Nebensätze mit mert und ha

Clauses with mert and ha

mert: because

Mert gives a reason. The comma before it is obligatory in Hungarian, where English usually has none:

• Otthon maradok, mert beteg vagyok. - I'm staying at home because I'm ill.
• Nem jövök, mert sok a munkám. - I'm not coming because I have a lot of work.
• Miért tanulsz magyarul? - Mert a barátnőm debreceni. - Why are you learning Hungarian? - Because my girlfriend is from Debrecen.

The mert clause usually follows the main clause. To put the reason first, use mivel ("since"): Mivel esik, otthon maradunk. - Since it's raining, we're staying in.

ha: if (and sometimes when)

Ha introduces a condition. For a real possibility, both halves are in the present, even when they refer to the future, just as in English:

• Ha esik az eső, otthon maradok. - If it rains, I'll stay at home.
• Ha ráérsz, gyere el a Sziget fesztiválra! - If you're free, come to the Sziget festival!

Ha can also mean "whenever": Ha Szegeden vagyok, mindig halászlét eszem. - Whenever I'm in Szeged, I eat fish soup. For a single past "when", Hungarian uses amikor instead.

For an imagined situation, both halves take the conditional mood: Ha lenne időm, többet olvasnék. - If I had time, I would read more. English uses a past form after "if"; Hungarian uses the conditional on both sides.

Word order and the comma

Either clause can come first, and the comma stays in both orders: Otthon maradok, ha esik. / Ha esik, otthon maradok. Within each clause the usual Hungarian rules apply: the stressed element goes right before the verb, and nem sits before the verb it negates (mert nem értem - because I don't understand).

English speakers mostly forget the comma, which is a spelling mistake rather than a grammar one, and use the future helper fog after ha (*Ha esni fog), which Hungarians avoid in this kind of sentence.