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Making nouns from verbs: -ás


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Making nouns from verbs is a verb important concept.

In English we can think of the nouns we create thusly in one of two ways:

  1. -ing words such as
    • (to) read... ... (a) reading
    • (to) give thanks... ... (a) thanksgiving
  2. words that do not have such a s well defined character, such as
    • (to) arrive ... ... (an) arrival
    • (to) depart ... ... (a) departure

1. -ing nouns

This can be considered as an nounal form of te verb itself. It is best shown with the example:

  • olvas (to) read ... ... olvasás (a) reading
  • ír (to) write ... ... írásban in writing
  • hall (to) hear ... ... hallás (a sense of) hearing
  • tart (to) hold ... ... magatartás self holding, attitude
  • köszön (to) greet (when used in the indefinite conjugation) ... ... köszönés (a) greeting

2. Other nouns

Here are some examples of the less easily characterised words.

  • lak|ik (to) reside ... ... lakás residence, apartment
  • érkez|ik (to) arrive ... ... érkezés (an) arrival
  • utaz (to) travel ... ... utazás (a) journey
  • foglalkoz|ik (to) occupy ... ... foglalkozás (an) occupation, job
  • ül (to) sit ... ... ülés (a) seat
  • kérdez|ik (to) question ... ... kérdés (a) question
  • beszélget (to) speak repeatedly ... ... beszélgetés (a) conversation

Usage note

Note that this page applies to words that started "life" as verbs, and allows us to turn them into nouns. I have a whole page on turning nouns into verbs and this page does not necessarily apply to verbs formed in that manner. Of course forming the underlying noun from those verbs could be as simple as reversing the veribification process.
Of course that is not always true: út ... ... utaz ... ... utazás
way ... ... to travel ... ... (a) journey


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