találkozz a magyarral!
To disappoint all the masochists who think that Hungarian is painful, and to please all
those who know that it isn't, but couldn't find a good way to learn it.
Cserben hagyni a mazohistákat akik azt hiszik a magyarról, hogy fájdalmas, és örömöt
hozni azoknak akik tudják, hogy nem, de nem bírtak találni egy jó modszert arra, hogy
tanulják.
symbols between slashes (e.g. /e/) are IPA phonetic symbols, all pronunciation
references are given assuming Queen's English.
This book is for those who want to learn from a grammatical and analytical perspective
as opposed to textbook style immersion.
Chapter I (első fejezet) – Meet Hungarian (magyar)
The Hungarian Language is the official language of Hungary (or Republic of Hungary), and has been an official
language in all the territories once belonging to the Kingom of Hungary, which is the land within the Carpathian
mountains known to the Romans as Pannonia. is the language of the Hungarian people who number some ten millions
in Hungary and about a further four million abroad. Hungarian is spoken world wide by about 15,000,000 people.
Hungarian has been our language for a very long time. It sounds strange to say something so seemingly obvious but it
is in fact noteworthy. Languages like Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, and Romanian (the modern day romance
languages with national language status) Have not existed very long. French for instance, arose in France, wherein
people used to speak first Latin then vulgar Latin along side Celtic and Iberian languages, most of which are now
extinct. As these languages mixed and mingled and moved, they changed, and eventually a new language arose from
the mix. The earliest attested documents in a language which we would identify as “French” (specifically “Old
French” or by its original name, “langue d'oïl”) are the Oaths of Strasbourg (842AD) some 1,160 years ago. Italian,
similarly, begins its linguistic independence from vulgar Latin with a collection of legal documents dated 960963AD,
over a century after the first “French” documents. It is little wonder then, that Italian and French, who have evolved
along side one another, for just over one millennium, and arose from a common ancestor are so similar in grammar,
vocabulary, and style. The further one goes back in time, or the closer one travels to the historic borders, the harder it
becomes to see where one language ends and the next begins.
The Hungarian People were a nomadic tribe however. Seven in fact. Our language is not “IndoEuropean” but rather
“Uralic” from the Ural mountain range which historically divides Europe from Asia. Having been continually on the
move, Hungarians did not linger long enough to absorb much from any one language, nor did we disperse our
language and allow it to diverge. Hungarian's closes linguistic relatives are Khanti and Mansi (or as we call them
Osztyák and Vogul) spoken in the KhantiaMansia Okrug in Russia. They comprise the ObUgric branch of the Ugric
language subfamily (so named because they are spoken in the expanse between the Ob river, and Ural mountains),
while Hungarian stands alone under the Ugric heading. Along side the Ugric languages, Uralic languages are divided
further into Finnopermic, Samoyedic, and Yukaghir. The Finnopermic branch contains the highest number of
languages including the only two other languages with national language status: Finnish and Estonian.
It is estimated that Hungarian left the other Ugric languages behind in the 11th century BC (3,000 years ago) and the
Finnopermic languages behind far before that. Although linguists can find links between Hungarian and its relatives,
to the average speaker those 3,000 years of separation have made even our closest relatives as unintelligible as ancient
Inca.
Hungarian is a language quite unlike any other. For the past thousand years Hungary has bordered and spoken
Germanic, Romance, and Slavic languages, and has borrowed from all of them but remains vastly different to any of
them. It is agglutinative, vowel harmonic, and disdains prepositions in favour of cases.
Chapter II (második fejezet) Meet the written language (az írott nyelv)
Meet the Hungarian alphabet (a magyar ábécé)
a á b c cs d dz dzs e é f g gy h i í j k l ly m n ny o ó ö ő p q r s sz t ty u ú ü ű v w x y z zs
Each of the above monographs, digraphs, and the trigraph are considered “letters”. Each one used to be written with
it's own glyph in rovás írás (old Hungarian “runic” script, lit. carving writing). The exceptions are dz and dzs which
were introduced for Turkish loanwords, and q, w, x, and y which are used as part of the Latin alphabet, predominantly
to write European loan words (and in the case of y to form digraphs). the “names” of the consonants are formed by
adding é.
Meet the pronunciation (a kiejtés)
m, n, ny, and ng are said as m, n, Spanish ñ, and ng respectively /m/ /n/ /ɲ/ /ŋ/
although ng is not seen as its own letter in Hungarian but rather an n and a g, and is usually said as such i.e. /ŋg/, in
speech it can become /ŋ/ but not across syllable boundaries.
b, d, and g are pronounced as their English variants /b/ /d/ /g/
p, t, and k are pronounced as in English but with less breath /p/ /t/ /k/
Compare “spit” with “pit”, “stick” with “tick”, and “scar” with “car” (the former in each being correct)
ty and gy are said like the the t in “Tuesday” and d in “due” of Queen's English. /c/ /ɟ/
Loosely, t+y and d+y sounds respectively, and are more aspirated, i.e. they should be said with a release of much more
air than p, b, t, d, k, and g.
f, v, sz, z, s, zs, and h correspond to the English f, v, s, z, sh, zh1, and h respectively. /f/ /v/ /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /h/
Like many European languages Hungarian lacks a “th” sound.
1 Zh here represents the z of “azure” or the s of “pleasure”
N.B. In the few instances that h ends a word like méh (bee), doh (dank), düh (rage), or potroh (thorax) it is said like
the German Ach Laut, or Scottich Loch /x/.
N.B. that sz represents the /s/ sound, and s represents the /ʃ/ (sh) sound. This is the direct opposite of orthographies
like that of Polish, and counter intuitive to many. Scholars of German will appreciate that the sz digraph shares its
origins with those of the German ß.
c, cs, dz, and dzs are said like “ts”, “ch” “dz” and “j” respectively.
r is said trilled like the Spanish r when one is emphasising it, and children are taught to roll their r's, but in real speech
it is more like a tap of the tongue against the roof of the mouth whilst making a light variant of the English r. Although
most r sounds will be understood.
l is said as the English l
Meet J and Ly (pontos jé és elipszilon)
J and ly both sound like y /j/
Once, ly used to sound like /ʎ/ l+y (as in million). It is said by some that there are differences in the pronunciation of j
and ly, although others vehemently deny it. J/ly is one of the few ambiguities of Hungarian writing, and correctly
identifying them from speech alone is often impossible. There are however two useful rules:
1/ if a word begins with a /j/ sound, it will be written with “j”.
The sole exception is the word “lyuk”, which has as its synonym “luk”, originating from the German Lücke meaning a
hole or gap.
2a/ if a /j/ sound can be replaced with a /l/ sound, and still be understood, chances are it is written with ly.
E.g. Hülye (stupid), if said Hüle could still be understood by a native.
This rule is however, difficult for nonnative speakers to utilise, and so the converse might be more helpful.
2b/ if a /j/ can be replaced with a /l/ and now means a different word, the /j/ is probably written with “j”
e.g. hajó (ship) and haló ( (one who is) dying)
Meet loan words
Hungarian has, over time borrowed words from other languages for its own use. Hungarian traditionally tries to
pronounce words true to their perceived original pronunciation which can mean using a sound or sequence of sounds
not usually found in Hungarian. Often, however, Hungarian will rewrite loan words to fit Hungarian orthography (e.g.
French rendezvous becoming randevú), and in some cases both the Hungarian and original spellings can be seen.
Borrowings from German
CH – this should be pronounced either as /ç/ h+y after e i ö or ü, or as /x/ after a, o, and u.
E.g. pech (pity, shame)
W – most often found in words of German origin. In German it is pronounced as a “v”, and so it is in Hungarian.
Many family names contain it as do some German words and phrases which are used in casual speech in Hungary
E.g. the expression was ist das2
Although these letters exist in Hungarian, words directly borrowed from German which do not undergo a spelling
change, will undergo a slight pronunciation change:
“S” will be said like the “s” of English, except before “t”, “p”, or in the trigraph “sch” where it becomes an English
“sh”. “Z” is said like the Hungarian “c”.
Borrowings from Greek and Latin
CH – (letter Χ χ) the ch has often become a k, e.g. in kémia (chemistry), where it has not, the ch is either a “k” or “h”
like in pszichológia /psiholo:giɒ/ /psikolo:giɒ/ at the speaker's discretion.
