Learn Hardcore Hungarian: Reggel hatkor kelek fel, és egy csésze kávét készítek a konyhában. - In the morning I get up at six o'clock and make a cup of coffee in the kitchen.

Reggel literally comes from the noun reggel (“morning”), but in this position it functions as an adverb meaning “in the morning / in the mornings.”

Hungarian usually doesn’t need a separate word like “in” for this kind of time expression. Instead of a preposition, it often uses:

a bare noun in an adverbial role: Reggel = “(in the) morning”
or a noun with a case ending, e.g. reggel (bare) vs. reggelre (“for the morning”).

So:

Reggel kelek fel. = “I get up in the morning.”
Ma reggel kelek fel. = “I get up this morning.”

No extra word for “in” is needed; reggel itself covers that meaning in this context.

Why is the subject pronoun én (“I”) missing? How do we know it means “I get up” and not “you/he/she gets up”?

Hungarian is a pro-drop language: the person and number of the subject are built into the verb ending, so the subject pronoun is usually omitted unless you want to emphasize it.

kelek is 1st person singular present: “I get up.”
kelsz would be “you (sg) get up.”
kel would be “he/she/it gets up.”

So:

Reggel hatkor kelek fel is automatically “I get up at six in the morning.”
If you want to stress I, you can say Én reggel hatkor kelek fel. (as opposed to someone else).

Why is it hatkor and not something like hat órakor or hat órán?

Hatkor is hat (six) + -kor, where -kor is a time suffix meaning “at (a specific time)”.

hatkor = “at six (o’clock)”
ötkor = “at five”
tízkor = “at ten”

You can also say:

hat órakor = literally “at six o’clock”

Both hatkor and hat órakor are correct; hatkor is shorter and very common in everyday speech.

-kor is the normal way to say “at [time]” in Hungarian. You don’t use a form like hat órán here; -n/-on/-en/-ön are mainly for location (“on”) or some time expressions like nyáron (“in summer”), but not for clock times.

Why is the word order Reggel hatkor kelek fel and not something like Felkelek reggel hatkor?

Hungarian word order is flexible but follows topic–focus–verb–rest rather than strict SVO like English. In this sentence:

Reggel hatkor = time information (topic / setting)
kelek fel = verb + its preverb (the action)

Reggel hatkor kelek fel is a neutral, natural way to say:

“As for the morning time, at six I get up.”

You could also say:

Reggel hatkor felkelek. (perfectly fine)
Felkelek reggel hatkor. (also grammatical, but the default is to put the time earlier)

Putting Reggel hatkor at the beginning is typical because time and place details often come before the verb as contextual information.

What is the fel doing after kelek? Why is it kelek fel and not always felkelek?

Fel is a preverb (also called a verbal prefix). The dictionary form of the verb is felkelni = “to get up”.

In Hungarian:

In neutral sentences, the preverb usually stands before the verb:
- Felkelek. = “I get up.”
But if something is in focus directly before the verb (for example, a time, a negation, a question word), the preverb moves after the verb:
- Hatkor kelek fel. (focus on hatkor = at six)
- Nem kelek fel. = “I do not get up.”
- Mikor kelsz fel? = “When do you get up?”

So in Reggel hatkor kelek fel, the time expression hatkor is placed before the verb and acts as the focus, so fel is split off and comes after kelek. That’s why you see kelek fel instead of felkelek here.

How is the verb kelek formed, and what is its base form?

The base (dictionary) form is felkelni:

fel = preverb “up”
kel = verb root “to rise, to get up”
-ni = infinitive ending

From felkelni, you get:

1st person singular present: felkelek
In the sentence with split preverb: kelek fel

Conjugation (present, indefinite):

(én) kelek / felkelek – I get up
(te) kelsz / felkelsz – you get up
(ő) kel / felkel – he/she/it gets up

So kelek is simply “I rise/I get up”, and with the preverb fel, it specifically means “I get up (out of bed, from lying/sitting)”.

In egy csésze kávét, why does kávé get the -t ending (kávét) but csésze does not?

-t is the accusative ending, marking the direct object.

In egy csésze kávét:

egy csésze = “a cup (of …)”
kávét = “coffee” in the accusative (object) form

Hungarian often treats measure/quantity words like egy csésze, egy pohár (“a glass of”), egy kiló (“a kilo of”) as a measure, and the actual thing being measured (here, kávé) carries the object ending:

Iszom egy csésze kávét. = “I drink a cup of coffee.”
Veszek egy kiló almát. = “I buy a kilo of apples.”

So kávé is the real object of készítek (“I prepare”), and therefore it gets -t: kávét.

Could you also say egy csészét kávét or egy csészét kávéból? Why is that not used here?

Forms like egy csészét kávét are not natural in standard Hungarian in this meaning.

In object phrases with a measure word, Hungarian usually:

leaves the measure word unmarked, and
puts the case (here, accusative -t) on the thing being measured:
- egy csésze kávét – “a cup of coffee” (as an object)
- két pohár bort – “two glasses of wine”

You would modify csésze (with -t or another case) only if the cup itself is the direct object:

Veszek egy csészét. = “I’ll buy a cup.” (the actual physical cup)
Veszek egy csészét a boltban. = “I’ll buy a cup in the shop.”

