This page is about verbs in Hungarian grammar. The Hungarian language is a Finno-Ugric language spoken in Hungary and in the adjacent states of Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia, Austria, and Slovenia (to all of which Hungary had to cede territories after World War I). ... The Hungarian alphabet is an extension of the Roman alphabet. ... The double acute accent ( ˝ ) is a diacritic mark of the latin script used primarily in written Hungarian. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Linguistics & Pronunciation Dz is the seventh letter of the Hungarian alphabet. ... Dzs is a trigraph in the modern Hungarian alphabet that is used to indicate the sound . ... Linguistics & Pronunciation Gy is the thirtheenth letter of the Hungarian alphabet. ... Linguistics & Pronunciation Ly is the twentieth letter of the Hungarian alphabet. ... Linguistics & Pronunciation Ny is the twenty-third letter of the Hungarian alphabet. ... Linguistics & Pronunciation Sz is the thirty-second letter of the Hungarian alphabet. ... Linguistics & Pronunciation Ty is the thirty-fourth letter of the Hungarian alphabet. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... This article deals with the phonology and the phonetics of the Hungarian language. ... Hungarian grammar is the study of the rules governing the use of the Hungarian language, a Finno-Ugric language spoken in Hungary and in adjacent areas of Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Austria, and Slovenia (all territories lost after World War I). ... This page is about noun phrases in Hungarian grammar. ... The Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Nyelvtudományi Intézete, that is, Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, was founded in 1949. ... // List of tongue-twisters in English Rhymes and poems Sarah, Sarah, sits in her Chevrolet. ... This is a list of English words of Hungarian origin: biro  From Bíró. ... Hungarian runes Hungarian Runes (Székely rovásírás in Hungarian; also called rovás) is a type of runic writing system used by the Magyars prior to 1000 AD. The first Catholic king of Hungary, St. ... A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action (bring, read), occurrence (decompose, glitter), or a state of being (exist, stand). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. ... Hungarian grammar is the study of the rules governing the use of the Hungarian language, a Finno-Ugric language spoken in Hungary and in adjacent areas of Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Austria, and Slovenia (all territories lost after World War I). ...

Lemma or citation form

There is basically only one pattern for verb endings, with predictable variations dependent on the phonological context.

The lemma or citation form is always the third person singular indefinite present. This usually has a ∅ suffix, eg kér ("ask for"). Lemma may refer to: Lemma (mathematics), a proven statement Lemma (logic), a short theorem used in proving a larger theorem Lemma (linguistics), the canonical form of a word shadowing lemma, an animal which exists in only 2 dimensions and eats mathematicians (in Terry Pratchetts Discworld series) This is a... In linguistics, citation form is the way a word is prononunced when it is spoken carefully and in isolation, such as when reading a list of words. ...

-ik verbs

A slight variation to the standard pattern is with certain verbs which have 3rd singular indefinite present ending with -ik, eg dolgozik ("work"), and 1st singular indefinite present usually with -om/-em/-öm. The stem for this is reached by removing -ik. These verbs explain the reason for this form being the citation form.

The -ik verbs were originally reflexive or passive in meaning, which can still be seen eg about the pair tör ("s/he breaks sth") vs törik ("sth. breaks" / "sth gets broken"). However, most of them have lost this meaning so historically speaking they are like deponent verbs. In grammar, a reflexive verb is a verb whose semantic agent and patient (typically represented syntactically by the subject and the direct object) are the same. ... In grammar, voice is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ... A deponent verb is a verb that is active in meaning but takes its form from a different voice, most commonly the middle or passive. ...

With these verbs, the 3rd person singular (present, indefinite, indicative) form (ie, the lemma) consistently uses the -ik form. What is more, new -ik words are constantly born (eg netezik "use the Internet") so their deviation needs to be followed.

