Locale Hu 001

Reference data for the Hungarian locale — endonym Magyar, written in the Latin script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

• BCP 47 tag: hu-001
• ISO 639-1: hu
• ISO 639-3: hun
• Script: Latn (Latin)
• Region: 001 (World)
• Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 12,500,000
• L2 (additional): 1,500,000
• L1+L2 (total): 14,000,000

Regional variants

This is the base/macro locale for Hungarian. Region-specific variants in this dataset:

• Locale Hu Hu (Hungarian (Hungary))

Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: one, other (2 forms).

• one — n = 1 (e.g. 1)
• other — everything else (e.g. 0, 2~16, 100, 1000, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Hungarian is an agglutinative Uralic language, written in the Latin alphabet with á, é, í, ó, ö, ő, ú, ü, ű. The Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences publish the spelling rules (A magyar helyesírás szabályai). See Locale Hu Hu.

Translate ideas, not words.

• Hungarian attaches suffixes to stems for case, possession, number, and person. English prepositional phrases become case suffixes: a fájlban, a felhasználótól, a mappa nevét. Restructure English sentences, and put the focus before the verb.
• Hungarian has no gender and no "he"/"she" distinction (ő means both). Preserve that: do not add gender where the source does not.
• Possession is marked on the possessed noun (a felhasználó fiókja, "the user's account").
• Re-express idioms by meaning: "it's a piece of cake" is "gyerekjáték" or "ez csak fenékig tejföl".

Grammar that trips translators.

• Vowel harmony: suffix vowels agree with the stem (front/back, rounded/unrounded). Loanwords and acronyms follow their pronunciation.
• Definite and indefinite conjugation: the verb form changes with a definite object (Olvasok egy fájlt versus Olvasom a fájlt).
• After a numeral the noun is singular (öt fájl). Plural categories: one and other. See Unicode Messageformat.
• Names: Hungarian writes the family name first (Nagy János); the English order is used only in international contexts.

Register.

• Formal address uses Ön (singular) and Önök (plural), with third-person verbs; informal address uses te and ti. There is also a middle form with maga, which is rude or old-fashioned. UI and customer text commonly use Ön in banking and formal contexts and te in many consumer brands. Do not mix.
• UI commands use the imperative (Mentse with Ön, Mentsd with te) or the infinitive-like noun form (Mentés) for buttons.

Orthography and typography.

• The double-acute letters ő and ű are distinct from õ and û; fonts and legacy encodings (Latin-1) often substitute the wrong forms. Use the correct Unicode letters.
• Quotation marks „…” with nested »…«. Dates are year-first: 2026. október 17. (period after the year, month lowercase, period after the day); 24-hour clock.
• Numbers: decimal comma, non-breaking space for thousands; currency 12,50 Ft or 1 250 Ft after the amount; sentence case for titles.

Common pitfalls

• Using õ and û instead of ő and ű.
• Wrong vowel harmony in suffixes.
• Putting the plural after a numeral.
• Using English name order and date order.
• Mixing Ön and te.

Learn more

• Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
• Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
• A magyar helyesírás szabályai (Hungarian Academy of Sciences), https://helyesiras.mta.hu
• Microsoft Localization Style Guide, Hungarian (https://aka.ms/hungarian-styleguide)