PSZ (letter Ψ ψ) is pronounced as “ps”
E.g. Pszichológia
q(u) – most often found in Words of Latin origin, It is usually said as “kv”.
E.g. the Roman name of Budapest Aquincum.
X – usually in words of Greek origin (letter Ξ ξ), where it is pronounced “ks” not like in English where it often
becomes “z”
E.g. xenofób (xenophobe)
2 if something is said to be “nem egy nagy was ist das” (lit. not a big what is this) it means “not a big deal”. By itself was
ist das is used in Hungarian as it is in German to mean “what is this?”
Y – usually in words of Greek origin (letter Υ υ), where it is pronounced like “ü”, although in centuries past nobles
whose family names ended with fi changed them to ffy to seem more noble.
Meet gemination (gemináta)
Gemination is a feature whereby a vowel is lengthened (see below) or a consonant is said twice. a geminate consonant
is shown by writing it twice, for instance evvel (with this), ebben (in this), nevess (laugh!), or evett (eaten, he ate).
Evvel is said with one syllable ending in v, the other starting in it. really, it's one long v sound but emphasis is placed
on it twice so it clearly sounds like 2 v's. This same principle applies to nearly all geminate consonants between 2
vowels.
A geminate consonant between vowels is made by producing one long vowel sound and placing emphasis on it twice
Ebben is a geminate b. B, like p, t, d, ty, gy, k, and g, is a plosive (sound made by building up pressure and releasing it
one go), so it is not possible to pronounce one long sound and emphasise it twice. Instead, the sound is pronounced
twice. The first is pronounced “unreleased” like the d at the end of “hid” (In speech the d is often not pronounced but
instead you put your mouth in the position d requires and stop) and the second plosive is pronounced like one would
normally say it.
Geminating a plosive between vowels is done by making an unreleased sound, pausing, then releasing the sound.
At the end of a word, like in nevess, the geminate sound is said with more power and length, but isn't said as two
sounds. A plosive like in evett is not lengthened, as plosives have no length, but is stronger than a single plosive and
cannot be said unreleased.
A digraph which is geminated is written by doubling the first letter only.
E.g. Fattyú (bastard), or vesszél (lose!)
Meet the vowels (a magánhangzók)
Hungarian has the following vowels: a á e é i í o ó ö ő u ú ü ű
they occur in long/short pairs and the vowel length (gemination) is phonemic. That is, two words who differ only in
vowel length can mean entirely different things e.g. örülök (I am happy) and őrülök (I am going mad).
Although the vowels in pairs aren't the same, that is to say, the long version is usually a bit more closed and fronted
(closer to the ee of English), the distinction is small and often not even noted.
the sounds í ó ő ú ű are all but the same as their short counterparts i o ö u ü. Note the long sounds all have one or two
acutes. The latter is known as Hungarumlaut or Ungarnumlaut meaning a Hungarian umlaut, as it is the umlaut
diacritic (ö) adapted for Hungarian needs. It is only used in Hungarian and even then only on ő and ű. It may render in
some places, either through poor fonts, or a lack of support for eastern European scripts, as a tilde (õ) or circumflex
(ô) over the letter. This is wrong but unfortunately common. Rest assured, words with such characters are probably not
foreign, they are just poorly written.
i is said like “ee” /i/
o is said like the “o” in “or” /o/
ö is said similar to the “o” in “word” (without pronouncing the r) /ø/
u is like the “oo” in “wood” but not “food” /u/
ü like “i” but with the lips pursed /y/
A, á, e, and é represent 4 distinct sounds with “a” and “e” short, and “á” and “é” long. Although a/á and e/é are clearly
related, over time they have changed.
a is similar to the o in “on” /ɒ/
á like “ah” /aː/
e similar to the a in “am” /ɛ/
é like the ai in “air” /eː/
In fact there used to be 3 “e” sounds, e, ë, and é, each with their own rovás írás glyph, where ë was the pure short
counterpart of é, but has since merged with e. Although in some dialects, e and ë are distinguished, the ë symbol is not
part of the standard orthography, but is used to talk about this sound, or write in dialects where this sound still exists.
However, it should be noted that in such dialects, mëntek, mentëk, mëntëk, and mentek are four distinct words. In the
standard language however, only three exist and are all pronounced identically.
N.B. vowels in Hungarian do not form diphthongs in native words. This means that two adjacent vowels are both
pronounced independently, with a brief but complete cessation of sound between them. In spoken Hungarian though,
often a /j/ is inserted between two adjacent vowels for ease of pronunciation.
Meet the syllable (a szótag)
A Hungarian syllable is a word unit containing one and only one vowel. It starts with the last consonant before the
vowel. Exceptions are when a word begins with two or more consonants, and when there is a vowel without a
consonant before it.
N.B. although c, cs, dz, dzs, qu, and x are each comprised of two sounds which themselves are phonemes in
Hungarian, when they come before a vowel, they are treated as a single consonant.
E.g. Lándzsa (spear or lance) /la:n.dʒɒ/
In words of two or more syllables, the first is always the stressed one.
Meet partial assimilation (részes hasonulás)
Partial assimilation happens when two sounds are written adjacently but are difficult to pronounce and therefore
change their pronunciation. Usually this happens when a voiced and a voiceless sound are adjacent, which happens in
compound words like fogkrém (toothpaste) which is made form the words fog (tooth) and krém (paste/cream). Because
gk is hard to pronounce, the “g” becomes voiceless and is pronounced as a “k”. Also when a stem ends in a voiced
sound and adds a voiceless sound as in nézte (he looked at it) from the verb nézni (to look at). Here the zt
combination is difficult and the “z” is pronounced like “sz”. Another example is lj. While the tj, dj, and nj
combinations are pronounced the same as ty, gy, and ny respectively, lj is said not like ly, but as ly+j, or two
consecutive j's.
Meet complete assimilation (teljes hasonulás)
Complete assimilation (or total assimilation) is similar to partial assimilation except that the spelling also changes to
reflect the pronunciation. A prime example of this is a verb in the jussive. The mark of the jussive in Hungarian is the
consonant “j”. After “c”, “cs”, “sz”, “z”, “s”, or “zs”, (sounds called “sybillants”) a j doubles the preceding consonant.
nézni (to look) forms its 2nd person singular indefinite jussive (look!) with the stem néz and the suffix jél. However,
“nézjél” is both said and written as nézzél under the rules of complete assimilation.
Meet vowel assimilation a.k.a vowel harmony (magánhangzóhasonulás)
Hungarian exhibits a third type of assimilation known as vowel assimilation, or more commonly “vowel harmony”.
What this means is that suffixes which contain vowels will usually have different versions so that the vowel of the
suffix can “agree” with the vowels of the word itself.
Suffixes come in four broad types depending on how they are affected by vowel harmony. To demonstrate, here are
four words: ember, dög, ház, and állat meaning person, beast, house, and animal.
1/ endings which are not affected by vowel harmony
ig meaning “until, as far as”
eberig, dögig, házig, and állatig
Such endings are few and far between. In Hungarian, vowels are first categorised into two main groups by a parameter
called “frontness”. All vowels are either front (in Hungarian magas hangrend or high sound class) or back (in
Hungarian mély hangrend or deep sound class). This distinction can be felt on the vocal chords while making the
sound. (Try putting your hand over your throat, back vowels will generally vibrate further down than front vowels).
The back vowels are u, o, and a (and their long counterparts) which you can remember with the word uborka (pickle).
The other vowels e, i, ö, and ü and their long counterparts are the front vowels. Most words in Hungarian will contain
only front or back vowels. Words which contain both are more rare but are to be considered as words containing only
back vowels for the purposes of harmony. Such words usually involve e, é, i, í, which are often called (as in Finnish)
“neutral vowels”. Incidently, neutral vowels usually do not affect a word's vowel class. Rather they are “transparent”,
and let the other vowels determine the vowel class of the word. It makes sense then, that endings which are not subject
ot vowel harmony, like ig, ik, and ni will contain a neutral vowel (specifically “i/í”).
