Personal Postpositions in Hungarian

In Brief

When a Hungarian postposition refers to a personal pronoun, it normally takes a personal suffix: mögöttem “behind me,” előtte “in front of/before him or her,” and közöttünk “between us.” Hungarian therefore does not usually combine an independent pronoun with the unchanged postposition in the way English combines me with behind.

Overview

A postposition is a word that expresses a relation such as place, time, cause, or viewpoint and comes after a noun phrase: a ház mögött “behind the house,” ebéd után “after lunch.” When the same relation has a personal pronoun as its complement—the person or thing related to it—the postposition receives a personal ending: mögöttem “behind me,” utánuk “after them.” These are called personal postpositions (személyes névutók).

English places a separate object pronoun after a preposition: behind me, without you, according to them. Hungarian generally packages both parts into one word. The ending identifies the person and number, so no separate pronoun is needed. This is part of a wider Hungarian pattern: relations that English expresses with preposition + pronoun are often expressed by a suffixed relational word.

At C1, the challenge is not merely recognising a few forms. You need to control several paradigms, distinguish literal and figurative meanings, and use emphatic pronouns naturally. The basic A2 postpositions are the necessary starting point, but some extremely common personal forms—especially szerintem “in my opinion,” miattad “because of you,” and nélküle “without him/her/it”—also function as discourse tools and idioms.

How It Works

From noun phrase to personal form

Compare the ordinary postposition with its personal form:

With a noun phrase	Meaning	With a personal suffix	Meaning
a ház mögött	behind the house	mögöttem	behind me
Péter előtt	in front of/before Péter	előtte	in front of/before him or her
a barátok között	among the friends	közöttük	among them
Anna nélkül	without Anna	nélküle	without her
a terv szerint	according to the plan	szerintem	according to me; in my opinion
a vihar miatt	because of the storm	miattuk	because of them

The noun phrase disappears; the ending on the postposition replaces it. The person is grammatical person: first person means the speaker (I/we), second person the addressee (you), and third person another person or thing (he, she, it/they).

The core personal endings

Many postpositions follow a highly visible pattern. The exact connecting vowel depends on the word, but the person endings are broadly recognisable:

Person	mögött “behind”	előtt “before/in front of”	mellett “beside”
I	mögöttem	előttem	mellettem
you (singular)	mögötted	előtted	melletted
he/she/it	mögötte	előtte	mellette
we	mögöttünk	előttünk	mellettünk
you (plural)	mögöttetek	előttetek	mellettetek
they	mögöttük	előttük	mellettük

Hungarian has no grammatical gender in these forms. Előtte can mean “before him,” “before her,” or “before it”; context supplies the reference. Likewise, mellettük can mean “beside them” for people or things.

Postpositions with -tt often show the sequence -ttem, -tted, -tte, -ttünk, -ttetek, -ttük. Other common members include alattam “under me,” feletted “above you,” and közöttünk “between/among us.” Learn the complete word pattern rather than treating every ending as mechanically detachable.

Common paradigms with different shapes

Not every postposition looks like mögött. The following sets are central:

Person	nélkül “without”	szerint “according to”	miatt “because of”	után “after”
I	nélkülem	szerintem	miattam	utánam
you (singular)	nélküled	szerinted	miattad	utánad
he/she/it	nélküle	szerinte	miatta	utána
we	nélkülünk	szerintünk	miattunk	utánunk
you (plural)	nélkületek	szerintetek	miattatok	utánatok
they	nélkülük	szerintük	miattuk	utánuk

Two useful observations follow:

• The first- and second-person endings often resemble possessive endings, but these forms do not express possession. Mögöttem means “behind me,” not “my behind.”
• Vowel harmony—the matching of suffix vowels to the vowels of the stem—helps explain alternatives such as -unk/-ünk and -atok/-etek. However, fixed forms such as nélkülem and szerintem should be memorised as paradigms.

Other frequent sets include:

• helyettem, helyetted, helyette, helyettünk, helyettetek, helyettük — instead of me, you, him/her/it, us, you, them
• általam, általad, általa, általunk, általatok, általuk — by me, you, him/her/it, us, you, them; through me, etc.
• körülöttem, körülötted, körülötte, körülöttünk, körülöttetek, körülöttük — around me, you, him/her/it, us, you, them

No separate pronoun—unless you need contrast

The neutral form is the suffixed postposition alone:

• Péter mögöttem áll. — “Péter is standing behind me.”
• Nélküled nem indulok el. — “I’m not leaving without you.”

