While ellipsis of the complement of negation is generally possible in Hungarian, for a robust subset of speakers the 3rd person present indicative copula cannot be elided under negation because it forms a portmanteau with negation. This paper investigates this elliptically indivisible portmanteau and argues for two conclusions. Firstly, portmanteau formation is a post-syntactic operation. Pairs of copulas and negation which will go on to form a portmanteau are pre-syntactically and syntactically indistinguishable from those which will remain analytically separate. Secondly, the contents of ellipsis sites must be post-syntactically accessible. The post-syntactic portmanteau forming operation must be able to see into intended ellipsis sites to determine whether the indivisible portmanteau can form and escape non-pronunciation. This means that ellipsis must either be an entirely post-syntactic operation, or it must leave the contents of ellipsis sites intact — it cannot be an operation which deletes or otherwise separates ellipsis sites from the rest of the structure within the narrow syntax.