2/ endings which come in two forms to agree with frontness
nak/nek meaning “to, for”
tól/től meaning “from”
embernek, dögnek, háznak, and állatnak
embertől, dögtől, háztól, and állattól
Note that such endings are referred to as [back vowel form]/[front vowel form] e.g. nak/nek, val/vel. It should be
apparent that a word containing only neutral vowels is by default a front vowel word. For this reason in Hungary, most
people consider neutral vowels to be front vowels just like true front vowels. This leads to a lot of confusion since in a
notable minority of cases, a neutral vowel word (usually containing i or í) will take back vowel endings. For instance
the noun híd (brindge), or the verbs írni (to write) or hívni (to call). In the example above, the first two words
(containing e and ö) are front vowel words, and take an ending with a front vowel, while the other two contain a and á
and hence take the ending with a back vowel. The default vowels for front and back agreement are “e” and “a” or “ö”
and “o” respectively. The reason for the two sets of default vowels is that, in Hungarian, the vowels o, ó, ö, ő, u, ú, ü,
and ű are rounded vowels, meaning your mouth should make a round shape while pronouncing them. Hungarian
therefore further categorises vowels and words by whether or not they are rounded.
3/ endings which come in three forms. back, front (neutral), front rounded
e.g. hoz/hez/höz meaning “to/towards”
emberhez, döghöz, házhoz, and állathoz
Note that in this case, the front vowels are divided according to rounding, so that ö, ő, ü, and ű fall into one category,
while e, é, i, and í fall into another. Note that these are the “neutral vowels”. Only the neutral vowels and “á” and “a”
are not rounded in Hungarian, and these are the ones most likely to cause trouble, or sit on the vowel harmonic fence.
This seems to be true of Hungarian's cousins too, so always be wary of unrounded vowels. While front unrounded
vowels are the neutral vowels, “á” and “a” are back vowels just like the rounded back vowels. Although “á” is
technically unrounded, and “a” is halfway between rounded and unrounded, they both act like unrounded vowels
phonologically, but often like rounded vowels grammatically. In either case these are the back vowel equivalents of the
neutral vowels, or back unrounded vowels.
4/ endings which can agree in both frontness and roundness
e.g. k (plural)
emberek, dögök, házak, and állatok
Endings in the 4th category are solitary consonants which don't always take a preceding vowel, but will when it is
deemed helpful to pronunciation. Compare emberek with “emberk”, or dögök with “dögk”. These endings can take
any combination of front/back and rounded/unrounded vowel, the defaults for these being a, o, e, and ö. Alas, unlike
front/backness the presence or absence of rounded vowels is not enough to ensure that endings which can take rounded
forms do or do not in fact take them. E.g. karok (forearms) versus falak (walls), where both words contained the same
vowel, but took different or szám (number) becoming számok. The problems largely stem from back vowels whose
nature is often dificult to determine. Since back vowels are not seaparated as strictly into subgroups by their rounding
the way true front vowels and neutral vowels are, it is hard to determine the rounding harmony. Here are some
guidelines:
pure front/back words
1/ a word comprised of true front vowels can take either a rounded front vowel e.g. dög, dögök, or neutral vowel e.g.
fül, fülek. (rounding ambiguous)
2/ a word comprised of unrounded back vowels, can take either a rounded back vowel e.g kar, karok or unrounded
back vowel e.g. fal, falak. (rounding ambiguous)
3/ a word comprised of rounded back vowels, can take either a rounded back vowel e.g bor, borok or unrounded back
vowel e.g. toll, tollak. (rounding ambiguous)
neutral words
4.1/ a word comprised of neutral vowels, will usually take a rounded front (neutral) vowel e.g. ember, emberek.
4.2/ a noun comprised of neutral vowels, can sometimes take an unrounded back vowel e.g. híd, hidak, but will
generally not take a back rounded vowel.
4.3/ a verb comprised of neutral vowels, can sometimes take a rounded back vowel e.g. írni, írok, but will generally not
take a back unrounded vowel.
impure words
5/ a word containing a mix of true front and neutral vowels, ???
6/ a word containing a mix of unrounded back and neutral vowels, ???
7/ a word containing a mix of rounded back and neutral vowels, ???
mixed class words
8/ a word containing a mix of true front and unrounded back vowels
9/ a word containing a mix of true front and rounded back vowels
10/ a word containing a mix of rounded back and unrounded back vowels
Now observe what happens to two solitary consonant suffixes (both of which can therefore agree in both frontness and
roundness) when they act on the same word simultaneously. Note that when a word takes a series of suffixes, only the
first suffix will (can) take a rounded form, all others agree only in frontness.
e.g. t (accusative)
embereket, dögöket, házakat, and állatokat
It should be stressed however, that Hungarian has evolved over many millennia and there are of course exceptions. One
notable exception is the word férfi meaning man/gentleman. It looks and acts for all the world like a normal Hungarian
word, and even has internal vowel harmony, using only front vowels. But despite these admirable qualities, neutral
vowels (e, é, i, and í) owing to their historically deceptive nature, in this particular case act like back vowels, resulting
in férfiak, férfinak, férfihoz, and so on. For the most part however, (especially when there are no neutral vowels
involved) front/back vowel harmony can be trusted.
Side note: Vowel harmony can be very tricky, but it should be noted that while correct use of vowel harmony is
absolutely essential to speaking Hungarian well, it is possible to understand, and be understood through, spoken and
written language without a good grasp on vowel harmony. Vowels for the most part have no grammatical roles, with
all the meaning being essentially denoted by consonants. As long as one knows where there can or cannot be a vowel,
then, even without knowing which vowel is appropriate, one can make get meaning out of a word. For instance any
word ending in n*k will be understood as dative regardless of the vowel.
It's important to note that there are one or two words distinguished only by the vowels in their suffixes, e.g. “szám”
(number) and “szám” (my mouth). “Szám” (number) becomes “számot” with a rounded ending, while “szám” (my
mouth) becomes “számat” because the t ending is the second one (the first ending being m for possession) and
therefore it cannot take a rounded vowel.
Chapter III (harmadik fejezet) Meet Hungarian morphology (magyar morfológia)
Hungarian grammar is the object of considerable fear and disdain on the part of students. Normally it would be doled
out in small portions so as not to scare people. However Hungarian grammar is nowhere near as formidable as those of
many other languages, and certainly but a fraction of what people make it sound like. Hungarian is said to be one of
the hardest languages on earth, probably due to the two underlying rules:
1/ Every rule has exceptions (even this one)
2/ most of the exceptions have exceptions too.
While these are true, and there are very few rules which are not broken, and just as few exceptions without further
exceptions, one must realise that nearly all Hungarian words are based on the same paradigm as the other words of
their class (i.e. all nouns work the same way and all verbs work the same way) and even those that don't are pretty
close. Furthermore, Hungarian is an agglutinative language. That is, it expresses each idea as small independent unit
which can be used in conjunction with others. for instance the plural accusative is formed with the plural marker and
the accusative marker together, unlike most European languages where it would have its own form, making more work
for the student.
An unfortunate byproduct of millennia of laziness is that vowels are prone to change or shorten or disappear entirely
on occasion, and consonants can mutate to their surroundings. In this regard it is easier to understand a written word
than predict the changes it may undergo, but again, there are rules to guide you, and again there are exceptions to
confuse you.
We'll discuss words and their formations soon enough but first we must cover a very important point. Vowel harmony.
Speakers of English may not be familiar with the concept of vowels changing to “agree” with other vowels, but in
Hungarian some endings have five different forms depending on the vowels in their surroundings, so this is a rather
important topic to discuss.
Meet Hungarian words (magyar szavak)
Words can broadly be divided into two categories:
1/ closed word classes, including words or groups of words which do not change in the language, which do not fall out
of use, or add new words. For example words like “and” “but” “here” “you” “tomorrow” “for” etc. Closed word
classes appear in almost every sentence and for the most part make up the basic structure of the language.
2/ open word classes are the opposite. Mainly comprised of nouns (except pronouns), (nonauxiliary/modal) verbs,
adjectives (except demonstrative adjectives), and adverbs (but not adverbs of time or place). These words are prone to
change and even in the course of a generation or less words of these classes can be born or become obsolete. All slang
words belong to this class. Examples are “house”, “big”, “walk”, and “quickly”.
Meet Hungarian nouns (magyar főnevek)
Hungarian nouns all loosely adhere to the same rules. They can take suffixes which express case, number, and
possession, and can be modified by articles to express definiteness. Unlike many European languages Hungarian
nouns do not have grammatical gender (a table is a table and is not seen as a “male” or “female” object), and the
stems of nouns rarely change (except the vowels). Hungarian words work by adding affixes, which, while they are
subject to vowel harmony, also rarely change. The reason I say noun stems rarely change is because they do
sometimes. There are of course rough guidelines for this though.
