Hungarian verbs


This page is about verbs in Hungarian grammar.

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, e.g. kér.

''-ik'' verbs

A slight variation to the standard pattern is with certain verbs which have third person singular indefinite present ending with -ik, e.g. dolgozik, 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 middle voice, reflexive or passive in meaning, which can still be seen e.g. about the pair tör vs törik. However, most of them have lost this meaning so historically speaking they are like deponent verbs. There are some verb pairs that only differ in the presence or absence of the -ik ending, while they are unrelated in meaning, such as ér and érik.
With these verbs, the third person singular form consistently uses the -ik form. What is more, new -ik words continue to be created .
However, the first person singular suffix is often assimilated to the "normal" conjugation, so most verbs usually take the regular form for this person. Nevertheless, with some basic -ik verbs, the assimilated variant is stigmatized, so with these verbs, the traditional form is advised. At any rate, such non-traditional, assimilated variants are not rare in colloquial spoken language.
Since this -ik ending coincides with the -ik ending of the 3rd person plural definite form, only the type of the object makes it possible to identify the subject:
In fact, most -ik verbs are intransitive, and the context may clarify the question even if the subject is not made explicit.
Some important "traditional" -ik verbs are the following. A person may appear uneducated if s/he uses the -k ending with them for the 1st person singular form:
For most other verbs, the -k ending is common in the indefinite meaning, especially in casual speech. Verbs ending in -zik, which refer to using some tool, almost exclusively take the -k, such as biciklizik "ride the bicycle", gitározik "play the guitar" or mobilozik "use the mobile phone".
There are a few non-traditional -ik verbs where the -m ending is impossible and ungrammatical. These are called "pseudo ik verbs" in Hungarian. Examples:
The regular non -ik verb könyörög "beg" has a hypercorrect first-person singular indefinite present form könyörgöm "I am begging", which conjugation mimics that of -ik verbs. The correct form would be könyörgök. However, it is argued by some that the form könyörgöm is not unacceptable, either, and it reflects an idiomatic expression könyörgöm "I am begging ", which has eventually lost its object and in which the form könyörgöm actually follows definite conjugation.

Infinitive

The infinitive of a verb is the form suffixed by -ni, e.g. várni, kérni. There is a variant -ani/eni, which is used with the following groups:
Exceptions are állni "to stand", szállni "to fly", varrni "to sew", forrni "to boil", which have -ni despite the two consonants.
This is due to the fact that, in written language, the "long" 'l' or 'r' of the stem has to be kept even in the forms where it is pronounced short.

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, e.g. Mennem kell.. The person can also be indicated using -nak/-nek, e.g. Nekem kell mennem., Jánosnak mennie kell
These forms use the o/e/ö set of suffixes, see Personal suffixes and link vowels.
Personmenni látni
for me to go etc.for me to see etc.
1st Sg.mennemlátnom
2nd Sg.mennedlátnod
3rd Sg.mennielátnia
1st Pl.mennünklátnunk
2nd Pl.menneteklátnotok
3rd Pl.menniüklátniuk

Tenses

Most verbs have two inflected tenses, past and present, and a future form using an auxiliary verb. The verb lenni, to be, has three inflected tenses: past, present and future.

Present

In the present tense, only sibilant-ending verbs differ from the rest, such as verbs ending in -s, -sz, -z and -dz. The chart below compares the conjugation of the regular kér 'ask' and vár 'wait' with the sibilant-ending keres 'look for' and mászik 'climb.' Example of verbs ending in the other two possible sonorants, -z and -dz, are húz 'pull' and edz 'train', which similarly double their stem consonants where -s and -sz are doubled.
The forms marked in bold are those where the suffix of sibilant-ending verbs differ from the suffix of other verbs: either because of the alternative 2nd person ending l, or because of the assimilation of j. Incidentally, the latter forms coincide with the subjunctive forms.

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 or a necessity of events brought about by circumstances
  2. The verb van, uniquely, has an inflected future tense.
  3. By the present tense, when this is clearly a reference to a future time.

