# vasárnap/vasárnapon



## Ateesh6800

Does anyone share *Rolley*'s opinion that *vasárnapon* (_"on Sunday"_) is not used in Hungarian?



Rolley said:


> "You don't say vasárnapon, it's just vasárnap."


 
Well, as far as I'm concerned, you get 55.000 hits on Google if you check *"vasárnapon"*. That is more than you can explain away as a typo.

We say hétfő*n* (on Monday), kedd*en* ("on Tuesday"), and all the way to szombat*on* (on Saturday). In a _normal_ context, we say *vasárnap *(Vasárnap találkozunk.), without a suffix.

However, in other contexts *vasárnapon* is also correct and used:

Azon a vasárnap*on* találkoztunk először...

So, *"vasárnap"* (in the sense of "on Sunday") is more common, but that only makes *"vasárnapon"* sound a bit more sophisticated and poetic.

In my opinion, it is not incorrect by any means.

What is yours? 

*A.*


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## Tronn

If you search for both words in the Hungarian corpus (Magyar Nemzeti Szövegtár), the results speak clearly:
- vasárnap: 20182 hits
- vasárnapon: 236 hits
_Vasárnap_ is more common, yet it still confirms what you've just "said":


> That is more than you can explain away as a typo.


As for the context, the majority of _vasárnapon_ seemed to be used, as you say, poetically (but this might be due to the type of texts the corpus contains). I think one of the examples found is worth mentioning, as it really sets the "atmosphere": _Ezen a verőfényes vasárnapon_...
As I see it, _vasárnapon_ is used when you want to refer to a particular Sunday in the past (or future, but not the present) which, for some reason, you want to highlight and pinpoint in the story.
So I agree, _vasárnap_ is more common, but in certain situations _vasárnapon_ sounds better.


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## jazyk

Hungarian textbooks for foreigners always tell us not to use the suffix with Sunday.


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## francisgranada

A possible explanation:

_Vasárnap_ is a compund word (vásár + nap), so there may exist an analogy with other adverbial words, whose second element is _nap_ and are used without -_on_. E.g. _tegnap_, _holnap_ ...


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## Ateesh6800

jazyk said:


> *"Hungarian textbooks for foreigners always tell us not to use the suffix with Sunday."*



Obviously, as they teach you to speak _standard everyday Hungarian as it usually sounds_. They are not manuals for creative literary writing in Hungarian. 

*Vasárnapon* is a form that you pick up later as a _"nuance"_.

An example: English textbooks always tell me _not to use double negation_.

Hungarian: *Nem* csinálok *sem*mit (double negation; grammatically correct).
Literal English: *I *don't* do *no*thing  (double negation; grammatically incorrect in standard English).
Textbook English: I *don't* do *any*thing.

Over time, I realised you can also say _"I ain't be doin' nutin' nowhere nohow"_, and it's _not _incorrect English... It's just another dialect. 

Obviously, the *vasárnap/vasárnapon* issue is different in nature from the _use or non-use of double negation_, but I just wanted to emphasize that textbooks teach you the standard, most common forms.

Nonetheless... _never _believe any sentence that has the word _never _in it. 

*A.*


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## Ateesh6800

francisgranada said:


> A possible explanation:
> 
> _Vasárnap_ is a compund word (vásár + nap), so there may exist an analogy with other adverbial words, whose second element is _nap_ and are used without -_on_. E.g. _tegnap_, _holnap_ ...



I also thought of this but did't want to be too long.  

I agree.

Vásárnap (= "fare day", a day when a fare is held in a town) is the origin of vasárnap (= the day before Monday).

Ünnepnap (= "a festival day, a holiday") laso behaves in a somewhat similar way.

Ünnepnap nem dolgozunk.
Ünnepnapokon nem dolgozunk.

And then my favorite: *vásár- és ünnepnapokon...* 

*A.*


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## francisgranada

Ateesh6800 said:


> ... Vásárnap (= "fare day", a day when a fare is held in a town) is the origin of vasárnap (= the day after Monday)...


 
In our country, _vasárnap_ is the day before Monday


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## Ateesh6800

francisgranada said:


> In our country, _vasárnap_ is the day before Monday


 
Corrected. Thanks. 

I was trying to avoid the confusion about what is considered the first day of the week (Monday or Sunday) and I made a mistake. 

*A.*


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## Norfren

Note that the form "vasárnapon" is present when further suffixes are added:
vasárnaponként = on Sundays, every Sunday
similarly to hétfőnként, keddenként, etc.


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