Felületük

Felületük is a Hungarian word formed as the third-person plural possessive of felület, meaning “their surface.” In Hungarian, possessed nouns take a suffix that marks the possessor, and felületük literally means “their surface.” The suffix -ük (with the appropriate vowel harmony) attaches to felület, and because felület contains the front vowel ü, the correct possessive ending is -ük.

Felületük can function as a noun phrase in various syntactic roles, most commonly as the subject or as a direct object when accompanied by a definite article or determiner. In the definite direct-object form, Hungarian adds a definite suffix to the possessed noun, giving felületüket. For example: A felületük fényes. (Their surface is shiny.) Ezt a felületüket megvizsgálták. (They examined this surface of theirs.)

In use, felületük may appear in compound nouns where felület is the head, such as testfelületük (their body surface) or földrajzi felületek felületük, depending on context. The word illustrates how Hungarian marks possession directly on the noun and how vowel harmony influences the choice of ending.

See also felület, the base noun meaning surface, and more broadly the system of Hungarian possessive suffixes.