    Past tense

The past tense is expressed with the suffix -t or -ott/-ett/-ött and inflects for person and number. As in the present tense, there are special indefinite forms for transitive verbs with direct objects that are 1st or 2nd person or indefinite, while definite forms are used for intransitive verbs and transitive verbs with definite, 3rd person direct objects, and there is a special form used just for instances where there is a 1st person subject and 2nd person direct object.
As far as the two phonetic variants are concerned, there are three types:
If the above phonetic guidelines don't help, it may be useful as a rule of thumb 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.

Regular homonymy of plain and causative forms in the same tense

Front-vowel unrounded verbs that end in consonant + -t may have ambiguous forms between plain and causative forms. Approximately a hundred verbs are concerned that end in one of the following endings: -jt, -lt, -mt, -nt, -rt, -st, -szt.
HomoverbMeaning 1Meaning 2
Megértette."S/he understood it."
megért + -ette 		"S/he made them understand it."
megért + -et- + -te
Sejtette."S/he suspected it."
sejt + -ette 		"S/he made them suspect it."
sejt + -et- + -te

The past tenses of sejt and sejtet 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 argument structure and the context which meaning is intended.
This ambiguity doesn't occur with back-vowel verbs because the linking vowel is different for the normal past tense and the causative, e.g. bontotta "s/he demolished it" vs. bontatta "s/he had it demolished". The linking vowel can only be o for back-vowel verbs and the causative can only have a with back vowels. Similarly, it doesn't occur with front-vowel verbs with a rounded vowel, either: e.g. gyűjtötte vs gyűjtette.
Below is a chart to review the conjugation differences between coinciding forms of the same verb. Ambiguous forms in the same person are marked in bold.
"I understood it" etc., past, def."I made them understand it" etc., past, def."I understood something" etc., past, indef."I made them understand something" etc., past, indef.
megértettem
megértetted
megértette
megértettük
megértettétek
megértették		megértettem
megértetted
megértette
megértettük
megértettétek
megértették		megértettem
megértettél
megértett
megértettünk
megértettetek
megértettek		megértettem
megértettél
megértetett
megértettünk
megértettetek
megértettek

Regular homonymy: other cases

Another kind of ambiguity can arise with type I verbs between the second person plural plain form and the first person singular causative form, e.g. beszéltetek :
It can also occur with similar back-vowel verbs, e.g. csináltatok "you did something" or "I have something done".
beszéltek can also have two interpretations :
This latter case is not possible with back-vowel verbs, due to the difference of the linking vowel: csináltok "you do something" vs. csináltak "they did something".
Below is a chart to review the conjugation differences between coinciding forms of the same verb. Ambiguous forms in different persons are marked with asterisks.
"I speak" etc.,
present, indef.		"I spoke" etc.,
past, indef.		"I make somebody speak" etc.,
present, indef.		"I do" etc.,
present, indef.		"I did" etc.,
past, indef.		"I have something done" etc.,
present, indef.
beszélek
beszélsz
beszél
beszélünk
beszéltek*
beszélnek		beszéltem
beszéltél
beszélt
beszéltünk
beszéltetek*
beszéltek*		beszéltetek*
beszéltetsz
beszéltet
beszéltetünk
beszéltettek
beszéltetnek		csinálok
csinálsz
csinál
csinálunk
csináltok
csinálnak		csináltam
csináltál
csinált
csináltunk
csináltatok*
csináltak		csináltatok*
csináltatsz
csináltat
csináltatunk
csináltattok
csináltatnak

Sporadic coincidences

Front-vowel verbs in type III that end in -t may cause ambiguity, like between the past tense of a verb and the present tense of another. For example:
Homonymous verbMeaning 1Meaning 2
Féltem."I was afraid."
fél + -tem 		"I fear for him/her/it."
félt + -em
Nem ért hozzá.ér + -t "S/he isn't familiar with it."
ért
Köszönt."S/he said hello."
köszön + -t 		"S/he welcomes ."
köszönt
Megbánt valamit."S/he regretted something."
megbán + -t 		"S/he offends something."
megbánt

Below is a chart to review the conjugation differences between coinciding forms of unrelated verbs. Ambiguous forms in the same person are marked in bold; ambiguous forms in different persons are marked with asterisks.
"I was afraid" etc., past, indef."I fear for somebody" etc., present, indef."I fear for him/her/it" etc., present, def."I am not familiar with it" etc., present, indef."I didn't touch it" etc., past, indef.
féltem
féltél
félt
féltünk
féltetek
féltek*		féltek*
féltesz
félt
féltünk
féltetek
féltenek		féltem
félted
félti
féltjük
féltitek
féltik		nem értek hozzá*
nem értesz hozzá
nem ért hozzá
nem értünk hozzá
nem értetek hozzá
nem értenek hozzá		nem értem hozzá
nem értél hozzá
nem ért hozzá
nem értünk hozzá
nem értetek hozzá
nem értek hozzá*''

Moods

Hungarian verbs have 3 moods: indicative, conditional and subjunctive / imperative. 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.

