Alatt, közben or során: how to say "during" in Hungarian

Before a noun, Hungarian has four words for "during": alatt, közben, során and folyamán. Wiktionary lists all four as synonyms of each other. What follows "during" in English is what really decides. A length of time with a number takes alatt (tíz perc alatt, "in ten minutes"). "Meanwhile" on its own is közben, and "while" before a clause is miközben, mialatt or amíg.

The four words, defined

All four are postpositions. A postposition is a separate word that comes after its noun, where English puts a preposition before it: a nap folyamán is word for word "the day during". Our postpositions guide explains the word class. Here is what each of the four is made of, and what Wiktionary says it means.

• alatt is built from al-, "lower part", plus the locative ending -tt. Its first meaning is "under": az asztal alatt, "under the table". Its second meaning is about time: "in, in or over the course of". Wiktionary's example is tíz perc alatt, "in (the course of) ten minutes".
• közben is köz, "interval of space or time", plus -ben, "in" (the inner case ending). So it is literally "in the interval". As a postposition it means "during".
• során is sor plus the "its" ending -a plus the case ending -n. Wiktionary glosses sor here as "chain, course, succession of events". So során is "in its course". It means "during, in the course of, over".
• folyamán is built the same way from folyam, "big river": "in its flow". It means "during, in the course of".

Wikipedia's Hungarian grammar names this second type. Során and folyamán are derived postpositions: a noun, plus the third person possessive suffix, plus a case ending. The same article lists közben, során, folyamán together under "during".

Five sentences, five choices

Take five things you might want to say about one day. Here is how each one sorts. The rule behind each step comes in the sections below.

1. "I wrote the letter in ten minutes." A number and a time unit follow, and the point is how long it took. That is alatt: Tíz perc alatt megírtam a levelet.
2. "During the day it rained." A named period follows. Wiktionary's own example is a nap folyamán, "during the day". There is also a one-word adverb for this: napközben. So: A nap folyamán esett az eső, or Napközben esett az eső.
3. "Meanwhile, the kids were at the library." Nothing follows "meanwhile", so you need a word that works as an adverb: Ezalatt a gyerekek a könyvtárban voltak. Közben or eközben also fit here.
4. "While I was asleep, Anna left a message." A whole clause follows, with its own verb. That needs a conjunction: Mialatt aludtam, Anna hagyott egy üzenetet. This is close to Wiktionary's example under mialatt.
5. "Over the decades the town changed a lot." A long stretch follows. Wiktionary's example for során is az évtizedek során, "over the decades": Az évtizedek során a város sokat változott.

Sentences 1, 2 and 5 use a postposition after a noun. Sentence 3 has no noun, and sentence 4 has a clause. Those last two can never take a bare postposition.

Before a noun: four listed synonyms

When a noun follows "during", any of the four can work. Wiktionary gives each one's entry the other three as synonyms. Wikipedia lists three of them as plain "during". Neither source ranks them. Here are the examples the sources give:

• tíz perc alatt in (the course of) ten minutes
• Az alatt a négy év alatt tanultam meg énekelni. I learned to sing during those four years.
• Sokat látott már élete során. He has seen much during his life.
• az évtizedek során over the decades
• a nap folyamán during the day

The second example comes from Wiktionary's note on azalatt. Notice that alatt appears twice. With "this" or "that" before the noun, a postposition repeats after the demonstrative: az alatt a négy év alatt. The same rule gives ez alatt a fa alatt, "under this tree" (see ez or az).

The one difference the dictionary shows

Wiktionary's entry for English "during" splits it into two senses. The first is "for all of a given time interval", as in "I lived with my parents during the 1970s". Its Hungarian translations there are alatt, folyamán and során. The second is "at any time within" a period, as in "We lost those files during the move". There it lists közben, során, alatt and folyamán. So közben is not listed for the whole of a period, only for a point inside one. That is a translation table, not a usage note, and no fetched entry spells out a rule from it.

Case: folyamán can take -nak/-nek

Most postpositions follow a bare noun. Wikipedia lists folyamán among those whose noun can be bare or carry the dative -nak/-nek. Wiktionary's example uses the bare form, a nap folyamán, and that is the one to learn first.

A length with a number: alatt

When a number and a time unit follow, the source example is alatt: tíz perc alatt, glossed "in (the course of) ten minutes". The time is the span inside which something happens.

English "in ten minutes" has a second meaning, and it is a classic trap. "The film starts in ten minutes" counts forward from now to one moment. That is not alatt but múlva. Wiktionary glosses múlva as "after, at the end of the given amount of time": egy perc múlva, "in a minute".

