[8] Hungarian orthography is based on four main principles: following pronunciation,[9] word analysis (reflecting the constituting morphemes),[10] keeping traditions[11] and simplification.
[26] As shown by printed material and street inscriptions, this field is probably the most problematic for the majority of native speakers even at a reasonably educated level.
Groups of people named after people (e.g. Benedek család 'the Benedek family', Kaláka együttes 'Kaláka music ensemble', Kölcsey Ferenc olvasókör 'Ferenc Kölcsey Reading Circle') are written separately, except for groups founded or led by that person (in which case it is a compound, written with a hyphen).
It consists of experts in linguistics, education, transportation, hydrology, natural protection, public administration, ethnic minorities, foreign relations, and other fields.
[84] Subordinated units of institutions are written in uppercase if they are major divisions (e.g. Földrajzi Társaság 'Geographical Society', under the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), not including the personnel department or the warden's office.
[97] suffixes and titles like Doctor, Junior, Senior, and their abbreviations are only capitalized if they are in a prominent position (e.g. in postal addresses or lists).
Proper names from languages with a Latin alphabet are normally written in the original way, e.g. Shakespeare, Horatius, Chopin, including all the diacritics (e.g. Molière, Gdańsk).
Some well-established foreign names have a popular form used in phrases and another referring to the person (e.g. Pitagorasz tétele 'Pythagorean theorem' but Püthagorasz for the philosopher himself).
In the case of suffixes of variable forms depending on Hungarian vowel harmony rules, the version in accordance with the actual pronunciation should be used.
[109] In addition, suffixes will follow the pronunciation of the word in terms of the ending consonant and the front or back vowels (e.g. Bachhal 'with Bach', Greenwichcsel 'with Greenwich').
[141] For example: tetszetős, de helytelen elmélet 'an appealing but incorrect theory,' a rózsának, a szegfűnek vagy a levendulának az illata 'the scent of a rose, a carnation, or a lavender.'
The comma may be omitted around interposed elements depending on the articulation, reflecting the intention of the author, e.g. A vonat, persze, megint késett.
Évi, bár még át tudott volna szaladni az úttesten, hagyta elmenni a teherautót.
For example: A tanterv szerint az iskola egyik célja, hogy „testileg, szellemileg egészséges nemzedéket neveljen”.
When quoting others' words in terms of their content, the quotation marks are not used: Alkotmányunk kimondja, hogy társadalmi rendszerünknek a munka az alapja.
If quotation is followed by the quoting sentence, they are separated by another dash (the full stop omitted from the end, other punctuation marks retained, as described above).
[161] If two conjunctions follow each other (e.g. because of an interposed clause), only the first is preceded by a comma, e.g. Hívták, de mert hideg volt, nem indult útnak.
This latter dash is used between words in the following cases (a taxative list):[164] The ellipsis sign (…) is used to mark that an idea is unfinished (and more thoughts can be inferred from what is written), or if a part of a text has been omitted from a quotation.
However, a hyphen is used in a couple of cases (a taxative list, referring to other passages of the regulation):[166] No full stop is needed after titles of periodicals, books, poems, articles, studies, and treatises as well as after institution names and direction signs if they are given highlighted or on their own.
In some cases, full-fledged words are created from the pronounced form of acronyms standing for common names (e.g. tévé < tv < televízió).
Their letters are not all capitalized, only the initial of acronyms that derive from proper names (e.g. Kermi < Kereskedelmi Minőség-ellenőrző Intézet, 'Commercial Quality Control Institute' cf.
Their capitalized types will retain their uppercase even in their adjectival forms (ENSZ-beli 'one from the UN'), and their ending vowel letter will not be lengthened even if it would be phonologically justified (e.g. ELTE-n [eltén] 'at ELTE').
Those from the second group, however, consisting of shorter pieces of the constituting words, take suffixes without a hyphen (e.g. gyesen van 'she is on maternity leave').
The common name types of the second group, however, can be written as one word with other elements, except if they require a hyphen because of length (e.g. tévéközvetítés 'TV transmission').
On the other hand, digits should be used in case of longer or bigger numerals, as well as to note down exact quantities, dates, amounts of money, measurement, statistical data etc.
[192] However, it is omitted in three cases: (1) if it is in a possessive relationship with the forthcoming word, (2) if it is followed by a postposition or an adjective coined from it, or (3) if it is the subject of a sentence or it stands solely in parentheses.
[202] However, in encyclopedias, map indices, and other specialized works, where Hungarian and foreign names are mixed, the universal Latin alphabet is followed.
Although orthography gives only instructions how to note down an existing text, usage-related suggestions are also given in most Hungarian linguistic publications (such as if a construction should be rephrased or a word should be avoided).
New entries of Korrektorblog (Proofreader's Blog – "The Sweet-Tempered Grammar Nazi")[212] were published (as long as it was active, until 2014) on the main page of the popular news portal Index.hu.
Word processors, some web browsers and mailing applications are supplied with a Hungarian spellchecker: Hunspell for OpenOffice.org, Firefox and Thunderbird.