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, e.g. Ha találkoznál a királynővel, mit mondanál? . The past conditional is used for past events which did not happen, e.g. Ha nem találkoztunk volna a királynővel, órákkal ezelőtt megérkeztünk volna. .

Forms of the conditional

PersonIndefiniteDefinite
1st Sg.kérnék, várnékkérném, várnám
2nd Sg.kérnél, várnálkérnéd, várnád
3rd Sg.kérne, várnakérné, várná
1st Pl.kérnénk, várnánkkérnénk, várnánk
2nd Pl.kérnétek, várnátokkérnétek, várnátok
3rd Pl.kérnének, várnánakkérnék, várnák

The front-vowel suffix at the end of the 1st person singular indefinite form of the back-vowel verb ' is an apparent exception from the vowel harmony: it may serve to distinguish from the 3rd person plural definite form .
The only opposition between the 3rd person singular definite and indefinite forms is vowel length, which can be considered one of the rare fusional traits in Hungarian.
A linking vowel is inserted into verbs with a consonant cluster or long vowel + t at the end, e.g. festenék 'I would paint', taníta'nék'' 'I would teach', analogously to the rules given for the [|infinitive form].

Subjunctive (imperative)

Uses of the subjunctive:
  1. For a command
  2. For a request
  3. For hesitant questions with 1st singular subject
  4. For suggestions for joint action with 1st plural subject
  5. For wishes
  6. In subordinate clauses after verbs expressing orders, requests, suggestions, wishes, permission, etc.
  7. In hogy subordinate clauses expressing purpose

    Forms of the subjunctive

In the subjunctive or imperative mood, verbs with a sibilant or t ending differ from the rest, with two groups for the t ending: those with a preceding short vowel, and those with a preceding long vowel or a consonant.
Meanings of the verbs below: kér 'ask ', vár 'wait', keres 'look for', olvas 'read', fest 'paint', szeret 'love', fut 'run', ment 'save', tanít 'teach', böngészik 'browse', mászik 'climb', ereszt 'let go', akaszt 'hang', néz 'look at', húz 'pull', edz 'train', lopódzik 'sneak'.
Note 1: Fest 'paint' is the only single example that ends in st, and there is no -ik verb with these two ending consonants. This verb is conjugated like the szeret, fut type: fessek, fess, fessen, fessünk, fessetek, fessenek; fessem, fesd, fesse, fessük, fessétek, fessék; fesselek.
Note 2: the definite conjugation may be ungrammatical for verbs that cannot have an object, e.g. fut 'run', lopódzik 'sneak'. However, these forms may occur in constructions like végigfutja a távot 'run all through the distance', or perhaps even végiglopóddza az épületeket 'sneak through the buildings'. This solution doesn't work, though, for the forms affecting the 2nd person, that is why they are marked with an asterisk.
Forms marked with a preceding equality sign are identical with the indicative forms.
Second person forms have a short and a long variant both in indefinite and definite conjugation, with minimal difference in style.

