Hungarian vowel harmony is one of the defining features of the language: the vowels in a suffix must agree with the vowels in the word stem. This checker classifies every vowel in a word, determines whether the word is back, front or mixed, and tells you which suffix vowel to use.
How it works
Hungarian vowels split into three groups. Back vowels are a, á, o, ó, u, ú. Front vowels are e, é, i, í, ö, ő, ü, ű. Among the front set, i, í, é (and frequently e) are neutral — they are transparent to harmony and can occur in either class of word.
The algorithm scans the word left to right, classifying each vowel. It then counts the non-neutral vowels: if any back vowel is present and dominates, the word is back-harmonic and takes back suffixes such as -ban, -nak, -hoz. If only front (non-neutral) vowels appear, the word is front-harmonic and takes -ben, -nek, -hez/-höz. Words containing only neutral vowels (e.g. híd, víz) conventionally take front suffixes.
Front, back and rounded front suffixes
Many suffixes have a two-way alternation (back/front), but some have a three-way one that also distinguishes rounded front vowels:
- Two-way:
-ban / -ben,-nál / -nél,-val / -vel - Three-way:
-hoz / -hez / -höz,-unk / -ünk
For the three-way set, a word whose last front vowel is ö, ő, ü, ű takes the rounded -höz/-ünk form; otherwise it takes the plain front -hez/-ünk form.
Example
The word ablak (“window”) contains a, a — both back. It is a back-harmonic word, so it takes -ban → ablakban. The word kert (“garden”) contains e — front — so it takes -ben → kertben. The word sofőr mixes o (back) and ő (front rounded); mixed loanwords usually harmonise to the last vowel, so it takes the front-rounded suffix → sofőrök.
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