• Tíz perc alatt megírtam a levelet. I wrote the letter in ten minutes (that is how long it took).
• Tíz perc múlva kezdődik a film. The film starts in ten minutes (ten minutes from now).

The test: if "within" fits the English, use alatt. If "from now" fits, use múlva. For "for ten minutes" and "ten minutes ago", see két éve, két évig or két évre.

With nothing after it: közben and the "meanwhile" words

Here the four words split. Wiktionary gives no adverb sense for alatt, során or folyamán. Közben also has an adverb entry: "meanwhile, in the meantime, the while", glossed "during the time that something is happening". So közben can stand alone, and the other three cannot.

The adverb has a second sense too: "meanwhile" in contrast, as in "meanwhile, others say the opposite". There Wiktionary's synonyms are míg, holott, pedig and azonban. That contrast use belongs with the words on our de or hanem page.

The pronoun forms: ezalatt, eközben and the rest

Put "this" or "that" in front and you get one-word adverbs. They are written as one word, unlike ez alatt a fa alatt.

Wiktionary gives two examples for ezalatt:

• Van egy órám. Ezalatt megebédelek. I have an hour. In the meantime, I will get lunch.
• A gyerekek elmentek a könyvtárba. Ezalatt én otthon maradtam. The kids went to the library. Meanwhile, I stayed home.

Watch the other sense. Mit értesz ezalatt? means "What do you mean by that?", not "during that". Wiktionary lists eközben and ezalatt as synonyms of the adverb közben, and it does not rank them.

Two fixed compounds: napközben, útközben

Napközben is nap "day" + közben: "during the day, by day". Útközben is út "road, way" + közben: "en route", on the way. Both are single adverbs, so no noun or article comes before them.

Before a clause: miközben, mialatt, amíg

English "during" never takes a clause. "While" does: "while I was asleep". A postposition can only follow a noun, so Hungarian uses a conjunction here, and the clause gets its own verb. Wiktionary's entry for English "while", in the sense "during the same time that", gives five words: miközben, mialatt, amíg, ameddig, míg.

• miközben = mi "which" + közben. Wiktionary: "while, whilst".
• mialatt = mi + alatt. Wiktionary: "while". Example: Mialatt aludtam, hagyott egy üzenetet, "While I was asleep, he left a message".
• amíg: "as long as, while". Example: Zenét hallgattam, amíg a metrón ültem, "I was listening to music while I was on the subway".
• míg: the same meanings, labelled "somewhat literary".

For "when" before a clause, the choice is amikor or ha; see ha or amikor.

Decision table: what follows "during"

Three mistakes learners make

1. *Tíz perc alatt kezdődik a film for "The film starts in ten minutes". Counting forward from now to one moment is múlva: Tíz perc múlva kezdődik a film.
2. A bare során or folyamán for "meanwhile". Neither has an adverb sense. Use közben, ezalatt or eközben.
3. Reading Mit értesz ezalatt? as "during that". With ért it means "What do you mean by that?"

What this page does not settle

The firm rulings here are grammatical. A noun takes a postposition, "meanwhile" takes an adverb, and a clause takes a conjunction. A length counted from now is múlva. Within the "noun" row, the sources list alatt, közben, során and folyamán as synonyms and stop there. They do not say which nouns each one prefers. They do not label any of them formal or informal. None of the entries fetched for this page gives a register label, so this page does not give one either. If you need that judgement for a text that matters, ask a native speaker or check a monolingual Hungarian dictionary.

Sources and further reading

• Wiktionary, "alatt": the temporal sense "in, in/over the course of", tíz perc alatt, the synonyms közben, során, folyamán, and the compounds azalatt, ezalatt, mialatt
• Wiktionary, "közben": köz + -ben, the postposition "during", the adverb "meanwhile" in two senses, and the compounds aközben, eközben, időközben, miközben, napközben, útközben
• Wiktionary, "során" and "sor": "during, in the course of, over", Sokat látott már élete során, az évtizedek során, and sor as "chain, course, succession"
• Wiktionary, "folyamán": "during, in the course of", a nap folyamán
• Wiktionary, "miközben", "mialatt", "amíg" and "míg": the "while" conjunctions, their examples and the amíg ... nem usage note
• Wiktionary, "ezalatt", "azalatt", "eközben" and "időközben": the "meanwhile" adverbs, their examples and the az alatt a négy év alatt note
• Wiktionary, "during", "while" and "meanwhile": the Hungarian translations listed under each English sense; also "múlva" and "napközben"
• Wikipedia, "Hungarian grammar", section on postpositions: közben, során, folyamán as "during", derived postpositions, and folyamán with a bare or -nak/-nek noun

Frequently asked questions