However, as far as the 1st person singular (present, indefinite, indicative) suffix is concerned, it is often assimilated to the "normal" conjugation (as it has practically happened to the other -ik-specific forms) so most verbs usually take the regular form for this person (eg hazudok; *hazudom would be taken as hypercorrect or incorrect). Nevertheless, with some basic -ik verbs, the assimilated variant is stigmatized (eg eszem is expected in educated speech, rather than *eszek), so with these verbs, the traditional form is advised. The most important "traditional" -ik verbs are eszik "to eat", iszik "to drink", alszik "to sleep" and dolgozik "to work". Hypercorrection is (1) elaborate, prescriptively based correction of common language usage, often introduced in an attempt to avoid vulgarity or informality, that results in wording commonly considered clumsier than the usual, colloquial usage (for example, in English, adherence to the proscription against split infinitives or the ending of a clause...

Infinitive

The infinitive of a verb is the form suffixed by -ni, eg várni, kérni. There is a variant -ani/eni, which is used with the following groups: In grammar, the infinitive is the form of a verb that has no inflection to indicate person, number, mood or tense. ...

• verbs ending in two consonants (eg játszani, tartani, küldeni, választani, festeni, mondani, hallani, ajánlani),
• verbs ending in a long vowel + t (eg fűteni, véteni, tanítani, bocsátani) and
• the word véd (védeni).

Exceptions are állni, szállni, varrni, forrni, which have -ni despite the two consonants.

Infinitive with personal suffixes

When an infinitive is used with an impersonal verb, the personal suffixes may be added to the infinitive to indicate the person, as in Portuguese. Except in the 3rd person singular and plural, the -i of the infinitive is dropped, eg Mennem kell. ("I have to go."). The person can also be indicated using -nak/-nek, eg Nekem kell mennem. ("I have to go.), Jánosnak kell mennie. ("János has to go.")

These forms use the o/e/ö set of suffixes (Type II, like possessive suffixes do), see Personal suffixes and link vowels. Hungarian grammar is the study of the rules governing the use of the Hungarian language, a Finno-Ugric language spoken in Hungary and in adjacent areas of Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Austria, and Slovenia (all territories lost after World War I). ...

Tenses

With the exception of van ("to be"), there are 2 tenses, usually called past and present. More accurate names would be past and non-past since the so-called "present" tense can also be used to refer to the future.

The future can also be expressed by the auxiliary verb fog with the infinitive. Learner-orientated grammars refer to this as the future tense although it is not a tense in a strict grammarian's use of the word. van has 3 tenses: past, present and future.

Futurity

Futurity can be expressed in a variety of ways:

1. By the auxiliary verb fog for any verb except van, expressing a strong intention of the subject or a necessity of events brought about by circumstances (cf English "going to")
2. For the verb van only, by the use of the future tense (leszek, leszel etc), see van (to be)
3. By the present tense only when the time is clear for some other reason (eg explicit temporal adverbs, eg majd, or verbs with perfective aspect)

The perfective aspect is a grammatical aspect. ...

Past tense

Past tense is expressed with the suffix -t or -ott/-ett/-ött.

As far as the two phonetic variants are concerned, there are three types:

• Type I never uses link vowel,
• Type II only uses link vowel in the 3rd person singular indefinite,
• Type III uses link vowel in every form.

Note: Strike-through Roman numbers in the last row refer to the types which would apply if the verbs concerned were regular.

As a thumb-rule, it may be useful to learn the rules and exceptions only for Type I and Type III and use Type II otherwise because this latter type comprises the broadest range of verbs.

Cases needing attention

Some verbs end in -t, so some forms may be ambiguous: either between the past tense of a verb and the present tense of another, or between the past tenses of two different verbs. For example:

Unfortunately, the past tenses of sejt ("suspect", Type III) and "sejtet" ("make others suspect sth.", Type II) are identical, except for the third person indefinite form where it is sejt|ett for sejt but sejtet|ett for sejtet. However, it usually turns out from the context which meaning is intended.

