Lesson 38 of 74 · A1, Unit 2: Basic structures
Having and not having
Hungarian has no verb 'to have'. Instead, you say something like 'a dog-my exists': Van egy kutyám, literally 'There is a my-dog'. Nincs is the same idea negated: Nincs kutyám ('I don't have a dog').
The subject of van/nincs is the thing owned, not the owner — that's why it agrees in number with what's owned: Van egy kutyám ('I have a dog') but Vannak kutyáim ('I have dogs'), with vannak/nincsenek for plurals.
By the end you can:
- say what you have and don't have using van and nincs with a possessive ending
- use the plural forms vannak/nincsenek for more than one thing
- name the owner explicitly with a dative-marked noun: Péternek van...
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