Turning Place Names into Adjectives in Hungarian

In Hungarian, you can often turn a place name into an adjective by adding the suffix -i.

Examples:

• Svájc → svájci
• Ázsia → ázsiai
• Berlin → berlini
• főváros (capital) → fővárosi

These adjectives are often used to describe origin or connection:

• a budapesti férfi = the man from Budapest
• egy kínai telefon = a Chinese phone

These places can be like:

• towns, cities, regions – like: Hamburg – hamburgi, Alföld – alföldi, Erdély – erdélyi
• common names of places – like: sivatag (desert) – sivatagi, utca (street) – utcai, hegy (mountain) – hegyi, megye (county) – megyei
• some countries (especially, those that are new or the Hungarians have had little interaction with over the centuries) don’t have a specific name for their nation in Hungarian. Then, those are created with an -i suffix. – like: Korea – koreai, Kína – kínai, Izrael – izraeli, Irán – iráni, Izland – izlandi, Svájc – svájci

Sentence examples

Ez a telefon Vietnámban készült.
(This phone was made in Vietnam.)
→ Tehát, ez a telefon vietnámi.

Carlos Mexikóból jött.
(Carlos came from Mexico.)
→ Tehát, Carlos mexikói.

Korea Ázsiában van.
(Korea is in Asia.)
→ Tehát, Korea egy ázsiai ország.

Lina Berlinben született.
(Lina was born in Berlin.)
→ Tehát, Lina berlini.

Ez a pizza Nápolyban készült.
(This pizza was made in Naples.)
→ Tehát, ez egy nápolyi pizza.

Luke Skywalker a Tatuinon élt.
(Luke Skywalker lived on Tatooine.)
→ Tehát, Luke Skywalker tatuini.

❗ Important notes

1. The -i ending doesn’t always work

Some place names don’t follow this pattern.
For example:

• Japán stays japán, as in japán autó (Japanese car).

2. -i adjectives usually refer to location

This is why:

• (1) countries that are geographically close to Hungary (e.g. Szlovákia, Ukrajna, Ausztria) or
• (2) countries whose name ends with -ország

…often have two adjectives:

• one for nationality: szlovák, ukrán, osztrák
• one for location: szlovákiai, ukrajnai, ausztriai

Examples:

• olasz = Italian (person, language)
• olaszországi = from/in Italy (location-related)

→ Ő egy olasz diák. = He is an Italian student.
→ Ez egy olaszországi villa. = This is a villa located in Italy.

❗ Spelling

These adjectives are written with lowercase letters, just like other Hungarian adjectives.

Exceptions (capitalized parts kept):

• New York-i
• Fülöp-szigeteki

📝 Practice Time!

In this exercise, you will see sentences similar to the examples above. Read them and find the word that is a place.
When you have it, complete the sentence with the correct adjective that ends in -i.

Example:
Carlos Mexikóból jött, tehát Carlos mexikói.

🎤 Speak Time!

In this exercise, the sentences follow the same pattern as before.
Read the beginning of the sentence, then finish it using the correct adjective ending in -i.

🎯 Press the microphone to say your answer out loud and check your pronunciation!

🧩 Example:

You read: Luke Skywalker a Tatuinon élt, tehát…
You say: Luke Skywalker tatuini.