"The English airplane flies above the reporters."

Translation: Az angol repülőgép a riporterek fölött repül.

[woarrend]

Is there any difference between fölött and felett?

[Findil]

No, none at all.

[woarrend]

Thanks!

[vvsey]

I think it is the derivatives of "up", "upwards" that have these two versions, with "e" and "ö". "Fel-/föl-":
Same:

• fölött - felett
• fölül - felül
• fölösleg - felesleg
• föl- - fel-

Verbs, and nouns created from verbs, with the preverb:

• fölmenni - felmenni
• föláll - feláll
• föltétel - feltétel
• fölkelés - felkelés
• fölséges - felséges
  etc.

But careful, there may be accidental pairs that are not actual pairs:

• fölé - felé - NOT THE SAME
  "Fölé" means "to a position above sg"
  "Felé" means "towards sg".

• fölöz - felez - NOT THE SAME
  "Fölöz" means "skim" as in "skim the milk"
  "Felez" means "divide in half"

Also, there is a dialect in Hungary that replaces "e" with "ö" in many many words. But that is strictly a dialect.

[woarrend]

Thank you very much, helped a lot!

[vvsey]

My pleasure!

Oh, one more word pair, completely different, but it has to do with our sentence above. How did I miss it...

Repül - röpül.

They mean the same thing. To fly. "Repül" is the standard but there are derived words that are mostly used in the "ö" version:

• röptet - to make (sg) fly
• röppentyű - some toy that you spin and it flies
• röpgyűlés - meeting on the fly - a quick gathering/meeting, usually political
• röpke (pillanat) - a passing moment

You would not hear some of these in a "rep-" version, at all. But

• röptet - reptet - probably both exist
• röppen - reppen - suddenly flies (away), like a butterfly

OK, let's go crazy. You can, of course, combine "fel-/föl-" with "repül/röpül". It will mean "fly up" / "take off", as a bird or an airplane etc. You can pick your favorite from these, all are fine:

• felrepül
• fölrepül
• felröpül
• fölröpül

Enjoy! :)

And one more pair:

• zsömle - zsemle - "bun" or "roll", from the bakery. They are the same thing.

[mizinamo]

Is the "vörös" from "vér" thing related to that dialect?

[vvsey]

No, I don't think so. "Vörös" is the normal, and "veres" is very rare. At least this is the case today.

But you can find both in some town names.

[MrtonPolgr]

Nope, but apparently "veres" is indeed related to a more original form of "vér". Nowadays, though, "veres" is rare while "vér" is a perfectly regular noun without any stem changes (so "vért", "véren", "vére", "véres" and so on).

[FheWIYzE]

I dont understand, why it is not "riportereket"?

In my opinion it is Plural and Accusative case in this sentence!

About who does the airplane fly?

Above the reporters!

[mizinamo]

Why would it be accusative?

It's not the direct object of the verb.

Instead, it's subordinate to a postposition (fölött) -- which is pretty much the opposite of being a direct argument of a verb.

It doesn't "fly the reporters" -- instead, it flies, and where it flies is "above the reporters". The preposition "above" assigns case to the reporters, not the verb.

And in Hungarian, most postpositions assign the nominative case.