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Questions & Answers about A tanár segít a diáknak.
What is the role of the suffix -nak in diáknak?
The suffix -nak marks the dative case in Hungarian. In the sentence, it shows that diák (student) is the recipient of the action “helps.” Unlike English, where a preposition like to is used, Hungarian adds the case ending to indicate the indirect object.
Why doesn’t Hungarian use a preposition for the indirect object like in English?
Hungarian expresses grammatical relationships through case endings rather than prepositions. In this example, diáknak already conveys the meaning "to the student" by using the dative suffix -nak, so there is no need for an extra prepositional word.
How does vowel harmony affect the choice of the dative suffix in diáknak?
Hungarian vowel harmony means that suffixes must agree with the vowels of the word they attach to. Since diák contains back vowels, the appropriate dative ending is -nak (rather than -nek, which is used with front vowel words), ensuring the word sounds harmonious.
Why is the definite article a used with both tanár and diáknak in the sentence?
In Hungarian, the definite article a is used to indicate that both the subject and the object are specific or known entities. A tanár means "the teacher" and a diáknak implies "to the student" (a particular student), so the article helps clarify their definiteness.
Is the word order in this Hungarian sentence fixed, or can it be flexible compared to English?
Although the default order in Hungarian is similar to English (subject-verb-object), Hungarian allows for flexible word order because the case endings clearly indicate each word’s role. Even if the order changes, the dative marker on diáknak maintains the meaning of “to the student.”
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