# Laponként



## Nazionalista

Dear hungarian fellows,
after buying a package of lapzselatin I found written on the rear:
"a lapzselatint laponként hideg vízbe helyezzük".

I can translate "(we) put the sheet of gelatin in cold water".
Google translate helps me adding "(we) put the sheet of gelatin - per sheet", meaning "one sheet at a time", I guess.

I can see, in this website, that "laponként" is used as "személyes névjegykártya (_laponként_ 10)", id est "personal business card (10 per sheet)", id est "10 cards per 1 sheet of paper".

What I am asking is grammatically what "laponként" is supposed to be.
I do not think it is superessive ("lapon") and I know that -ként is a formal ending. What is it supposed to be? A "formal superessive"? But "per sheet" is not superessive in its meaning.

Thank you in advance.


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## jazyk

Essive-formal case - Wikipedia


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## Nazionalista

I am sorry, but the essive-formal of lap is "lapként" (sing.) and "lapokként" (pl.).
I cannot find any grammatic example for such a lap-on-ként.


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## AndrasBP

Nazionalista said:


> What I am asking is grammatically what "laponként" is supposed to be.
> I do not think it is superessive ("lapon") and I know that -ként is a formal ending. What is it supposed to be? A "formal superessive"?


It's called the *distributive case*, as I've just found out.


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## Zsanna

I think you would use first the suffix -n, -on, -en, -ön plus the suffix -*ként* to indicate that you consider the given word (you add these suffixes) as a sort of quality ("as such") and you take it _one by one_ or _one at a time_ (_individually_, etc., depending the meaning of the word).
Without the first suffix, -*ként* just indicates that your basic word is "not that", it is just used/considered (etc.) as _if it were_ or could be "such".

If you try it with "lap": lap*ként* means that the object is not a "lap"* but you use it (mention it, etc.) as if it _were_ one, meanwhile lapon*ként *means that there are several "lap" (really) that you use one by one or one after the other (etc.).

Another example: kiló*ként* adták el (they sold it as a kilo - they claimed it was a kilo but, in fact, it wasn't) but kilón*ként* adták el means that they sold it _by the kilo_ (there were packages of a kilo of it, or they only measured a kilo of it at a time) or
a paradicsomra nem gyümölcs*ként* tekintünk, pedig az (we don't think of tomatoes as fruit, even though they are) but gyümölcsön*ként* át kellett nézni (you had to go though the fruit _one by one_ - e.g. when you buy strawberries and you have to check every single one to top it or to see whether there is a bad part in it that needs cutting out).

* except if among its several features there is one that could be exploited as such


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## Nazionalista

AndrasBP said:


> It's called the *distributive case*, as I've just found out.


Thank you. You are right.
Strangely, it does not appear among the multiple case declination: lap - Wiktionary


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## Encolpius

Just out of curiosity, there is another distrbutive case, the *distributive-temporal case*: -nta (év- évente, nyár - nyaranta, hét - hetente, etc), distributive is possible with time, too - * havonként *(per month from hó [month]) or *havonta*. óránként not with nta, percenként not with nte, hetenként - hetente, etc. I am not sure if önként is of the same origin.


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## francisgranada

Nazionalista said:


> I am sorry, but the essive-formal of lap is "lapként" (sing.) and "lapokként" (pl.).
> I cannot find any grammatic example for such a lap-on-ként.


I agree with you. I don't know the exact answer, but this -_ként _can be attached both to _lap _and to_ lap-on_, which  is not "normal", as the (so called) case endings cannot be concatenated in Hungarian.

However, such "anomalies" can happen in other languages, as well. For example in Italian we can say "sono uscito *con de*gli amici" which is grammatically a concatenation of two prepositions (con + di), normally impossible.  (so called genitivo partitivo) 


Encolpius said:


> Just out of curiosity, there is another distrbutive case, the *distributive-temporal case*: -nta (év- évente, nyár - nyaranta, hét - hetente, etc),  ......


I have the feeling that this is the same case as with -_ként_. E.g._ év-en-te_ ....

My personal intuition:  This -_*ként *_*  (*e.g. ház*onként) *behaves like an adverb (e.g. h_áz_*on* *túl*) , but it has lost it's proper adverbial meaning, so it is formally attached to the  preceding noun as if it were a "true" _case ending_.


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## AndrasBP

francisgranada said:


> *(*e.g. ház*onként)*


Actually, the form *házanként *is much more common. I can't explain why.


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