Definite and indefinite conjugations

In Hungarian, verbs not only show agreement with their subjects but also carry information on the definiteness of their direct objects. This results in two types of conjugations: definite and indefinite :
Basically, the indefinite conjugation is used if there is no definite object, that is i) if there is no object at all, or ii) if the object is indefinite. However, exceptionally, the indefinite conjugation is also used if the object is a 1st- or 2nd-person pronoun, either stated or not.
An object is indefinite if it is:
  1. a noun with no determiner
  2. a noun with an indefinite article
  3. a noun with a numeral or an indefinite determiner
  4. a first- or second-person pronoun, either stated or unstated
  5. an indefinite pronoun such as "something, anything, everyone" etc.
  6. an interrogative pronoun
  7. a relative pronoun
The definite conjugation is used if the verb has a definite object, which can be:
  1. a noun with a definite article
  2. a noun with the determiners melyik, hányadik or mindegyik ; the noun may be omitted in these constructions
  3. a 3rd-person pronoun, either stated or unstated
  4. a demonstrative pronoun
  5. the indefinite pronoun mind
  6. a subordinate clause
A special suffix is used if the verb has a first-person singular subject AND a second-person object, e.g. Szeretlek., Szeretlek titeket..
Examples:
Indefinite Definite
You see ∅.
You can see something.
You can see a book.
You can see me/us.
You can see some/two.
You can't see anything/anyone.
You can see everything/everyone.
Who/What/How many can you see?
The person/book you can see is…		You can see the book.
You can see this book.
You can see him/her/it/them.
You can see yourself.
You can see Mary.
You can see both .
You can see all .
Which can you see?
You can see I'm here.

No explicit object

If no explicit object is present, the most common interpretation of the definite verb forms is including "him/her/it". If an indefinite verb form semantically requires an object, "me" or "you " or – obviously – an indefinite object can be inferred. This difference makes it possible for the writer or speaker to refer to people without making them explicit. In most cases it is enough through the context to differentiate between 3rd-person and non-3rd-person pronouns.
Definite examples:
  • olvassa – most common meaning: s/he is reading it
  • nézi – most common meaning: s/he is looking at him/her/it
Indefinite examples:
  • fut – usually can't have an object so its meaning is unambiguous
  • olvas – most common meaning: s/he is reading something
  • néz – most common meaning: s/he is looking at me or you

    Grammatical voice

Hungarian uses active forms not only in the active sense and in the middle voice sense, but also to express the passive, with the third person plural active form. For example, Megvizsgálják a gyereket literally means "They examine the child", but it is more commonly meant like "The child is examined". The fact that this sentence behaves like a passive voice is shown by the fact that the above form can be used even when only one agent is meant.
Another means to express the passive meaning is using middle voice lexical forms or unaccusative verbs, e.g. épül: "build"/ intransitive, alakul: "form"/ intransitive. -ul/-ül is a common ending that expresses the middle voice, as opposed to -ít which expresses the active. Middle voice forms can also be created from some plain verbs by adding -ódik/-ődik, e.g. íródik "get written", ütődik "get hit". These active/middle pairs comprise a considerable part among Hungarian verbs.
In the perfect, there is a third way to express passive meaning: the existential verb van plus the adverbial participle ending in -va/-ve, e.g. meg van írva "it is written". It is used when the result of the action is emphasized. It can be formed in the past perfect and future perfect, too, with the past and future forms of van. – A similar structure is used in a past meaning with lett: meg lett írva "it was written" or "it has been written".
Finally, the actual passive form does occur once in a while, formed with -atik/-etik or -tatik/-tetik. For example: születik, adatik, viseltetik, foglaltatik. These can be formed by adding -ik to the causative. Most of these forms are considered obsolete.

An example of a regular verb

Here is a regular verb, kér. 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.
-hat-/-het- has a modal meaning of permission or opportunity, e.g. beszélek "I speak", beszélhetek "I may speak" or "I am allowed to speak".
Note: Ability is usually expressed with "tud". See Auxiliary verbs.
-at-/-et- and -tat-/-tet- have a causative meaning. It can express "having something done" or "having/making someone do something". For example: beszélek "I speak", beszéltetek "I make somebody speak".
-tat/-tet is used if the word ends in vowel + -t or if the stem ends in a consonant different from -t, but it has two or more syllables. In other cases, -at/-et is used: that is, with words ending in a consonant + t and with one-syllable words ending in a consonant different from -t.
The monosyllabic words which don't end in vowel + -t, but have -tat/-tet in the causative are áz|ik, buk|ik, kop|ik, szop|ik, hány, él, kel, lép, szűn|ik, jár, szök|ik .

Verbal noun

A noun is formed from a verb by adding -ás/-és to the verb stem, e.g. Az úszás egészséges.

