# How many word forms of a single dictionary entry?



## iezik

Hungarian language combines the dictionary root with many suffixes, in several steps. Many word forms are created this way. I tried to estimate their number. Can somebody verify if the following calculation is any good? 

Thanks, Iezik

Adjectives can be used as nouns and additionally they can be inflected for degree. So let me start with this category.
There are 3 degrees: positivem comparative, superlative
The number of cases depends a bit on the word, but let's take there are 17 cases available for an average adjective.
There are 7 possesive person combinations: either no person or one of six usual persons for sg/pl and p1/p2/p3.
There are 2 numbers, singular and plural.
There are 3 combinations for nominal possesive, none, singular and plural.

Multiplication gives 3*17*7*2*3 = 2142 forms for a typical Hungarian adjective.


----------



## Encolpius

I am sure your calculation is right. There might be 2142 forms but the question is if they exist at all.
Writing all 2142 forms would take about 3 hours.


----------



## uress

A "*dictionary entry*" is one word and it's translation(s). The user of the dictionary has to know the declension and conjugation to the word so maximum the irregularities will be there in the dictionary.


----------



## AndrasBP

Hello iezik, 
As far as I know, agglutination (system of endings) is even more complex in Turkish, so the number of possible words would be higher there.
Agglutinative languages are not that uncommon, actually. They also include Basque, Finnish, Georgian, Mongolian, Japanese, Tamil and a number of Native American languages.


----------

