Dates, days and months in Hungarian

Hungarian dates run from the biggest unit to the smallest, days and months are written in lowercase, and "on the 5th" requires a suffix that changes with the number. This page covers all three, plus the suffixes for days, months, years and seasons, the national holidays you will see in every calendar, and name days.

Days of the week

The Hungarian week starts on Monday. Day names are common nouns, so they are written with a small letter, even at the top of a timetable (except at the start of a sentence).

"On" a day uses the surface case -n / -on / -en / -ön (see surface cases), with the usual lengthening of a final a: szerda becomes szerdán. The one exception is Sunday: vasárnap already ends in nap ("day") and is used as it is, so "on Sunday" is just vasárnap.

• Milyen nap van ma? Ma szombat van. What day is it today? Today is Saturday.
• Kedden és csütörtökön edzésre megyek. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to training.
• Hétfőtől péntekig dolgozom. I work Monday to Friday.
• Péntek este moziba megyünk. We're going to the cinema on Friday evening.
• Hétvégén pihenek. I'm resting at the weekend.

Note the last two patterns. Before a part of the day, the day name stays bare: hétfő reggel, szombat délután, péntek este. For a habit, add -nként or use minden: hétfőnként or minden hétfőn ("every Monday").

Months

Months are Latin-based and easy to recognise, but mind the long vowels: március, április, május, június, július. "In" a month is the inner case -ban/-ben (see inner cases), chosen by vowel harmony: januárban but szeptemberben. Stress, as always, falls on the first syllable: SZEP-tem-ber.

The Hungarian date format: year, month, day

A full date goes from the largest unit to the smallest, with a full stop after the year and after the day (both are ordinal-like numbers):

• 2026. szeptember 27. 27 September 2026
• 2026. szept. 27. abbreviated month
• 2026. 09. 27. all figures (spaces are standard; 2026.09.27. is also widely seen)
• Budapest, 2026. szeptember 27. the place-and-date line of a letter

This order matches the logic of Hungarian names (Nagy János: family, then given name) and addresses: big to small. See names and titles.

Reading a date aloud

When you say what the date is, the day becomes an ordinal with the possessive ending -a / -e ("the 27th of it"):

• Hányadika van ma? What's the date today?
• Ma szeptember huszonhetedike van. Today is 27 September.
• Holnap október elseje lesz. Tomorrow will be 1 October.
• kétezer-huszonhat szeptember huszonhetedike the full date read aloud

The year is read as a cardinal number (kétezer-huszonhat); for its spelling see Hungarian numbers.

"On the 27th": the -án / -én suffix

To say that something happens on a date, add -n to the possessive ordinal: huszonhetedike becomes huszonhetedikén. The final vowel lengthens, so the ending sounds like -án or -én. When you write the day in figures, attach this ending with a hyphen, spelled exactly as it sounds after the full word. That is why the ending varies from number to number.

• Szeptember 27-én születtem. I was born on 27 September.
• Május 1-jén zárva vagyunk. We are closed on 1 May.
• A tanfolyam március 2-án kezdődik. The course starts on 2 March.
• Június 3-ától 10-éig szabadságon leszek. I'll be on leave from 3 to 10 June.

The last example shows the same principle with other suffixes: "from" is -ától/-étől (3-ától, 1-jétől) and "until" is -áig/-éig (10-éig, 2-áig).

Years, seasons and relative time

Years and decades

"In" a year is -ban/-ben, attached with a hyphen and matching the last word you say: 1848-ban (...negyvennyolcban), 1956-ban (...ötvenhatban), 2026-ban (...huszonhatban), 2021-ben (...huszonegyben). Decades are adjectives in -as/-es: a kilencvenes évek (the nineties), a 2020-as években (in the 2020s). Centuries use ordinals: a 19. században or a XIX. században.

Seasons

The seasons are a small irregularity island: spring and autumn take the instrumental -val/-vel (with assimilation: tavasszal, ősszel; see instrumental), while summer and winter take -n. Memorise them as a set.

Relative time words

Note tavaly, idén and jövőre: single words where English uses a phrase. A múlt évben exists but sounds formal; in conversation people say tavaly.

National holidays and dates you will see

Hungarian national holidays are often referred to simply by their date, so it pays to recognise them.

• március 15. National holiday commemorating the revolution and war of independence of 1848 to 1849. People wear a red, white and green cockade (kokárda).
• augusztus 20. The feast of Saint Stephen (Szent István), the first king, celebrated as the foundation of the Hungarian state, usually with fireworks in Budapest.
• október 23. Commemorates the 1956 revolution; the Republic of Hungary was also proclaimed on this day in 1989.

Read them as possessive ordinals: március tizenötödike, augusztus huszadika, október huszonharmadika, and "on" them as március 15-én, augusztus 20-án, október 23-án. Other widely observed days include újév (New Year), húsvét (Easter), pünkösd (Pentecost) and karácsony (Christmas). Like days and months, the names of these holidays are written in lowercase.

Name days (névnap)

Hungarians celebrate a névnap (name day) as well as a születésnap (birthday). Each day of the calendar is associated with one or more given names, and wall calendars, diaries and many news sites show the day's names. Colleagues and friends often mark a name day with flowers, chocolate or a toast, and it is usually easier to remember than a birthday because everyone with the same name celebrates on the same day.

A few well-known examples: Márton on November 11 (St Martin's Day, Márton-nap), Miklós on December 6, and Ádám and Éva on December 24. Many names have more than one date, and the person chooses which one they celebrate.

• Boldog névnapot! Happy name day!
• Boldog születésnapot! Happy birthday!
• Isten éltessen! "God keep you alive", the standard greeting for both
• Mikor van a névnapod? When is your name day?

Sources and further reading

• Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, A magyar helyesírás szabályai (12th ed., Akadémiai Kiadó, 2015), rules on dates, abbreviations and suffixes after numerals
• Carol H. Rounds, Hungarian: An Essential Grammar (2nd ed., Routledge, 2009)
• Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont (HUN-REN Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics), language advice service (e-nyelv.hu / nyelvtudomanyi.hu)

Frequently asked questions