Breakdown of A metszőolló a dobozban van.
lenni
to be
az
the
doboz
the box
metszőolló
a pair of pruning shears
Questions & Answers about A metszőolló a dobozban van.
What does dobozban mean, and what does the ending -ban do?
Doboz means box. The ending -ban is a case suffix meaning in or inside.
So:
- doboz = box
- dobozban = in a box / in the box
Hungarian often uses endings on nouns where English uses prepositions. So instead of a separate word like in, Hungarian attaches -ban directly to the noun.
In this sentence, a dobozban means in the box.
Why is it -ban here and not -ben?
This is because of vowel harmony, which is a very important pattern in Hungarian.
Hungarian nouns usually take one of two versions of many endings:
- -ban
- -ben
Words with back vowels usually take -ban.
Words with front vowels usually take -ben.
Doboz has back vowels, so it becomes dobozban.
Compare:
- dobozban = in the box
- kertben = in the garden
- székben = in the chair
So the meaning is the same, but the form changes to match the vowels in the word.
Why is used here? I thought Hungarian often leaves out .