én

Usage notes
Accent is optional, and reflects intonation. Compare, for example, hun har kun en kat "she only has a cat" with hun har kun én kat "she has only one cat".

Etymology
From Old Hungarian. Usually considered to continue the first-person pronoun  (compare e.g. 🇨🇬), but there is no consensus on how the Hungarian word has developed to its present shape. At least four proposals have been advanced: The last three options assume that the word was prefixed with *ɛ- at some point, perhaps an intensifying particle, or from the Proto-Uralic pronoun root (compare ).
 * 1) irregular loss of the word-initial *m-
 * 2) from earlier *ɛmen, through the vocalization and loss of word-internal *-m-, as in many other cases such as
 * 3) from earlier *ɛ̄mn, with the cluster *mn simplified to n
 * 4) from earlier *ɛ̄m, derived from the shorter Uralic root, and with the irregular simplification of the root-final *-m to -n, perhaps first in the accusative  (< ? ).

Similarly irregular first-person pronouns occur in 🇨🇬: 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, and even in 🇨🇬: from 🇨🇬. If these have a similar origin as the Hungarian word, they are the most compatible with the third and fourth explanations.

Pronoun

 * 1)  I first-person singular

Derived terms
Note: In all these forms, én is optional and only serves for emphasis.
 * ,, , etc. én + a postposition with the first-person singular personal suffix; see Appendix:Hungarian postpositions
 * ,, etc. én + one of the declined forms listed in the chart above; see Appendix:Hungarian pronouns

Noun

 * 1)  self, ego

Verb

 * 1) ; “[​they​] are”

Etymology 1
From.

Noun

 * 1) bird

Interjection

 * 1) lo!

Etymology
From ¹, possibly from ².

Noun

 * 1) mother

Numeral

 * 1)  one.

Etymology
From,. .

Noun

 * 1) a swallow