Breakdown of A postán az ár a csomag súlyától függ, nem attól, mi van benne.
Questions & Answers about A postán az ár a csomag súlyától függ, nem attól, mi van benne.
A postán means at the post office. The ending -n here is the “at/on” location case (often taught as the superessive), and with certain place words (like posta) it’s used to mean at a service location:
- posta → postán = at the post office
You’ll also hear postán without the article, especially in short, practical contexts (like “At the post office…”).
Hungarian has two forms of the definite article: a and az.
- a is used before consonant sounds
- az is used before vowel sounds
Since ár starts with a vowel, it becomes az ár (the price).
It’s built in layers:
1) csomag = package
2) súly = weight
3) csomag súlya = the package’s weight (Hungarian expresses “X’s Y” with a possessive ending on Y)
4) súly-á-tól = from the weight / depending on the weight
So súlyától = súly (weight) + -a (its; 3rd person possessive, “its weight”) + -tól (from)
Altogether: a csomag súlyától = from the package’s weight / on the package’s weight.
Hungarian normally uses a possessive structure where English often uses of:
- a csomag súlya = the package’s weight
This is the standard, natural way to say “the weight of the package.” You can say other things (like a csomag tömege for “mass”), but the possessive pattern is still the core grammar.
Because függ (to depend) commonly takes the ablative case -tól/-től to mark what something depends on:
- valamitől függ = to depend on something
So a csomag súlyától függ = it depends on the package’s weight.
It’s vowel harmony. Hungarian chooses the ending based on the vowels in the word:
- back-vowel words typically take -tól
- front-vowel words typically take -től
súly contains a back vowel (ú), so you get súly-tól (with the possessive included: súlyától).
attól means from that / on that (the demonstrative az “that” + ablative -tól).
It’s used because the sentence sets up a contrast with the same grammar pattern:
- a csomag súlyától függ = depends on the package’s weight
- nem attól (függ) = not from that / not on that (i.e., not on the other thing)
The verb függ is understood after nem attól; Hungarian often omits repeated words when the meaning is clear.
Because this is an embedded question: what is in it.
- mi van benne = what is in it (question content)
ami is more like that which / what(ever) which, used for relative clauses: - az, ami benne van = that which is inside it / what’s inside it
So here mi is correct because the sentence is effectively “not on what is inside it.”
benne means in it. It’s the pronoun form of -ban/-ben (“in”), like:
- a csomagban = in the package
- benne = in it (referring back to something already known, here the package)
Hungarian commonly uses benne to avoid repeating the noun (csomag) again.
The sentence is correct as written, but Hungarian word order is flexible and often reflects focus/emphasis. For example:
- A postán az ár a csomag súlyától függ. (neutral)
- A csomag súlyától függ az ár a postán. (more focus on “the weight” as the key factor)
The contrast part nem attól, mi van benne naturally follows because it’s an afterthought/contrast clarifier.
The first comma separates the main statement from the contrasting add-on:
- main: A postán az ár a csomag súlyától függ
- contrast: nem attól, mi van benne
The second comma marks that mi van benne is a clause explaining attól (basically: “not on that—namely, on what’s inside it”).