As you already know, if the noun ends in a vowel, the suffix is simply added and if the suffix has a vowel, it is made to
agree. However if the noun ends in a consonant, the single consonant endings, like k (plural) usually take a vowel
between themselves and the noun stem, and then of course the vowel has to agree as normal. However, it cannot be
predicted 100% accurately when single consonant endings do or do not take a vowel. It is a matter of convenience in
pronunciation. However, words ending in a vowel + r, l, s, or sz usually do not require a further vowel when adding t.
E.g. farkas (wolf) and farkast. It may also be interesting to note that the fastest way to identify a nonnative speaker is
to hear them form the accusative of pénz (money) which forms its (irregular) accusative in pénzt. As for stem changes
however, the following lay out the regular stem changes:
Meet Vowel promotion
If the noun ends in “a” or “e”, the “a” and “e” are promoted to “á” and “é” respectively, making, for instance, kutya
(dog) and kutyák (dogs). The reason for this is unclear, but, as you can see, many words take ak or ek as their plural,
so, this helps distinguish between a word ending in a consonant and taking ak or ek and a word ending in a or e
taking k. This of course raises the obvious question: how to distinguish between a word ending in “a” or “e” taking k
and a word ending in “á” or “é” taking k? Well simply put, Hungarian is loathe to end a word on “á” or “é” so that
rarely happens except for words already inflected.
Meet Vowel demotion
Another interesting feature is that of vowel demotion. The final vowel in a noun's stem can be demoted, meaning that a
long vowel can become a short vowel, and (in a noun of two or more syllables), a short vowel can disappear, when
adding single consonant suffixes. A demonstration may make it clearer.
Név (name) ends in vowel+v, meaning that when it takes the suffix t, it must add a vowel. In this case the suffix is et
in the accusative, which one would expect of an unrounded front vowel word. However, the proper accusative is not
“névet” as one would think but nevet. Here the long “é” has been demoted to a short “e”. An appendix of some
demoting nouns can be found at the back. Notice that the vowel of the ending is always either “a” or “e”.
A more dramatic example is the demotion of a short vowel, as in that of barom (beast, moron) which forms barmok.
Other nouns which do the same are bokor bokrok (bush), iker ikrek (twin), tükör tükrök (mirror). Note that demotion
of a short vowel usually happens when the suffix vowel is the same type as the vowel to be demoted, although there
are exceptionss like jutalom jutalmak (reward).
Meet the Vstems
There are also nouns of the socalled “vstem” category. These are nouns who end in vowels, which add a v to the
stem, and demote the vowel.
The word hó (snow) for instance, becomes havat in the accusative and havak in the plural, not only changing its stem
to add a v, but also demoting its final vowel. A vstem noun uses its vform for all endings of the first category, plural,
and derivative forms (like adjectival), but not when adding any other case suffix. An exception is the word szó (word)
which becomes szavak in the plural but remains szót in the accusative, or the word hamu (ash) which does remain
hamuja (?!) in the 3rd person singular possessive. Most vstem nouns ending in long “ó” demote the vowel to an “a”
not “o” like szó, hó, and tó/tavak (lake)
Words ending in a short vowel, like falu will completely drop their final short vowel before adding “v”. See falu
becoming falvak.
Meet Metathesis (áttétel, cserebomlás)
Metathesis is a phenomenon whereby consonants in a noun change positions. Specifically, a word of three consonants
can move the last consonant to right in front of the second consonant. If we were to number the consonants it would
look like this: 1v2v3 becoming 1v32. This feature today happens only with three nouns which are given below with
their plurals:
kehely (chalice) becomes kelyhek
pehely (flake) becomes pelyhek
teher (load, burden) becomes terhek
Because there are only three such words, analysing them is pretty pointless but if one wanted to give metathesic words
a structure it would be:
consonant – neutral vowel h – neutral vowel liquid
Metathesis occurs pretty much whenever the noun takes a consonant ending. A further examplee of this is teher
becoming the adjective terhes (pregnant, lit. burdened) in the same way.
Meet noun declension (főnévragozás)
Hungarian nouns take suffixes from two main sets. In fact they can take one suffix from each group simultaneously.
The first talks about the number of the noun and its possession. while the Second talks about the noun's status, its
relation to other things in the sentence both physically and metaphorically, or in simpler terms, the noun's
“grammatical case”. Hungarian nouns can also take a few other endings which fall into neither category, usually used
in special circumstances, or when turning a noun into another part of speech.
As was said before, Hungarian nouns take up to two suffixes, one from each group. The first group of suffixes deals
with possession (who or what owns, or is connected to the noun) and with number, whether there are one or more of
the noun in question.
By now it should be apparent that a noun which is simply plural, but NOT possessed, will take the k suffix. However,
if the noun IS possessed, then it takes a whole range of endings. 12 to be exact. There are six possible possessors,
namely, me, you, him or her, us, you (plural), and them so that what English expresses with “my”, “your”, “his”,
something's, etc, Hungarian expresses with a suffix. And each possessor can be in possession of one or more objects,
so each person has two endings, one for possessing single objects and one for plural. The endings for possession are
set out in the following chart in green for each of the 4 model nouns.
To simplify:
It should be noted that a noun following a number is not in plural. The number shows that the noun is in fact plural so
Hungarian would say “one house”, “two house”, “three house”, and so on.
Now, as for the vowels, you will note that the me, you (s), and you (pl) forms all follow basic vowel harmony. They can
be rounded or unrounded and front or back. The we and they forms are the same, except that in stead of taking a, o, e,
and ö, they take u, and ü. The reason is unclear, although if they didn't, it would be impossible to tell the plural k
ending from the possessive *k ending. Either way the u/ü endings don't agree in roundness (as they are already
rounded) which makes life easier.
To further simplify, 3rd person singular and all plurals will take only the basic “a” or “e” ending. In the plural, an extra
“i” is added after the vowel (that is, before the first consonant of the suffix).
Now let's look at the possession of a noun which ends in a vowel. One we've already met is kutya (dog).
Observe first of all the promotion of “a” to “á”, but pay special attention to “his dog” and “their dog”. Endings which
are, or begin with a vowel, often add j between themselves and a word ending on a vowel or vowel+t/d. As you can
see here though, the final “a” or “e” is still promoted. The plurals are formed in the usual way except for the 3rd person
forms which drop the j and following vowel.
Using the possessive
The I, you, and we forms can be used as a replacement for “my ...”, “your ...”, and “our ...” in Enlgish. For instance
take the following sentences built around the “someone's dog/s is/are eating” structure:
eszik (he sleeps), esznek (they eat)
a kutyám eszik – my dog is eating
a kutyáim esznek – my dogs are eating
a kutyád eszik – your dog is eating
a kutyáid esznek – your dogs are eating
a kutyánk eszik – our dog is eating
a kutyáink esznek – our dogs are eating
a kutyátok eszik – your (pl) dog is eating
a kutyáitok esznek your (pl) dogs are eating
Note that the definite article “a” (or “az”) appears before the noun. This may strike anglophones as odd but in
Hungarian it is common to put articles before words that wouldn't take them in English.
In all of the above cases the pronoun can be added before the noun like so:
a kutyám becomes az én kutyám (the I my dog)
a kutyád becomes a te kutyád (the you your dog)
a kutyánk becomes a mi kutyánk (the we our dog)
a kutyátok becomes a ti kutyátok (the you your dog)
This is essencially the same as the form wihout the pronoun, but when one wants to emphasise the possesion one can
add the pronoun and put stress on it.
a kutyám nem harap = az én kutyám nem harap meaning “my dog doesn't bite”
compare with: az én kutyám nem harap meaning “my dog doesn't bite (although other dogs might)”
The third person forms (he/she/it and they) work much the same way, although the possessor is not implicit. When I
say a kutyám the owner could only be one person, namely, myself, but if I say a kutyája the dog could still be
anyone's,all we know is that it isn't me and it isn't you and there's only one possessor. So, while the basic forms exist
…
a kutyája eszik
a kutyájai esznek
a kutyájuk aszik
a kutyáik esznek
… and they can be expanded with the addition of the pronoun …
a ő kutyája eszik
a ő kutyájai esznek
a ő kutyájuk aszik
a ő kutyáik esznek
(note that ő is not the 3rd person plural pronoun. Ők is, but it isn't used in this context.)
