Page:Simplified grammar of the Hungarian language.djvu/54

42 forms: ez and az—whether alone or prefixed with ugyan—point to a certain thing among other homogeneous things; while ezen, azon, refer to a thing among other heterogeneous things; for instance, if we say ez a kalap a legszebb, it means, this hat is the prettiest (among all other hats); but ezek a kalapok nem szépek, de ezen sapka csinos, would be, these hats are not pretty, but this cap is nice.

Ezen and azon stand before the substantive, and cannot take the article; but az and ez are immediately followed by it. (See the examples given above.) A further distinction is that ezen and azon are incapable of inflection; while az and ez are inflected like substantives.

Before suffixes beginning with a consonant, az and ez change their final z into the first letter of such suffix: thus

Of the auxiliary suffix -val, -vel; and the transmuting -vá, -vé, it has been said that they change their v into a letter like the final consonant of the word to which it is joined. When these suffixes are to be combined with az, ez, either rule may be followed. It is equally grammatical to write azzal or avval, ezzel or evvel; but ezvel or azval are not grammatical.

The pronouns az and ez—alone or in combination with