Népességének

Népességének is a Hungarian grammatical form used to express a possessive relationship involving the noun népesség (population) and to mark case in a noun phrase. It results from combining the third-person singular possessive suffix with the dative/genitive suffix -nek, and it translates roughly as “its population’s” or “to/for its population,” depending on the sentence structure.

Morphology and formation: starting from népesség, the third-person possessive suffix -e (with vowel harmony producing népessége, “its population”) is added, and then the suffix -nek is attached to indicate the dative or genitive case in the larger phrase. The complete form népességének appears in contexts where the possessed noun phrase serves as the object or as a possessor’s attribute within a larger clause.

Usage: népességének typically appears in phrases that describe the population of a given entity or the population to/for which something occurs. A common example is a sentence about a city: A város népességének növekedése. This translates as “the growth of the city’s population.” The construction is characteristic of Hungarian’s postposed possessive and case system, allowing precise expression of ownership and grammatical role within a noun phrase.

Notes: besides its primary use with népesség, similar formations can occur with other nouns that take possessive endings, reflecting the general logic of Hungarian possessive suffixes combined with case markers. The form is standard in formal or descriptive writing and is typically unnecessary in casual speech if the meaning can be conveyed with a simpler phrase.

See also: Hungarian possessive suffixes, Hungarian case suffixes, noun phrases with possessives.