… the first time they are mentioned, the possessor should be explicitly mentioned like so:
Józsi kutyája – Joe's dog
az ember kutyája – the man's dog
a gyerek kutyái – the child's dogs
a gyerekek kutyája – the childrens' dog
(note that the definite article a/az is not premitted before a person's name, although in Hungary proper (but not
Transylvania) this is often ignored)
That's all there is for the first set of endings, but now comes the fun part.
Meet Hungarian cases (magyar esetek)
The second set of endings deals with physical or grammatical relations to the noun. They are called “Cases” and exist
in English as well. For instance, “I” is in the nominative case while “me” is in the accusative. They both express the
same notion, but are used in different circumstances. Hungarian has 18 such cases, of which 10 have to do with
location. The other eight are as follows:
Nominative case (alanyeset)
The nominative case in Hungarian has no ending, nouns are by default nominative. This case is used for:
1/ the subject of a verb, that is, the thing performing the action – the dog bites the man.
2/ the complement of a subject. Basically when saying that “X is Y” the dog is a pitbull.
3/ nouns governed by a postposition3 – the dog is behind the man.
Accusative case (tárgyeset)
The accusative is marked with t. This ending can take all 4 possible vowels or none at all. This is used for:
1/ the direct object of the verb. Namely whatever the action is performed on the dog bites the man.
Note that, after a 1st or 2nd person singular possessive ending, the accusative t is not strictly necessary. While it is
correct to say házamat or házadat it is often ommited and written in the nominative.
E.g. láttad a házam? have you seen my house?
3 Hungarian has no prepositions, rather we use postpositions, which are the same thing but follow the noun instead of
preceeding
Dative case (részes eset)
The dative case is marked with the suffix nak or nek depending on vowel harmony. It is used for:
1/ when giving something to someone (indirect object) I gave the ball to the man
2/ when doing something for something (indirect object) I did it for the man
3/ in sentences like – it is good for the man
4/ in the verb “to have”. Hungarian has no single verb for “to have” instead it uses the following construct “there is
(to/for the man) a house(of him)” – van (az embernek) egy ház(a). Meaning the man has a house. While technically
any permutation of the brackets is acceptable, van egy ház means only that there is a house, and van az embernek egy
ház implies the existence of a house intended for the man, but of which the man has not yet taken possession. Van az
embernek egy háza or van egy háza (if “the man” is implied from context), are the usual ways to express the English
verb “to have”.
5/ to express genitive. What English would say as “the house of the man” can be said as az ember háza (as discussed
before) or az embernek a háza (note the definite article after the possessor). These two are equivalent.
6/ with some passive auxiliary verbs. Although I say “passive” auxiliary verb, this should not be taken literally. It
means an auxiliary verb which is used only in the 3rd person form. For instance kelleni (to be needed) as an auxiliary is
used only in the 3rd person form kell (it is needed). Used in a sentence: “az embernek el kell mennie” literally: “for the
man it is needed for him to go away” or rather “the man needs to go away”. this example uses some complex verb
forms which will be explained later, for now note the use of the dative.
7/ dative verbs. Kelleni is also a dative verb, a typical sentence might be “a könyv kell az embernek” meaning “the
book is needed for the man”, or “the man needs the book”.
Instrumental and Commitative case (instrumentaliscomitativus)
The Instrumental and commitative case is marked with val/vel but it suffers complete assimilation. This means that a
noun ending on a consonant doesn't add a “v” but rather doubles the final consonant and adds a further al or el. E.g.
kutya (dog) and kutyával, but ház (house) and házzal. It is used:
1/ when someone is with something (commitative)– the man is with his wife
2/ when doing something by means of something (instrumental)– the man nailed the wood with the hammer
note: often when English would say “John and I went to the shops” Hungarian would say “With John we went to the
shops”
Locative cases
békáBÓL királyfi lett.
sublative, superessive, and deletive
Some countries, cities, and nouns refering to spaces or places like telek (plot of land), or munka (work) take sublative,
superessive, and deletive in stead of illative, inessive, and elative like so:
Magyarországra megyek I am going to (lit. onto) Hungary. Compare: Angliába megyek I am going to (lit. into)
england
Budapesten vagyok I am in (lit. on) Budapest. Compare: Angliában vagyok I am in England
Munkán vagyok – I'm at (lit. on) work.
a telekről jövök I am coming from (lit. from atop) the plot of land. Compare: Angliából jövök I am coming from
England
valamire gondoltam
az emberről beszélek
pénteken megyek el
The ending telen/etlen/talan/atlan
becoming other parts of speech
Hungarian nouns, like verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, can become other parts of speech with certain suffixes. Nouns
become other parts of speech in the following ways:
The adjective ending i
Nouns can add i (no vowel harmony) to become an adjective. Adjectives formed in this way are generally comparable
to nouns in English which act like adjectives like schoolwork or a housecat.
E.g. ház (house) becomes házi for things like házi macska (housecat)
iskola (school) becomes iskolai for things like iskolai munka (schoolwork)
Alternatively, names of places like cities or countries can take this ending to mean roughly “of somewhere” or “from
somewhere” or just to turn the place into an adjective.
E.g. Kína (China) becomes kínai (Chinese).
The above can be applied to Chinese people, places, or things. There are a few exceptions to note though. Many
countries are formed from the demonym adjective (e.g. “German”, “French”, “Russian”, etc) and then suffix ország
(country), föld (land), or (i)a. Similar to the English tradition of ending places in land or ton or ia. In this case
instead of saying Németországi (lit. of german country) one can just drop the ország or föld, or (i)a leaving the
adjective. However one could use németországi to emphasise that something came from Germany itself and is not
merely German. Though this is very rare. On the other hand some countries do not add i and are both country and
adjective.
E.g. the following lose the contry ending to become an adjective
Németország, német – Germany, German
Hollandia, holland – the Netherlands, Dutch
Ukrajna, ukrajn – Ukraine, Ukranian
Thaiföld, thai – Thailand, Thai
the following add an i
Európa, európai – Europe, European
Szeged, szegedi – Szeged (city in Hungary), (of) Szeged
Eger, egri – Eger (city in Hungary), (of) Eger [note the demotion]
an example of a word which is both country and adjective in one.
Japán, japán – Japan, Japanese
Note also that most Hungarian cities and places ending in i cannot take a further i, they remain the same. Although
most foreign cities especially ones anding on y can, like Sydney and Syndeyi.
The adjective ending s
Nouns can also suffix s (4way vowel harmony) to mean loosly “like sth” or “with attributes of sth” or “in the style of
sth”. For instance Magyaros (hungariany) can mean something typically Hungarian, or fűszeres (herby) means food
with a lot of herbs or spices. It is very similar to the english suffix y
The combination ias/ies
Sometimes the i and s endings can work together. For instance in the noun udvar which means court, forecourt or a
type of garden. In this case it refers to a royal court which we would call királyi udvar, literally court of the king
(király) because our word for “royal” is essencially “kingly”, formed form the noun with the i suffix. It becomes the
adjective udvari meaning “of the court” which could be used to describe the people, or tables, or food, or local cats of
the royal court. The further addition of s taking the back vowel a gives us udvarias loosely translatable to “like
something of the court”. In modern Hungarian it means simply “polite” because presumably attendees to the king's
court were polite.
The combination ilag/ileg
The adjective ending szerű
Unlike the others, this ending actually needs the hyphen to attach to words (and as such is exempt vowel harmony). It
is similar to the English word “like” but is used to describe something, using for reference another thing which is
similar but not quite there. Possibly the best translation would be “sth sort of thing”. A mocumentary film could be
described as dokumentumszerű (documentary type thing).
The verb ending l
Hungarian nouns can also become verbs with the l (4way vowel harmony) ending. Verbal grammar has not been
discussed yet so in the mean time just note that the form of the verb thus obtained is the stem, and the infinitive is
obtained but suffixing a further ni. Simply put, it's like putting “to” in front of a noun in English to make it a verb. To
take the example used above, udvar (court) becomes udvarol(ni) [valakinek] meaning “(to) court [someone]”.
The verb ending sz/z
Turning nouns into adverbs
Hungarian adverbs are all formed form adjectives or rarely verbs as will be discussed later, so there is no direct way to
form one from a noun. If one wanted to derive an adverb form a noun, the noun must first become an adjective and
then become an adverb.
ként, ul?!
