:
- Díszítünk egy szobát. = We decorate a room.
- Díszítjük a szobát. = We decorate the room.
That is why -jük appears here.