Moods

Hungarian verbs have 3 moods: indicative, conditional and subjunctive. The indicative has a past and non-past tense. The conditional has a non-past tense and a past form, made up of the past tense indicative as the finite verb with the non-finite verb volna. The subjunctive only has a single tense. For the grammatical term, see Grammatical mood. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... The term conditional is used in linguistics and logic to refer to related concepts about sentences of the form If X, then Y (ie. ... The subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a grammatical mood of the verb that expresses wishes, commands (in subordinate clauses), and statements that are contrary to fact. ...

Conditional

Use of the conditional:

In a sentence with "if", unlike in English, the appropriate conditional tense is used in both the "if" clause and the main clause. The present conditional is used to talk about unlikely or impossible events in the present or future, eg Ha találkoznál a királynővel, mit mondanál? ("If you met the Queen, what would you say?") (cf the second conditional in English). The past conditional is used for past events which did not happen, eg Ha nem találkoztunk volna a királynővel, órákkal ezelőtt megérkeztünk volna. ("If we hadn't met the Queen, we would have arrived hours ago.") (cf the third conditional in English).

Subjunctive

Uses of the subjunctive:

1. For a command (ie an imperative)
2. For a request
3. For hesitant questions with 1st singular subject (cf English "Shall I …?")
4. For suggestions for joint action with 1st plural subject (cf English "Let's …")
5. For wishes (3rd person singular and plural)
6. In subordinate clauses after verbs expressing orders, requests, suggestions, wishes, permission, etc
7. In hogy subordinate clauses expressing purpose

Definite and indefinite conjugations

The verbal morphology of Hungarian verbs has characteristics which give it some similarity to a tripartite system (one which distinguishes between intransitive, ergative and accusative cases) rather than a purely nominative-accusative system. However, the 2 types of subject in Hungarian are different from the intransitive/ergative distinction. They are: A tripartite language is one that marks the agent, experiencer, and patient verb arguments each in different ways. ... A nominative-accusative language (or simply accusative language) is one that marks the direct object of transitive verbs distinguishing them from the subject of both transitive and intransitive verbs. ...

1. The subject of an intransitive verb or of a transitive verb with an indefinite object
2. The subject of a transitive verb with a definite object

There is no trace of this distinction in the morphology of nouns and pronouns. In grammatical theory, Definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and entities which are not (indefinite noun phrases). ... In grammatical theory, Definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and entities which are not (indefinite noun phrases). ...

This difference shows up in Hungarian verbs as two conjugations: definite and indefinite. The word conjugation has several meanings: Grammatical conjugation is the modification of a verb from its basic form. ...

The indefinite conjugation is used:

1. With an intransitive verb
2. With an indefinite object including an indefinite pronoun object
3. With most question words as the object
4. With a relative pronoun as the object
5. With a 1st or 2nd person pronoun as the object, whether stated or unstated

The definite conjugation is used:

1. With a definite object
2. With a following clause with hogy ("that")
3. With questions with melyik and hányadik ("which") as the object
4. With a 3rd person pronoun as the object, whether stated or unstated

Examples:

-lak/-lek

An isolated verb suffix exists which is used solely for a first person singular subject with a second person singular or plural object, eg Szeretlek. ("I love you.", singular), Szeretlek titeket. ("I love you all.")

An example regular verb

Here is a regular verb, kér ("ask for"). The personal suffixes are marked in bold.

Modal and causative suffixes

Hungarian has 2 forms which can be added to the verb stem to modify the meaning. These are sometimes referred to as infixes but they are not true infixes because they are not inserted inside another morpheme. Infix has meanings in linguistics, mathematics and computer science, and chemistry. ...

-hat-/-het- has a modal meaning of permission or opportunity, eg Mit tehetek? ("What can I do?") In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ...

-at-/-et- and -tat-/-tet- have a causative meaning.