An independent pronoun may be added for focus or contrast. It normally appears before the personal postposition and matches its person:

• Énmögöttem áll, nem mögötted. — “He is standing behind me, not behind you.”
• Temiattad késtünk el. — “It was because of you that we were late.”

In normal spelling, the pronoun and postposition remain separate words: én mögöttem, te melletted, őelőtte is also conventionally written as one word in the especially established emphatic forms énelőttem, teelőtted, őelőtte, and similarly with some spatial postpositions. Because actual usage and lexicalisation vary by item, the safest productive pattern is to use the suffixed postposition alone and learn established emphatic combinations from reliable examples.

More importantly, the pronoun and suffix must agree: én mögöttem, not én mögötted. English speakers often overuse the pronoun because English requires me/you/him. Hungarian does not.

Spatial, temporal, and abstract meanings

One form can have several related meanings:

• előttem — physically in front of me; temporally before me; ahead of me in an order
• utánam — physically after/behind me; temporally after me; in pursuit of me
• mellettem — beside me; on my side; supporting me
• közöttünk — between/among us; in our relationship; confidentially “between us”
• felettem — above me; in authority over me

Do not choose the English translation before reading the whole sentence. Ő következik utánam means “He is next after me,” while A kutya utánam futott means “The dog ran after me.”

Examples in Context

Hungarian	English	Note
Valaki áll mögöttem.	Someone is standing behind me.	Literal location
A gyerekek előttünk futottak.	The children were running in front of us.	First-person plural
Leülhetek melléd?	May I sit beside you?	Hungarian often uses the related case form melléd for motion toward a position
Mindig mellettem állt a nehéz időkben.	He/She always stood by me in difficult times.	Figurative support
Ez maradjon közöttünk.	Let this stay between us.	Confidentiality
Nélküled nem sikerült volna.	It would not have succeeded without you.	Counterfactual context
Szerintem ez jó megoldás.	In my opinion, this is a good solution.	Common discourse marker
Szerintetek mikor induljunk?	When do you all think we should leave?	Addresses several people
Miattuk kellett megváltoztatni a tervet.	The plan had to be changed because of them.	Cause attributed to people
Nem akarom, hogy helyettem dönts.	I don’t want you to decide instead of me.	Substitution
Anna közvetlenül előttem végzett.	Anna finished immediately ahead of me.	Position in an order
A kutya egész úton utánunk jött.	The dog followed us the whole way.	Movement in pursuit/following
Körülöttem mindenki magyarul beszélt.	Everyone around me was speaking Hungarian.	Surroundings
A jelentést általuk ismertük meg.	We learned of the report through them.	által as means/intermediary; formal
Felettük lakik egy zenész.	A musician lives above them.	Vertical location

The third example illustrates an important boundary. Static location uses mellettem/melletted (“beside me/you”), while motion toward that position commonly uses mellém/melléd (“to beside me/you”). These forms belong to the same relational family, but they are not interchangeable.

Common Mistakes

Using a free pronoun as though Hungarian worked like English

• Wrong: mögött én
• Right: mögöttem
• Why: The personal ending carries the meaning “me.” Hungarian does not normally place én after an unchanged postposition.

Leaving the postposition unchanged

• Wrong: nélkül te nem megyek
• Right: nélküled nem megyek
• Why: With a personal reference, nélkül takes the second-person singular form nélküled.

Mixing person and number

• Wrong: mi mögöttem
• Right: mögöttünk
• Why: Mi means “we,” so the required form is first-person plural. The ending in mögöttem means “me.”

Treating third-person forms as gendered

• Wrong assumption: előtte can refer only to a man or only to a woman.
• Right: előtte can mean “before/in front of him, her, or it.”
• Why: Hungarian does not distinguish gender in third-person pronouns or personal postposition endings.

Confusing location with direction

• Wrong: Gyere mellettem! when the intended meaning is “Come over beside me.”
• Right: Gyere mellém!
• Why: Mellettem describes a static position; mellém expresses movement to that position. Once there, mellettem vagy means “you are beside me.”

