számuk

számuk is the third-person plural possessive form of the Hungarian noun szám, meaning “their number” or “their count.” It is formed by adding the possessive suffix -uk to the root szám, which denotes number, tally, or count. In Hungarian morphology, possessive forms attach directly to the noun to indicate ownership by a group, with the suffix adapting to vowel harmony in other cases; számuk specifically shows ownership by a plural subject.

Usage and function: számuk denotes the quantity associated with a group and can function as a noun within a sentence, often in contexts involving counting or statistics. It can appear as the subject or object in predicates about size or amount. For example, in a sentence like “A számuk meghaladta az ötszázat,” it means “Their number exceeded five hundred.” A common construction is “számuk szerint,” meaning “according to their number” or “in their count,” used to frame information by the group’s size.

Pronunciation and form: as with other Hungarian noun forms, számuk is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, and the suffix -uk reflects third-person plural possession. The exact pronunciation follows standard Hungarian phonology, with the root szám and the suffix combining without an intervening vowel.

Origin and scope: szám is a native Hungarian word denoting number, tally, or calculation, and számuk is the corresponding form used to attribute a number to a group. The construction illustrates how Hungarian expresses possession for nouns through suffixal morphology without separate possessive pronouns.