Meet Hungarian adjectives (magyar melléknevek)
Hungarian adjectives work roughly the same way as in English. They are right before the noun, after the articles or any
determiners. Unlike a lot of languages, Hungarian adjectives do NOT agree with their nouns. In fact adjectives do not
ever change.
e.g. piros (red), ház (house)
a piros ház – the red house
a piros házak – the red houses
a piros házaim – my red houses
a piros háznak – for the red house
However, Hungarian adjectives can become nouns at whim. Any adjective with a noun suffix (plural, accusative,
possession, etc) or which has a determiner, or article, is essentially a noun.
e.g. a piros – the red (one)
Interestingly, when on the other end of a copula, for instance “the house was red” the adjective becomes a noun. In this
case the adjectiveturnednoun will be nominative, meaning it can only be either singular or plural.
e.g. volt/voltak was/were
a ház piros volt – the house was red
a házak pirosak voltak – the houses were red (or, “the houses were red ones”)
You could say that adjectives happen to have plural forms for this one situation, but it's easier to treat them as nouns.
Either way it makes no grammatical difference.
Like English adjectives, Hungarian adjectives have positive, comparative, and superlative forms. Unlike English,
Hungarian adjectives also have an exaggerative form.
Egy kissebb adag só – could mean “a smaller amount of salt” or “a rather small/smallish amount of salt”
If an adjective is irregular, its irregularity will lay in the formation of its comparative. All further forms are regular.
E.g. jó (good) becomes jobb (better) with a short “o”, and szép (pretty/beautiful) becomes szebb.
Superlative prefixes a further leg. It is the same as the English est form. Note that the superlative takes the definite
article “a(z)”, and is treated like a noun except when it is actually in front of the noun it is describing. As promised,
superlative formation is regular.
E.g. jobb and szebb form legjobb and legszebb regularly.
Exaggerative just adds the word “leges” (which has no real meaning) between the definite article and the superlative
form. The exaggerative doesn't exist in English per se but the form “the very ...est ever” is roughly equivalent. using
leges legnagyobb emphasises not only that the object in question is the bigest of all the objects [in the world], but that
it is in fact rather large in and of itself. Fairytales use this form a lot.
the noun ending ság/ség
An adjective suffixing ság/ség acts like an English adjective suffixing ness. A noun can add this suffix if it first
becomes an adjective with the suffix i. For example szép (beautiful) szépség (beauty), or ember (human [n]) emberi
(human [adj]) emberiség (humanity)
Meet Hungarian adverbs (magyar határozószavak)
Hungarian adverbs are generally formed from adjectives by suffixing ul/ül or n. They, like adjectives have four
degrees, and form them in the same way. Take for instance the adverbial form of szép (pretty/beautiful), which is
szépen (prettily/beautifully/kindly/nicely). Now compare it with the adjective in all four degrees, remembering that
szép has an irregular formation as discussed above.
degree positive comparative superlative exaggerative
pretty/beautiful szép szebb legszebb leges legszebb
prettily/beautifully/
szépen szebben legszebben leges legszebben
kindly/nicely
This adverb uses the n ending, and as you can see, it forms each of its four adverbial forms by suffixing en to the
relevant adjective form. There is another way to form adverbs and that is by adding ul/ül. Like in the adjective rossz
(bad)
some irregular adverbs are mixed in their derivation
and some have irregular formation in the positive
However, note that the formation of the positive adverb involved changing the stem from lassú to lass(a) which is the
same change that occurs in the formation of the comparative adjective. The same is true of other irregular adjectives
like szép → szebb which becomes szebben, although not jó → jo.
Possibly the most important adverb is nagyon (lit. greatly) which is the equivalent of the English “very” and is used to
modify positive adjectives and adverbs. comparative forms are modified with sokkal (lit. with much) loosly translated
to “by a lot”. Examples:
nagyon jó az ember – the man is very good
nagyon jól van az ember the man is very well
sokkal jobb az ember the man is much better (quality)
sokkal jobban van az ember the man is much better (condition)
Adverbs of time
Although most adverbs of time like “today”, “tomorrow”, “next week”, etc, are closed class words, and will be
discussed later, words giving an indication of time can also be derived.
If an event happened/will happen in a particular year, season, or month, the ban/ben suffix is affixed, literally “in
1970” (1970ben) or “in March” (Márciusban). This is also used for some other time periods like noon (délben) and
dawn (hajnalban)
If the reference time is a day of the week, the on/en/ön/n suffix is used, literally “on Friday” (pénteken). Although
for some reason Sunday (vasárnap) tends to stay unchanged when used as an adverb of time.
Otherwise, for references like the time of day, or a specific event, the suffix kor is used. Loosly it is the same as “at”.
At nine (9kor), at sun down (naplementékor).
Xastul/estül
jobbÁ, jóVÁ
Meet Hungarian verbs (magyar igék)
Hungarian verbs are possibly the most complex aspect of Hungarian morphology. A finite Hungarian verb depends on
its mood, mood aspect, tense, subject, and, most interestingly, object. The simplest way to explain is to go through the
forms of verbs level by level. On top of this, Hungarian verbs have nonfinite forms, participles and the like.
Most verbs follow the same pattern although there are rules to be observed with some verb forms, and there are of
course irregular verbs. A handfull of very old verbs, namely, enni (to eat), lenni (to be), menni (to go), tenni (to
place/do) venni (to buy/take), inni (to drink), vinni (to take), hinni (to believe), jönni (to come) but not kenni (to rub
cream) are all irregular, but are irregular in a similar way. For this reason they could be concidered to be a subclass
to themselves, even though for the most part they act like regular verbs.
Meet the infinitive
The basic form of the verb, which expresses the action but not any particular person or time is the infinitive. The
infinitive in Hungarian verbs always ends in ni which is the rough equivalent of “to ...” in English. Like szeretni (to
like). The stem of the verb, which is what you attach endings to formed in regular verbs by removing the ni.
Meet Moods (igemódok)
Moods are feature of a verb broadly associated with notions of possibility and necessity. Hungarian has four moods:
Indicative, Conditional, Jussive, and Conjugated infinitive. On top of that, verbs can be Potential (to be able to do
sth), and/or causative (to cause something to happen). These latter two opperate independently of the four moods, and
as such can be seen as mood aspects, in the same way that continuous and perfect are tense aspects.
Meet indicative mood (kijelentő mód)
The indicative mood is the basic default mood. It is used for making statements or asking simple questions. It deals
with concrete things, things which are or were or will be, but not hypotheitcals, which use the conditional and will be
discussed later. The indicative mood exists in all three tenses (present, past, and future) and will be used as the default
mood to show other grammatical features of verbs.
Meet polypersonal agreement
The first thing to cover is that fact that a Hungarian verb's ending tells you not just who is performing the action, but
also, to a limited extent, whom the action is being performed upon. The performer of the action is the subject, and
Hungarian has 6 possible subjects. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd persons in singular and plural. Or in layman's terms: I, thou,
he/she/it, we, ye, they. To alleviate confusion, “thou” is used to mean “you” when speaking to a single person, and
“ye” is you when speaking to more than one person.
Now, this is not unusual. All the languages of Europe and most in the world have these six subjects. The slightly
unusual bit is that, unlike in English, the subject affects the verb's ending. To demonstrate let's take some simple verbs
like szeretni (to like/love), akarni (to want), and pörkölni (to roast) in the present tense.
So, dependinding on the doer of the action, the verb changes into a unique form. So, taking just the endings from
above we get the rule for verb conjugation.
This is where the plot thickens. Hungarian is very unusual in that the verb's ending also depends on the object of the
verb. The above verb forms, are the indefinite forms. These are used when:
1/ when a verb has no object, it is intransitive. For instance “to go”, because you can't “go something”.
2/ when a verb could have an object, like szeretni to like/love, but in stead is done in a general sort of way and not to
anyone in particular.
3/when the verb acts upon an object like “someone”, “noone”, “everyone”, or other nonspecific things.
4/ when the verb describes another verb.