Translating szerintem too literally

• Awkward interpretation: “according to me” in every context
• Natural interpretation: Szerintem igaza van. — “I think he/she is right” or “In my opinion, he/she is right.”
• Why: Szerintem is an ordinary Hungarian way to mark an opinion, not necessarily a formal citation of a source.

Usage Notes

Szerintem is exceptionally frequent in both speech and writing. It often corresponds more naturally to “I think” than to “according to me.” The question Szerinted? means “What do you think?” and szerintetek asks the opinion of more than one addressee. In formal prose, avoid repeating szerintem in every sentence; state the viewpoint once or vary the sentence structure.

Miatt is neutral as a marker of cause, but a personal form can sound accusatory when the result is negative: Miattad késtünk el “We were late because of you.” Intonation and context matter. With a positive result, the same construction may express credit: Miattad kezdtem el magyarul tanulni “I started learning Hungarian because of you.”

Mellett readily develops the abstract sense “in support of.” Kiállt mellettem means “He/She stood up for me,” not necessarily that anyone occupied a physical position. Közöttünk can refer to a relationship (Mi történt közöttük? “What happened between them?”) or introduce confidentiality (Köztünk marad “It stays between us”). The shorter variant köztünk is common beside közöttünk, especially in fixed and abstract expressions.

Által and its personal forms occur more often in formal or written language when they mean the agent of a passive-like construction: az általa készített terv “the plan prepared by him/her.” In everyday speech, Hungarian often prefers an active clause. The “through/by means of” sense can still be useful when the intermediary matters.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

Emphatic combinations and word order

Personal forms can occupy the focus position immediately before the finite verb (the verb carrying tense and person). Compare:

• Péter mellettem állt — “Péter was standing beside me.” Neutral information.
• Péter mellettem állt, nem mögöttem. — “Péter stood beside me, not behind me.” Contrastive focus.
• Énmiattam mondott le. — “It was because of me that he/she resigned.” Strong, potentially corrective emphasis.

Established emphatic compounds include forms such as énmiattam, temiattad, őmiatta, énnálam, and tehozzád. They reinforce a reference already encoded by the suffix. They are useful, but the plain forms are usually more natural when there is no real contrast.

Personal forms inside noun-modifying structures

A personal postposition can be embedded in a phrase that modifies a noun:

• a mellettem ülő utas — “the passenger sitting beside me”
• az előttünk álló feladat — “the task ahead of us”
• a közöttük kialakult vita — “the dispute that developed between them”
• az általa írt könyv — “the book written by him/her”

Here ülő, álló, kialakult, and írt are participles—verb forms used like adjectives to describe a noun. Such compressed structures are especially common in written Hungarian and are worth learning as complete chunks.

Reference to things as well as people

“Personal” describes the type of ending, not a restriction to human beings. Third-person forms may refer to objects, events, or ideas:

• A ház előtt van egy fa, mögötte pedig egy garázs. — “There is a tree in front of the house, and behind it a garage.”
• Megnéztük a filmet; utána beszélgettünk. — “We watched the film; afterward we talked.”

In the second sentence utána functions adverbially as “afterward.” The referent is understood from context. This ability to point back to a whole event makes third-person forms important for linking sentences, not just for describing space.

Related directional series

Hungarian often distinguishes location, movement toward, and movement away. With the mellett family, for example:

Relation	Form	Meaning
static location	mellettem	beside me
movement toward	mellém	to a position beside me
movement away	mellőlem	from beside me

Similar three-way contrasts occur in several relational families. They are best learned as coordinated sets rather than as spelling variants: changing the ending changes the spatial relation.

Practice Tips

1. Build six-form rows, then use one sentence frame. Recite mögöttem, mögötted, mögötte, mögöttünk, mögöttetek, mögöttük, then substitute each into Valaki áll ___ “Someone is standing ___.” This links form to meaning better than memorising an isolated list.
2. Sort forms by function. Make small groups for location (mögöttem, melletted), viewpoint (szerinte), cause (miattunk), exclusion (nélkülük), and substitution (helyettetek). Add one real sentence from your own life to each group.
3. Practise contrast aloud. Say pairs such as mellettem, nem mögöttem and miattuk, nem miattunk. This trains both the endings and the focus patterns you need in spontaneous conversation.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Postpositions — introduces forms such as mögött, előtt, között, and mellett after noun phrases.