In the original sentence, you are preparing coffee, not a cup as a physical object, so kávé is the one that gets -t.

Why is the verb készítek (indefinite) and not készítem (definite)?

Hungarian has indefinite and definite conjugation, depending on the direct object:

Use indefinite conjugation if:
- there is no direct object, or
- the object is indefinite (“a / some / any X”).
Use definite conjugation if:
- the object is definite (“the X”, “this/that X”, a specific known X).

In the sentence:

egy csésze kávét = “a cup of coffee” (indefinite, not a specific known cup)

So you use the indefinite form:

készítek = “I make / I prepare (something indefinite)”

If you referred to a specific, known cup of coffee, you would use the definite form:

Azt a csésze kávét készítem a konyhában.
= “I am making that cup of coffee in the kitchen.”

What is the difference between készítek and csinálok? Could I say csinálok egy csésze kávét?

Both készítek and csinálok can translate as “I make,” but they are used a bit differently:

készítek (from készít) is more like “prepare / make” in a slightly more purposeful or appropriate sense:
- kávét készítek – “I make/prepare coffee.”
- ebédet készítek – “I make lunch.”
csinálok (from csinál) is very general: “I do / I make,” and can sound more colloquial or vague.

You can say:

Csinálok egy kávét. – very common colloquial speech: “I’ll make a coffee.”

But készítek egy csésze kávét is stylistically a bit more “proper” or neutral, especially in textbooks. Both are understandable; készítek fits well in a simple daily-routine sentence.

Why do we say a konyhában with the definite article a, but not a reggel or a hatkor?

A konyhában:

konyha = “kitchen”
-ban = “in”
a konyhában = “in the kitchen”

We use the definite article a here because we usually think of a specific, known kitchen (your kitchen at home, for example).

For reggel and hatkor:

reggel (as an adverb) = “in the morning”
hatkor = “at six”

These time expressions are generic adverbials of time and normally do not take an article when used this way:

Reggel hatkor kelek fel. – “I get up at six in the morning.”
Este olvasok. – “I read in the evening.”

If you want to mean “this morning” or “that morning”, you can use:

Ma reggel – “this morning”
A reggel can exist, but then reggel is a noun with article: “the morning (in question)”; it sounds more specific or literary and is less common in simple routine statements.

Why is it konyhában with -ban and not konyhában / konyhában with -ben or some other ending? What does -ban/-ben mean?

-ban / -ben is the inessive case ending, meaning “in (inside something)”.

You attach -ban after back-vowel words, and -ben after front-vowel words (vowel harmony):
- ház (back vowel) → házban = in the house
- szék (front vowel) → székben = in the chair

Konyha has back vowels (o, a), so it takes -ban:

konyha + ban → konyhában = “in the kitchen”

The á appears because in many -a ending words, the final a lengthens to á before case endings:

szoba → szobában
konyha → konyhában

So konyhában literally “kitchen-in” = “in the kitchen”.

Why is there a comma before és in ..., és egy csésze kávét készítek a konyhában.? Could it be written without a comma?

In Hungarian, when és (“and”) links two clauses (each with its own verb), a comma is often used before it, especially if the clauses are not very short:

Reggel hatkor kelek fel, és egy csésze kávét készítek a konyhában.
= “I get up at six in the morning, and I make a cup of coffee in the kitchen.”

Both parts have their own verb:

kelek (fel)
készítek

In everyday writing, you may also see it without a comma:

Reggel hatkor kelek fel és egy csésze kávét készítek a konyhában.

This is not really wrong in informal contexts. The version with the comma is closer to standard punctuation rules and slightly easier to read because the two actions are clearly separated.

Why is the object placed before the verb in egy csésze kávét készítek, and could I also say készítek egy csésze kávét?

Yes, you can say készítek egy csésze kávét as well. Both are grammatical, but the focus changes:

Egy csésze kávét készítek.
– The focus is on what you are making: “It’s a cup of coffee that I’m making.”
Készítek egy csésze kávét.
– More neutral; the focus is less strongly on the object. Somewhere between “I make a cup of coffee” and “I will make a cup of coffee.”

Hungarian puts the focused element immediately before the verb. In:

… és egy csésze kávét készítek a konyhában.

the speaker mildly emphasizes the object: among the things I do, this is what I make – a cup of coffee. For a simple, neutral statement, készítek egy csésze kávét is also very common.

If Reggel is “in the morning,” how would you say “every morning” or “this morning” with this sentence?

You can express these nuances with additional words:

Minden reggel hatkor kelek fel, és egy csésze kávét készítek a konyhában.
= “Every morning I get up at six, and I make a cup of coffee in the kitchen.”
Ma reggel hatkor keltem fel, és egy csésze kávét készítettem a konyhában.
= “This morning I got up at six, and I made a cup of coffee in the kitchen.”
(note the past tense keltem, készítettem)

So:

reggel alone = (in the) morning / in the mornings (generic)
minden reggel = every morning
ma reggel = this morning