Inessív

Inessív (inessive case) is a locative grammatical case in Hungarian used to express that something is located inside a referent, such as a container, space, or building. It corresponds to the English preposition in or inside and is one of several locative cases in the language.

Formation: The inessív is formed by attaching the suffix -ban or -ben to the noun stem, with vowel harmony determining which variant is used: -ban after stems whose last vowel is a back vowel (a, o, u and their long forms á, ó, ú) and -ben after stems whose last vowel is a front vowel (e, i, ö, ü and their long forms é, í, ő, ű). For example: házban (in the house), autóban (in the car), vízben (in the water), dobozban (in the box). The suffix applies to nouns ending in both consonants and vowels.

Usage: The inessív marks location inside a place or container and is commonly used with concrete nouns. It is distinct from the illative, which expresses movement into something (for example, házba means into the house), and from the adessive or superessive that express being at or on a surface. An example sentence is: A macska a házban van. The cat is in the house. The form can also appear in compound or possessive constructions, where the noun carries additional suffixes.

Cross-linguistic and terminology: The term inessív is used in Hungarian grammar to name this specific locative case; cognate terms exist in other Finno-Ugric languages, such as Finnish inessiivi. The inessív forms part of the system of spatial cases used to express nuanced location relations in Hungarian.