Breakdown of Tegnap pizzát ettem az étteremben.
én
I
enni
to eat
-ben
in
tegnap
yesterday
étterem
the restaurant
pizza
the pizza
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Questions & Answers about Tegnap pizzát ettem az étteremben.
What does Tegnap mean?
It means yesterday. In Hungarian time-words like this often come at the very beginning to set the temporal context of the sentence.
Why is pizza in the form pizzát?
Because it’s the direct object of ettem and appears in the accusative case. To mark a noun as a direct object, Hungarian adds -t (pizza + t → pizzát).
Why is there no article like a or egy before pizzát?
Hungarian generally omits the indefinite article (egy) before an indefinite object. If you wanted to be extra explicit you could say Tegnap egy pizzát ettem, but egy isn’t required here.
What is ettem, and why does it look so different from eszem or enni?
ettem is the 1st person singular past indefinite form of the irregular verb enni (“to eat”). The stem changes from en- to ett- in the past, and you add -em to mean “I ate.”
Hungarian has definite and indefinite verb conjugations—why do we use ettem (indefinite) and not a definite form?
Because pizzát here is indefinite (you ate a pizza, not the pizza previously mentioned). With a definite object you’d use the definite past form megettem (“I ate the pizza”).
Why do we say az étteremben instead of just étteremben?
Hungarian requires the definite article (a/az) before most singular common nouns. Since you’re talking about “the restaurant” as a location, you need az étteremben (“in the restaurant”).
Why is the locative ending -ben (étteremben) and not -ban?
It’s a matter of vowel harmony. étterem has front vowels (é, e), so it takes the front vowel locative suffix -ben. Words with back vowels (a, o, u) take -ban instead.
What is the typical word order in this sentence, and how rigid is it?
The neutral order is Time–Object–Verb–Place:
Tegnap (time) pizzát (object) ettem (verb) az étteremben (place).
Hungarian is fairly flexible—you can move any element for emphasis or topicalization (e.g. Az étteremben pizzát ettem tegnap to stress the location).