• -at-/-et- is used with one-syllable stems and words ending in a consonant cluster, eg. íratni "to have it written";, mosatni "to have it washed", fürdetni "to give sb. a bath", felébresztetni "to have sb. woken up".
• -tat-/-tet- is used with stems of two or more syllables and words ending in vowel + t, eg csináltatni "to have it done", beszéltetni "to have sb. speak", süttetni "to have it baked", láttatni "to make it seen".

Verbal noun

A noun is formed from a verb by adding -ás/-és to the verb stem (cf gerund in English), eg Az úszás egészséges. ("Swimming is healthy.") In linguistics, a gerund is a kind of verbal noun that exists in some languages. ...

Participles

There are 3 participles in Hungarian. They are formed by adding the following suffixes to the verb stem: In linguistics, a participle is a verbal adjective. ...

• -ó/-ő - present participle, eg író ember ("a writing person")
• -ott/-ett/-ött/-t - past participle, eg megírt levél ("a written letter" /"the letter that has been written")
• -andó/-endő - future participle, eg írandó levél ("a letter to be written")

Verb particles /prefixes

Hungarian verbs can have verbal particles or prefixes, similar to phrasal verbs in English. The most common ones are meg- (perfective), fel- ("up"), le- ("down"/"off"), be- ("in"), ki- ("out"), el- ("away"), vissza- ("back"), át- ("over"/"through"), oda- ("there"), ide- ("here"), össze- ("together"), szét- ("apart"). In the English language, a phrasal verb is a verb combined with a preposition, an adverb, or an adverbial particle, all three of which are uninflected. ... The perfective aspect is a grammatical aspect. ...

The above meanings are the literal meanings but they all can have figurative, idiomatic meanings. Examples of literal meanings for the verb ír ("write"): leír ("write down"), beír ("write into") as opposed to the non-literal meanings: leír ("declare as useless", cf. "write off"), beír ("give a written warning [to a schoolchild]"). Different prefixes can express subtle differences (e.g. meghízik "get fat" vs. elhízik "get obese") as well as independent concepts (e.g. rúg "kick", kirúg "fire sb.", berúg "get drunk"). They often serve to change the verb into perfective (along with other factors).

When the particle precedes the verb without any other inserted word, they are used as one word, e.g. Leírja ("He writes it down"). Syntactically, the particle may go behind the verb for various reasons. It may occur due to a stressed part in the sentence (the focus), e.g. Ő írja le ("It's him who writes it down") or a negation, e.g. Nem írja le ("He doesn't write it down"). The inverted order is also used in the imperative, e.g. Írja le! ("Write it down!"). Finally, it may also refer to continuity, like Lement a lépcsőn ("He went down the stairs") vs. Ment le a lépcsőn ("He was going down the stairs"). In English, and sometimes in other languages, the continuous or progressive aspect is an aspect that denotes an incomplete action in progress at a specific time. ...

If the verb with the particle is in the infinitive, the finite verb will be wedged between them, e.g. Le akarja írni ("He wants to write it down") or Le tudja írni ("He can write it down"). A finite verb is a verb that is inflected for person and for tense according to the rules and categories of the languages it occurs in. ...

When giving a short positive answer to a yes/no question, the particle can refer back to the whole sentence, see Yes/no questions. Hungarian grammar is the study of the rules governing the use of the Hungarian language, a Finno-Ugric language spoken in Hungary and in adjacent areas of Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Austria, and Slovenia (all territories lost after World War I). ...

Cases needing attention

There are a few words which happen to begin with letters like in the above particles, e.g. felel ("reply"), lehel ("breathe/puff"), kiált ("give a shout") and beszél ("speak") where fel-, le-, ki- and be- are parts of the words themselves, rather than actual particles. The difference is important in the above-mentioned syntactic cases when these elements will – naturally – not function like particles do. Compare the above kiált (no compound) with ki|áll ("stand out", a compound): nem kiált ("he doesn't give a shout") but nem áll ki ("he doesn't stand out"). – A similar case is fellebbez ("appeal [in court]"), from the adverb fellebb ("upper", today: feljebb), containing no particle.

