Sarkában

Sarkában is a Hungarian locative possessive construction built from the noun sarok (corner) plus the possessive suffix -a to form sarka (its corner, his/her corner), and the locative suffix -ban/-ben to indicate location. The resulting form sarkában means “in its corner” or “at its corner” and is used after a noun phrase to specify that the corner belongs to that noun. It can be used with both concrete objects and places, for example to denote a physical location: a corner of a room or a corner of a house.

In everyday Hungarian, sarkában is commonly found in phrases such as a noun + sarka + -ban, for instance a ház sarkaiban or a lakás sarkában, meaning “in the corner of the house” or “in the corner of the apartment.” The form is also adaptable to more specific possessors, for example a fal sarkában (“in the wall’s corner”) or a szék sarkában (“in the chair’s corner”).

Metaphorically, the construction can express proximity or involvement in a situation, similar to expressions like “on someone’s heels” in English. For example, a nyomozók a gyanúsított sarkában vannak can be interpreted as “the investigators are right on the suspect’s heels.”

Translations into English are typically literal in spatial contexts: “in/at the corner (of something).” The phrase is a standard element of Hungarian grammar, illustrating the use of the locative case with a possessed noun. See also Hungarian grammar, locative case, possessive suffixes.