When a verb acts upon something more concrete, “a house”, “the cats”, “this man”, “John”, etc, we use the definite
form. Specifically the 3rd person definite form. Note that the number of objects doesn't affect the verb's ending, only
the number of the subjects. So let's take a look at the verbs szeretni, akarni, and pörkölni again in the context of a
direct object.
which gives us the following ending chart
Examples:
az ember szeret – the man likes (in a general way)
here the verb has no object → indefinite form
az ember szeret enni – the man likes to eat
here the verb is describing another verb → indefinite form
az ember szereti a kutyáját – the man likes his dog
here the verb has a direct object clearly marked with the t → definite form
az ember szeret valakit – the man likes someone
here the verb has a direct object also marked with the t, but the object is indefinite → indefinite form
There are a further two objects however. If the object is I or we, the 1st person definite object endings are used, and if
the object is thou or ye, the 2nd person definite object endings are used. The good news is that these two use the forms
of the indefinite and 3rd person defininte object. Here's a table for the verb szeretni (to like/love), showing all 24
possible forms in the present indicative (6 subjects x 4 objects).
object
subject definite
indefinite
1st person 2nd person 3rd person
1st person szeretek szeretem szeretlek szeretem
singular 2nd person szeretsz szeretsz szereted szereted
3rd person szeret szeret szeret szereti
1st person szeretünk szeretjük szeretünk szeretjük
plural nd
2 person szerettek szerettek szeretitek szeretitek
3rd person szeretnek szeretnek szeretnek szeretik
The forms in bold are the original forms, while the others are just reduplication. It is clear form here that the 1st and 2nd
person definite objects are just the indefinite and 3rd person definite forms rearranged. The rules governing when to
use the indefinite or 3rd person definite are as follows:
1/ if the subject agrees with its object in person, (generally meaning it is reflexive), then the 3rd person definite form is
used.
2/ otherwise the indefinite form is used.
Note that there is one exception to this rule and that is when the subject is me, and the object is thou or ye. In this case
a special form is used, either lak or lek depending on vowel frontness. Why this one forms happens to exist by itself,
noone knows but it is a very useful form.
For comparison now, here is the chart for the back vowel verb akarni (to want)
object
subject definite
indefinite
1st person 2nd person 3rd person
1st person akarok akarom akarlak akarom
singular 2nd person akarsz akarsz akarod akarod
3rd person akar akar akar akarja
1st person akarunk akarjuk akarunk akarjuk
plural nd
2 person akartok akartok akarjátok akarjátok
3rd person akarnak akarnak akarnak akarják
Meet present tense (jelenidő)
This Hungarian present tense is the default tense used in all the examples above. It is used to describe an action
happening now or in the future as long as it's clear the event is not yet happening and isn't in the distant future. Its
formation has already been discussed.
Meet past tense (múltidő)
Past tense is used for any action which has already finished. the marker for the past tense is nominally tt and is
placed after the verb stem but before the ending. However, Hungarian will try to only geminate a consonant between
two vowels, so if the stem ends in a consonant, a single t is added in stead. In the 3rd person singular indefinite, since
there is no suffix after the tt, it acts like a normal suffix, attaching to vowels as tt, and to consonants as either t if
possible (usually after r or l), or otherwise adding a vowel and then tt.
Here are the past tense indicative tables for szeretni and akarni.
Note that in the past tense the 1st person singular indefinite also uses the 3rd person definite ending, meaning that it,
like all the other subjects, has only 2 forms. The table below lists the endings in the bast tense by vowel, subject and
object. Note that in the 1st person singular indefinite box, the endign for 1st person singular 2nd person definite object
will go.
singular plural
subject st nd rd st nd
1 person 2 person 3 person 1 person 2 person 3rd person
object indef definite indef definite indef definite indef definite indef definite indef definite
front elek em él ed e ünk ük etek étek ek ék
back alak am ál ad a unk uk atok átok ak ák
Although the ending technically begins with the first consonant, all past tense endings have vowels since even a stem
ending with a vowel will add a tt and therefore while sometimes a vowel may not be necessary to comply with the
rules of Hungarian phonology, it is always possible to have one, and so one is always added.
Meet future tense (jövő idő)
The future tense is used for actions in the distant future, in the near future when present tense would be ambiguous, or
when emphasising the futurity of an action. Unlike present and past, future doesn't have its own set of endings, instead
like English, it uses an auxiliary verb, in the present tense and the infinitive of the verb expressing the action. The
auxiliary verb we use is fogni (to hold). It is a regular verb so it uses the endings layed out above but here is its present
tense conjugation anyway.
object
subject definite
indefinite
1st person 2nd person 3rd person
1st person fogok fogom foglak fogom
singular 2nd person fogsz fogsz fogod fogod
3rd person fog fog fog fogja
st
1 person fogunk fogjuk fogunk fogjuk
plural 2nd person fogtok fogtok fogjátok fogjátok
3rd person fognak fognak fognak fogják
The auxiliary fogni agrees with the subject and object like any verb would and the operative verb is then placed in
infinitive. Examples:
enni fogok I will eat (with enni to eat)
menni fogsz – thou will go (with menni to go)
kezet fog mosni – he will wash (his) hand(s) (with mosni to wash)
Meet ikverbs (ikes igék)
Ikverbs were mentioned before as verbs who add ik in the 3rd person singular indefinite present. Most ikverbs are
transitive meaning that they have both definite and indefinite object endings. It is important to know whether a verb is
an ikverb or not, because transitive ikverbs do not have an ak/ek ending in the 1st person singular indefinite object
but rather, like past tense, use the 3rd person definite object ending for that. For example, the present stems of enni (to
eat) and inni (to drink) – two of the most common ikverbs – are esz and isz respectively. the 3rd person singular
forms, he eats and he drinks are eszik and iszik which means that the 1st person singular forms are not “eszek” and
“iszok” (which grate on the ears of educated speakers) but rather eszem and iszom. (this is also a very good example of
neutrals vowels being harmonically promiscuous)
Meet conditional mood (feltételes mód)
The conditional is used to discuss hypotheticals. Anywhere English uses “would+verb” or subjucntive like in “If I
were rich”, Hungarian uses conditional. The characteristic formation of conditional is n between the stem and
ending. Here are the charts for present conditional of szeretni and akarni.
szeretni akarni
subject definite definite
indefinite indefinite
1st person 2nd person 3rd person 1st person 2nd person 3rd person
szeretnéle szeretné akarnále
1st person szeretnék szeretném akarnék akarnék akarnám
k m k
singular
2nd person szeretnél szeretnél szeretnéd szeretnéd akarnál akarnál akarnád akarnád
3rd person szeretne szeretne szeretne szeretné akarna akarna akarna akarná
plural 1st person szeretnénk akarnánk
2nd person szeretnétek akarnátok
szeretnén szeretnéne szeretnéne akarnána
3rd person szertenék akarnának akarnának akarnák
ek k k k
you will note that the 2nd and 3rd person plural subjects do not change depending on object, or rather that all their forms
are identical. So here are the endings:
singular plural
subject
1st person 2nd person 3rd person 1st person 2nd person 3rd person
object indef definite indef definite indef definite indef definite indef definite indef definite
front ék ém él éd e é énk étek ének ék
back ék ám ál ád a á ánk átok ának ák
it is very similar to the table for past tense indicative endings, but the e's and a's have become é's and á's, and a few
other minor changes have occurred.
conditional past tense
While conditional does not have a future tense, it does have a past tense, which is formed with the past indicative and
the word volna which can be translated as “would have”.
mentem I went
mentem volna I would have gone
Volna does not agree with anything or change, and always directly follows the verb.
Meet the jussive mood (felkiáltó mód)
The jussive mood is similar to the imperative of English which is used for giving orders, but it is also used when
referencing orders, or expressing desire. It is formed by adding j between the stem and ending
pörköl akarni
subject definite definite
indefinite st nd rd
indefinite
1 person 2 person 3 person 1 person 2nd person 3rd person
st
pörköljele
1st person pörköljek pörköljem pörköljem akarjak akarjam akarjak akarjam
k
singular 2nd person pörköljél pörköljél pörköljed pörköljed akarjál akarjál akarjad akarjad
short form pörkölj pörkölj pörkölj pörköld akarj akarj akarj akard
3rd person pörköljön pörköljön pörköljön pörkölje akarjon akarjon akarjon akarja
pörköljün pörköljün
1st person pörköljük pörköljük akarjunk akarjuk akarjunk akarjuk
k k
pörköljete pörköljete pörköljéte pörköljéte
plural 2nd person akarjatok akarjatok akarjátok akarjátok
k k k k
pörköljen pörköljen pörköljen
3rd person pörköljék akarjanak akarjanak akarjanak akarják
ek ek ek
Note here the addition of the the short form which exists for the 2nd person singular. It is the more colloquial form and
the proper forms like akarjál and akarjad are slightly more formal and emphatic.
