városhoz

Városhoz is a Hungarian directional postpositional form formed from the noun város (city) together with the suffix -hoz. It expresses movement toward or destination, meaning “to the city.” It is not a separate noun; it is a grammatical form used with other words to indicate direction or endpoint of motion.

In Hungarian there are three directional suffixes of this type: -hoz, -hez, and -höz. The choice among them follows vowel harmony and the phonological characteristics of the stem. Városhoz is the form used with város because the stem contains back vowels in its pronunciation. The suffix attaches to the noun stem, and it can be part of compounds such as városhoz vezető út (“the road leading to the city”) or appear with verbs of motion, as in elindultam a városhoz (“I started toward the city”).

Usage notes: városhoz indicates a definite destination or endpoint of motion, as opposed to more general directions like felé (“toward”). It is commonly used with verbs of movement, travel, or route descriptions. The construction can be extended with adjectives or other modifiers, producing phrases such as a városhoz vezető út or a városhoz közeledve (“approaching the city”).

Examples:

- A városhoz vezető út rövid. (The road leading to the city is short.)

- Már elindultam a városhoz. (I have started toward the city.)

- Szeretnék a városhoz menni. (I would like to go to the city.)

The same pattern applies to other stems that take -hoz, -hez, or -höz, depending on their phonological characteristics.