Case-Like Postpositions

Hungarian postpositions have grammaticalized from independent nouns (often body parts or spatial concepts) into relational markers. Case-like postpositions represent an intermediate stage in this process.

Directional Triplets:
Many spatial postpositions form a three-way directional triplet indicating movement towards, stationary position, and movement away from. For example: mellé (to beside), mellett (stationary beside), and mellől (away from beside).

With Nouns:
Case-like postpositions follow a morphologically unmarked (nominative) noun. They are written as separate words and do not change their vowels to match the noun.
Example: a ház mellett (beside the house) — not *a ház-mallatt.

With Pronouns:
Because these postpositions historically meant things like "the side of" or "the space under," they behave like possessed objects. Case-like postpositions cannot follow a bare independent pronoun (e.g., én mellett is ungrammatical). Instead, they take singular or plural possessive suffixes directly. These suffixes undergo vowel harmony to match the postposition's own vowels.
Example: alattam (under me) vs. mögöttem (behind me); mellettem (beside me), nélkülük (without them).
The independent pronoun is usually dropped (pro-drop), but it can optionally precede this suffixed form for contrastive emphasis. When this happens, the pronoun and the suffixed postposition are written as a single word (e.g., énmellettem 'beside ME'). Note that for the third-person plural pronoun ők, the plural -k is dropped when forming this emphatic word (e.g., őmellettük, not *őkmellettük).

With Demonstratives:
When using demonstratives (ez or az) to modify a noun, the postposition must be duplicated after both the demonstrative and the noun to show agreement. Crucially, the definite article (a or az) is strictly required between the demonstrative phrase and the noun phrase. Prescriptively, the final z of the singular demonstrative drops before consonant-initial postpositions. This applies to both ez (e.g., e mellett a ház mellett 'beside this house') and az (e.g., a mögött az épület mögött 'behind that building'). In colloquial speech, native speakers frequently keep the z (e.g., ez mellett a ház mellett). Before vowel-initial postpositions, the z is always kept (e.g., ez alatt a ház alatt 'under this house'). With plural demonstratives, the plural marker is added before the duplicated postposition, and the final consonant is not dropped because the plural suffix starts with a vowel (e.g., ezek mellett a házak mellett 'beside these houses'). Note that when the demonstrative + postposition is used independently (not modifying a noun), it is written as a single word (e.g., emellett 'besides this', ezalatt 'during this').

Distinguishing from Other Forms:

• True Case Suffixes: Have completed grammaticalization. They are bound to the noun, written as one word, and strictly obey vowel harmony (e.g., -ban/-ben).
• Case-Assigning Postpositions: Require the preceding noun to take a specific oblique case suffix (e.g., a ház-on kívül 'outside the house', requiring the superessive -n). Case-like postpositions take a bare noun. When used with pronouns, the personal suffix attaches to the required case suffix, not the postposition itself (e.g., velem együtt 'together with me', not *együttem). With demonstratives, the postposition is not duplicated; the demonstrative just takes the matching case suffix (e.g., ezzel a fiúval együtt 'together with this boy').