The ending table is as follows
singular plural
subject st nd rd st nd
1 person 2 person 3 person 1 person 2 person 3rd person
object indef definite indef definite indef definite indef definite indef definite indef definite
front ek em él ed ön e ünk ük etek étek enek ék
back ak am ál ad on a unk uk atok átok anak ák
Here are some examples of the use of the jussive:
1 pörköljél mogyorót – [thou] roast peanuts I order you to roast peanuts
Here it's a simple order as it is in English.
2 Azt mondtam, hogy pörköljél mogyotót – I said that: [thou] roast peanuts / I told you to roast peanuts I ordered you
to roast peanuts
Here it is referencing an order or desire expressed previously, and as such has to be in the jussive.
3 Azt mondta, hogy pörköljek mogyorót – he said that: [I] roast peanuts / he told me to roast peanuts – he ordered me
to roast peanuts
Here it is referencing an order given to me, and as above is in jussive
akarom, hogy pörköljél mogyorót
after a verb of desire, like akarni (to want), the jussive is used to coninue showing desire
Hadd pörköljön mogyorót – let him roast peanuts
4 pörköljön mogyorót – he should/he had better roast peanuts I order him to roast peanuts
Here it expresses desire that someone should roast peanuts. It's not a visàvis order, but still has one person strongly
desiring or ordering some third party to do something. A good example of this is the Hungarian saying „aki hülye,
haljon meg” meaning “whoever is stupid, should die” where haljon (die) is in 3rd person jussive.
5 mogyorót kell pörköljek – it is needed that I roast peanuts I have to roast peanuts
after the auxiliary kell (it is necessary) one can use the jussive.
6 pörköljek mogyorót? should I roast peanuts / would you like me to roast peanuts?
Here it is a question, essencially asking whether anyone would order me to roast peanuts.
Nonfinite forms
modal verbs – kelleni, akarni, tudni, szeretni
igekötők
Recap on
Meet the closed word classes
There are many closed class words, and nearly all of them are essential to effective speech. Fortunately, most of them
are unchanging and they comprise the vast majority of the most frequently used words. A good grasp on the closed
word classes will reveal the underlying structure of a sentence, and demystify the language.
causative potential
mood indicative
tense present past (tt)
st nd rd st
object indefinite 1 person 2 person 3 person indefinite 1 person 2nd person 3rd person
én írok írom írlak írom írtam írtam írtalak írtam
te írsz írsz írod írod írtál írtál írtad írtad
ő ír ír ír írja írt írt írt írta
mi írunk írjuk írunk írjuk írtunk írtuk írtunk írtuk
ti írtok írtok írjátok írjátok írtatok írtatok írtátok írtátok
ők írnak írnak írnak írják írtak írtak írtak írták
subjunctive
mood present subjunctive (n) jussive (j) conjugated infinitive
object indefinite 1 person 2 person 3 person indefinite 1 person 2 person 3 person
st nd rd st nd rd
Mood
conjugated
indicative conditional jussive
infinitive
object subject present past future present past
én írok írtam fogok írni írnék írtam volna írjak írnom
te írsz írtál fogsz írni írnál írtál volna írj(ál) írnod
ő ír írt fog írni írna írt volna írjon írnia
indefinite írtunk
mi írunk írtunk fogunk írni írnánk írjunk írnunk
volna
írtatok
ti írtok írtatok fogtok írni írnátok írjatok írnotok
volna
ők írnak írtak fognak írni írnának írtak volna írjanak írnuk
definite én írom írtam fogom írni írnám írtam volna írjam
te írod írtad fogod írni írnád írtad volna ír(ja)d
ő írja írta fogja írni írná írta volna írja
mi írjuk írtuk fogjuk írni írtuk volna írjuk
fogjátok írtátok
ti írjátok írtátok írjátok
írni volna
ők írják írták fogják írni irnák írták volna írják
írtalak
én téged írlak írtalak foglak írni írnálak írjalak
volna
comparison of personal endings across tense and mood of a back vowel verb
indicative conjugated
object subject indicative past conditional jussive
present infinitive
én ok am ék ak
te sz ál ál ál
ő a on
indefinite
mi unk unk ánk unk
ti tok atok átok atok
ők nak ak ának anak
én om am ám am om
te od ad ád ad od
ő ja a á a ia
definite
mi juk uk uk unk
ti játok átok átok otok
ők ják ák ák ák uk
2nd person én lak alak álak alak
comparison of personal endings across tense and mood of a back vowel verb – simplified chart
indicative indicative conjugated
object subject jussive conditional
present past infinitive
vowel ending
én k am ak ék
te l ál ál ál
ő on a ia
indefinite
mi unk unk ánk unk
ti tok atok átok otok
ők nak ak anak ának uk
én om am ám om
te od ad ád od
ő ja a á ia
definite
mi juk uk ánk
ti játok átok otok
ők ják ák uk
nd
2 person én lak alak álak n/a
comparison of personal endings across tense and mood of a front vowel verb – simplified chart
indicative indicative conjugated
object subject jussive conditional
present past infinitive
vowel ending
én em e é om k
te o é od l
ő en e ie
indefinite
mi ü é ü nk
ti e é e tek
ők ek e é ük nek
én e é o m
te e é o d
ő i e é ie
definite
mi jü ü én ün k
ti i é e tek
ők i é ü k
2nd person én e é n/a lek
potential
long vowel short vowel
nom sing acc sing nom pl english nom sing acc sing nom pl english
bél belet belek gut álom álmot dream
dél delet delek noon ajak ajkat lip
dér deret derek bagoly baglyot owl
ég eget egek sky barom barmot beast
ér eret erek blood vessel bokor bokrot bush
eper epret eprek strawberry
értelem értelmet értelmek sense/intellig
ence
ész észt/eszet eszek mind fátyol fátylak veil
fél felet felek half iker ikret? twin
hét hetet hetek week jászol jászat? manger
híd hidat hidak bridge jutalom jutalmat reward
jég jeget jegek ice kazal (hay) stack
kéz kezet kezek hand kebel keblet arse
közép közepet közepek middle lepel leplet
kút kutat kutak well öböl öblöt öblök bay/gulf
légy legyet legyek fly sátor sátrat sátrak tent
lúd ludat ludak goose szatyor szatyrot szatyrok sack
madár madarat madarak bird szerelem szerelmet szerelmek love
mész meszet meszek lime tükör tükröt tükröket mirror
nyár nyarat nyarak summer vászon vásznat canvas
nyél nyelet nyelek handle
nyíl nyilat nyilak arrow
nyúl nyulat nyulak rabbit
pohár poharat poharak cup
réz rezet rezek copper
rúd rudat rudak rod
sár sarat sarak mud
szél szelet szelek wind
szén szenet szenek coal
szűz szüzet szüzek virgin
tenyér tenyeret tenyerek palm (hand)
tél telet telek winter
tér teret terek space
tűz tüzet tüzek fire
úr urat urak lord
út utat utak road
víz vizet vizek water
Appendix – vstems.
long vowel short vowel
nom sing acc sing nom pl english nom sing acc sing nom pl english
hó havat havak snow falu falvat falvak village
kő követ kövek stone, rock hamu hamvat hamvak ash
odú odvat odvak hollow
szó szót szavak word
tetű tetűt tetvek louse
tó tavat tavak lake
front/back | round/unround | consonant(liquid)/vowel/promoting
demoting : long/short round/short unround | back/front
Vstem : long/short | back/front
ember – front unrounded liquid final
possessed
singular plural singular plural singular plural singular plural singular plural singular plural singular plural
nom ember emberek emberem embereim embered embereid embere emberei emberünk embereink emberetek embereitek emberük embereik
acc embert embereket emberemet embereime emberedet embereidet emberét embereit emberünke embereink embereteke embereitek emberüket embereiket
t t et t et
dat embernek emberekne emberemn embereimn emberedne embereidn emberének embereine emberünkn embereink emberetek embereitek emberükne embereikn
k ek ek k ek k ek nek nek nek k ek