Participles

There are three participles in Hungarian. They are formed by adding the following suffixes to the verb stem:
  • -ó/-ő - present participle, e.g. író ember
  • -ott/-ett/-ött/-t - past participle, e.g. megírt levél
  • -andó/-endő - future participle, e.g. írandó levél
Since the past participle usually expresses a perfected action/event, the verb sometimes changes into its perfective counterpart by taking a verbal particle ' with this function, as seen in the above example '. This verbal particle may, however, be replaced by a noun, e.g. Annának írt levél. – See more under Hungarian syntax.

Verb particles /prefixes ''(igekötők)''

Hungarian verbs can have verb particles or prefixes, similar to phrasal verbs in English. The most common ones are meg-, fel-, le-, be-, ki-, el-, vissza-, át-, oda-, ide-, össze-, szét-, "rá-".
The above meanings are the literal meanings, but they all can have figurative, idiomatic meanings. Examples of literal meanings for the verb ír : leír, beír as opposed to the non-literal meanings: leír, beír. Different prefixes can express subtle differences as well as independent concepts. They often serve to change the verb into perfective.
When the particle precedes the verb without any other inserted word, they are used as one word, e.g. Leírja. Syntactically, the particle may go behind the verb for various reasons. It may occur due to a stressed part in the sentence, e.g. Ő írja le or a negation, e.g. Nem írja le. The inverted order is also used in the imperative, e.g. Írja le!. Finally, it may also refer to continuity, like Lement a lépcsőn vs. Ment le a lépcsőn.
If the verb with the particle is in the infinitive, the finite verb will be wedged between them, e.g. Le akarja írni or Le tudja írni.
The particle may considerably affect the case of the complement: for example, the verb kezd can take several different verb particles, all expressing the same concept, but their complement differs depending on the particle:
  • elkezd valamit
  • nekikezd valaminek
  • belekezd valamibe
  • hozzákezd valamihez
It happens because certain verb particles come from personal pronouns in the given case and they require agreement.
When giving a short positive answer to a yes/no question, the particle can refer back to the whole sentence, see Yes/no questions.

Cases needing attention

There are a few words which appear to begin with a particle, but don't actually, e.g. felel, lehel, kiált and beszél 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 with ki|áll : nem kiált, but nem áll ki. – A similar case is fellebbez, from the adverb fellebb, 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, but be|tűz.
The other misleading cases are those verbs which were historically formed from nouns derived from verbs with particles, so they seemingly begin with particles, but they don't behave like them. An example is befolyásol which derives from befolyás, a calque from German Einfluß, literally "in-flow", including the particle be-. 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 from kivitel. Kirándul used to be a compound, but people don't usually treat it like that anymore so they say, e.g., Kirándulni akar. instead of Ki akar rándulni, which is obsolete and only used jokingly. An opposite case is that of feltételez, which comes from feltétel, so the prefix is only part of the embedded noun, rather than of the full verb, but it is still separated: fel sem tételezhetjük, fel kell tételeznünk. What functions as a verbal prefix sometimes may not be one other times, e.g. ellenáll 'resist' can separate like nem állok ellen 'I don't resist', but ellenőriz 'check' stays together like nem ellenőrzök 'I don't check'.

Auxiliary verbs (modal and temporal)

Most Hungarian auxiliary verbs are impersonal; beside them, the suffixed infinitive is used. A few are conjugated.
The suffix -hat/-het mentioned in the last row can be further conjugated, just like any verb.
The verb lehet is used impersonally, e.g. oda lehet menni "one can go there".

The verb ''szokik''

The verb szokik is conjugated like a regular past tense one, however, used with an infinitive, it has the meaning of a habitual action which includes the present time.
Examples:
  • Szoktam álmodni
  • Meg szoktam mosni

    Irregular verbs

The verbs van, jön and megy 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, lenni.

Use

When the verb is used as a copula i.e. 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:
  • Péter orvos ∅. – Peter is a doctor. '
  • 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 as a non-copula verb is the suppletive nincs :
  • 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'.''

    Conjugation

Like the verb "to be" in many other languages, van is irregular. It comes from three bases: vagy-, vol-, and len-. These overlap to some extent with the verb lesz. As it cannot have an object, it does not 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 and volnék etc. are preferred when it is considered impossible, but the limits are rather vague. It is probably not by chance that the former is akin to the future form, which might still become true, and the latter to the past form, which is already determined. In practice, the lennék series is somewhat more frequently used in both senses.