A verb may occasionally be a homonym in the above sense, i.e. being a single word or containing a particle, e.g. betűz ("spell [by letters]", no compound) but be|tűz ("stick in" or "shine in", a compound).

The other misleading cases are those verbs which were historically formed from nouns deriving from verbs with particles, so they seemingly begin with particles but they don't behave like them. An example is befolyásol ("influence", v) which derives from befolyás ("influence", n), a calque from German Einfluß, literally "in-flow", including the particle be- ("in"). This element, being part of the original noun, will not act as a particle of the derived verb befolyásol. There are few such words, e.g. kivitelez ("implement") from kivitel ("exportation", cf. "carrying out"). In linguistics, a calque (pronounced [kælk]) or loan translation (itself a calque of German Lehnübersetzung) is a phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word translation. ...

Auxiliary verbs (modal and temporal)

Most Hungarian auxiliary verbs are impersonal; beside them, the suffixed infinitive is used. A few are conjugated. (Note: personal suffixes are marked in bold.) In linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb whose function it is to give further semantic information about the main verb which follows it. ...

The suffix -hat/-het mentioned in the last row can be further conjugated, just like any verb.

The verb lehet is most usually used impersonally, eg oda lehet menni "one can go there". It's possible but uncommon to use it in the personal form, eg lehet mennem ("I can go").

szokott

szokott is conjugated like the past tense. However, used with an infinitive, it has the meaning of a habitual action which includes the present time. Examples:

• Szoktam álmodni. ("I usually dream." /"I'm used to dreaming.")

Irregular verbs

The verbs van ("to be"), jön ("to come") and megy ("to go") have an irregular present tense and irregular stems for different tenses. jön also has irregular forms in the subjunctive. A further group of 9 verbs have irregular stems for different tenses but follow the same pattern of irregularity as each other. A few other verbs shorten or drop a vowel with certain suffixes.

van (to be)

The verb "to be" in Hungarian is van (3rd person), lenni (infinitive).

Use

When the verb is used as a copula ie if one speaks about what someone or something is, it is omitted in the third person singular and plural of the present tense. The verb is required in all other tenses and persons, when speaking about where or how something is, or to emphasize the existence or availability of something. Examples: The word copula originates from the Latin noun for a link or tie that connects two different things. ...

• Péter orvos ∅. – Peter is a doctor. (present tense, third person, speaking about what someone is: no linking verb in Hungarian)
• Péter jól van. – Peter is well.
• Péter itt van. – Peter is here.
• Péter orvos volt. – Peter was a doctor.
• Orvos vagyok. – I am a doctor.

The non-copula form of van is also used to express the equivalent of "There is/are":

• Van orvos a szobában. – There is a doctor in the room.

The negation of the third person van (plural vannak) as a non-copula verb is the suppletive nincs (plural nincsenek): In linguistics and etymology, suppletion is the use of one word as the inflected form of another word when the two words are not cognate. ...

• Itt van Péter. – Peter is here.
• Nincs itt Péter. – Peter isn't here.

Hungarian has no verb which is equivalent to "to have". Instead, ownership /possession are expressed using van with a possessive suffix on the noun:

• Van könyvem. ("I've got a book.", literally "There is a book-my")

Conjugation

Like the verb "to be" in most other languages, van is irregular. It comes from three (or four) bases: vagy- (or van-), vol-, and len-. These overlap to some extent with the verb lesz ("become"). As it cannot have an object, it doesn't have definite forms. It is the only verb in Hungarian which has a future form.

There is little difference between the two conditional forms. In theory, lennék, etc. are preferred when an option is considered as possible (eg Ha otthon lennék, "if I were at home") and volnék, etc. are preferred when it is considered impossible (eg Ha rózsa volnék, "if I were a rose"), but the limits are rather vague. It is probably not by chance that the former is akin to the future form (leszek), which might still become true, and the latter to the past form (voltam), which is already determined. In practice, the lennék series is somewhat more frequently used in both senses.