What has hitherto militated against the provision of a syntagmatic German-Hungarian learner dictionary is the absence not only of empirical methods for data retrieval and selection, but also of criteria for a typology of word combinations and a user-friendly form of presentation for foreign-language learners. This study is the first to combine IDS (Institute of the German Language) corpora with the COSMAS research system in an attempt to remedy this situation. The discussion of the subject matter of the dictionary generates a proposal for a typology of word combinations. The form of the dictionary is outlined on the basis of the theory advanced by H.E. Wiegand. The study also contains a substantial amount of empirical material.