hagymája

Hagymája is the third-person singular possessive form of the Hungarian noun hagyma, meaning onion. It translates to “his onion” or “her onion” depending on the possessor and is used to indicate ownership of an onion by a third party. The form is created by adding the possessive ending -ja to hagyma, in accordance with Hungarian vowel harmony.

In Hungarian, possessive forms attach to the noun to indicate ownership. For hagyma the base is hagyma, and the 3rd-person singular possessive suffix is -ja, giving hagymája. The word therefore functions as a complete possessed noun phrase, and can appear with the definite article as in a hagymája, or in sentences such as A kertész hagymája nagy. Another common construction is to attach the possessive to a noun head with a following particle, as in A gazda hagymája piros.

Other related forms for the singular possessive are hagymám (my onion), hagy mád (your onion, informal), hagymája (his/her onion), hagymánk (our onion), and hagymájuk (their onion). The direct object form of hagymája is hagymáját, as in Szeretném enni a hagymáját (“I would like to eat his/her onion”). Hagymája thus illustrates how Hungarian marks person and number on possessed nouns through suffixation.