Word order of numeral and noun (Hungarian)

NumN: In the dominant order, the numeral precedes the noun.


(1) holnap nyaral-ni megy-ek két barát-om-mal.

tomorrow spend_the_summer-inf go-prs.1sg two friend-1sg-com

‘Tomorrow, I’m going on summer holidays with two of my friends.’


(2) ma ve-tt-em könyv-et, kettő-t.

today buy-pst-1sg book-acc two-acc

‘Today, I bought books, two ones.’


In Hungarian, the numeral (just like other noun modifiers) precedes the noun (1). The postpositional numeral modifier (2) has a questionable status, and cannot be considered as an instance of the dominant word order (cf. Balogh 2000b: 444‒446, 452‒458).

Author: 

Nikolett F. Gulyás