"Arra a hegyre én fel nem mászom!"

Translation: I am not climbing that mountain!

[BetsyLowe]

But I would still be understood if I said "...nem maszom fel" really really, loudly, right?

[Andreas305]

Yes, you will be understood.

[GerSzej]

I am not climbing up to that mountain. Rejected. I am wondering if this should be accepted. Secondly, I would like to know why is fel before nem mászom. I thought that we learnt to put fel after the verb when nem is used: nem mászom fel.

[Andreas305]

It sounds odd to me, too, in both language versions ;-)

In the hungarian sentence it looks like a mixup of different grammatical rules. In combination with verbs like "akar", "lehet", "tud", "kell" and a few others sentences appear like this:

Arra a hegyre én fel akarok mászni. / Én fel akarok mászni arra a hegyre. = I want to climb up that montain.

But as you said: negating a verb requires placing the prefix behind the verb.

So: Arra a hegyre én nem mászom fel!

Beside the case, you want to negotiate the meaning of the prefix: not climbing UP but DOWN. But then it would be "...nem felmászom."

[vvsey]

OK, this is a special case here, let's say an emotional way of expressing what one is not willing to do, not in a million years. You were told about a nice easy walk and suddenly see this monster of a mountain in front of you.
So, this is a very emphasized, frequently emotional way of saying something.
There are many uses for this structure in other situations, as well. Preverb - something in-between - verb. That something can be "is", "sem", "nem", etc.

[HaukurJonasson]

Kind of (but not really) like the English expletive infix: "abso-bloody-lutely".

[ion1122]

Here are three different scenarios. What is the Hungarian for each?
1. I climb the mountain [I go all the way to the top]
2. I climb on the mountain [I move up the mountain but may or may not go to the top]
3. I climb to the mountain [I climb some lower mountains in order to reach the base of the main mountain]

[SchlachterZoltan]

1. Megmászom a hegyet.
2. A hegyre mászok.
3. Elmászok a hegyig. Or Odamászok a hegyhez.

[ion1122]

k sz!

[Forzafiori]

What does the -ig ending on hegyig mean exactly? I dont remember seeing it before

[jzsuzsi]

It is like "until"

Elmegyek a hegyig. I go to the base of the mountain (and possibly stop there and don't climb it)

It is often used with time:

Megcsinálom ezt a munkát négyig. I will do this work until four a clock.

http://www.hungarianreference.com/Nouns/-ig-terminative.aspx

[IvoArts1]

I am thrilled to see my first Terminative Case ;-)

[Tielbert]

Why did you use accusative after megmászom? Why not megmászok a hegyre?

[p8888r]

It's a transitive verb, it needs a direct object. Some verbs with perfective meaning take direct object. For example:

felmászom a hegyre -> megmászom a hegyet = I climb until I reach the top

úszom a folyóban -> átúszom a folyót = I swim until I reach the other side of the river

éjszaka táncolok -> áttáncolom az éjszakát = I dance until the end of the night

[Tielbert]

Oh, it is very interesting and a bit unexpected. Thank you!

[JohnWeber786406]

I have to follow this conversation haha. I don't think I am completely ready for some of this - it's advanced at the moment, but I did see the -ig suffix meaning until, and I have seen that when trying to read YouTube comments. VVsey, Marton, and Zsuzsi mentioned meg- and el- (not just away as I have seen, but completion?) prefix.

[Vangelis536993]

Köszi!

[Martha94435]

The English way to get across this sentiment would be something like "There's no way I'm climbing that mountain." Yes, it's not a word-for-word translation, but that's because this is an idiom in Hungarian.