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 ("ask", "have a request").
-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 ("s/he works"), and 1st singular indefinite present usually with -om/-em/-öm. The stem for this is reached by removing -ik. These verbs are one of the reasons why this form is 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 ("s/he breaks something") vs törik ("something breaks" / "something gets broken"). However, most of them have lost this connection (they can have active meanings) so historically speaking they are like deponent verbs. Some verb pairs only differ in the presence or absence of the -ik ending, while they are unrelated in meaning, such as ér ('be worth something' or 'arrive') and érik ('ripen').
With these verbs, the third person singular (present indefinite indicative) form (i.e., the lemma) consistently uses the -ik form. What is more, new -ik words continue to be created (e.g. netezik "use the Internet").
However, the first person singular (present indefinite indicative) suffix is often assimilated to the "normal" conjugation (as it has happened to the other -ik-specific forms), so most verbs usually take the regular form for this person (e.g. hazudok; *hazudom would be taken as hypercorrect or incorrect). Nevertheless, with some basic -ik verbs, the assimilated variant is stigmatized (e.g. eszem is expected in educated speech, rather than *eszek), 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 (3rd person singular indefinite) -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: eszik egy almát: egy almát "an apple" is indefinite, so the verb must be a singular form, i.e. "s/he is eating an apple;" eszik az almát: az almát "the apple" is definite, so the verb must be a plural form, i.e. "they are eating the apple." In fact, most -ik verbs are intransitive, and the context may clarify the question even if the subject is not made explicit.
Regular (non -ik)verbsNon-traditionalTraditional-ik verbs1st person singularindefinitekérekhazudokeszem(*eszek)3rd person singularindefinite(lemma)kér∅hazudikeszikMeaning"ask"("request")"tell a lie""eat"
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: aggódik "worry", álmodik "dream", alszik "sleep", bízik "trust", dicsekszik "brag", dohányzik "smoke", dolgozik "work", emlékszik "remember", érdeklődik "be interested or inquire", érkezik "arrive", esküszik "swear", eszik "eat", fázik "be cold", fekszik "lie" ("recline"), foglalkozik "deal with", gondolkodik or gondolkozik "be thinking", gondoskodik "look after", gyanakszik "suspect", gyönyörködik "delight in", hallatszik "be audible", haragszik "be angry", hiányzik "be missing", igyekszik "strive, hurry", iszik "drink", játszik "play", jelentkezik "apply", költözik "move (residence)", következik "follow", különbözik "differ", lakik "live" (inhabit), látszik "be visible", működik "function", növekszik "grow", nyugszik "rest", öregszik "grow old", panaszkodik "complain", származik "originate from", találkozik "meet", tartozik "owe" or "belong", tartózkodik "stay" ("reside"), törődik "care about", unatkozik "be bored", vágyik "desire", változik "change" (refl.), verekszik "fight" (e.g. at school), veszekszik "quarrel", vetkőzik "take off clothes", viselkedik "behave" and vitatkozik "argue".Verbs selected from Ragozgató
For most other verbs, the -k ending is common in the indefinite meaning, especially in casual speech. Verbs with the suffix -zik, formed from nouns (often the tool of the action), 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 (except in the definite conjugation, if meaningful). These are called "pseudo -ik verbs" (álikes igék) in Hungarian. Examples: bomlik "dissolve", (el)bújik "hide", egerészik "catch mice", érik "ripen", folyik "flow", gyűlik "assemble" (refl.), hazudik "tell a lie", hullik "fall", illik "suit", kopik "wear off", megjelenik "appear", múlik "pass", nyílik "open" (refl.), ömlik "pour" (refl.), születik "be born", (meg)szűnik "discontinue", telik "fill up", tojik "lay (eggs)", törik "get broken", tűnik "seem", válik "become" or "divorce", züllik "become depraved".Verbs are mostly selected from Ragozgató
The regular non -ik verb könyörög "beg" has a hypercorrect first-person singular indefinite present form könyörgöm "I am begging" (used especially as an emphatic interjection to support an argument in spoken language), 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 (magát/az Istent) "I am begging (you/God)", which has eventually lost its object and in which the form könyörgöm actually (correctly) 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: verbs ending in two consonants (e.g. játszani, tartani, küldeni, választani, festeni, mondani, hallani, ajánlani), verbs ending in a long vowel + t (e.g. fűteni, véteni, tanítani, bocsátani) and the words véd and edz (védeni and edzeni respectively).
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. ("I have to go."). The person can also be indicated using -nak/-nek, e.g. Nekem kell mennem. ("I have to go.), Jánosnak mennie kell ("János has to go.")
These forms use the o/e/ö set of suffixes (Type II, like possessive suffixes do), see Personal suffixes and link vowels.
Person menni (to go) látni (to see) 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 (volt = was), present (van = is) and future (lesz = will be).
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' ("have a request") and vár 'wait' (as examples for front and back vowels) 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 (e.g. húzzuk, eddzük in the first person plural).
Person Indefinite conjugation Definite conjugation Regular Sibilant-ending Regular Sibilant-ending 1st Sg kérek, várok keresek, mászok* kérem, várom keresem, mászom 2nd Sg kérsz, vársz keresel, mászol kéred, várod keresed, mászod 3rd Sg kér, vár keres, mászik* kéri, várja keresi, mássza 1st Pl kérünk, várunk keresünk, mászunk kérjük, várjuk keressük, másszuk 2nd Pl kértek, vártok kerestek, másztok kéritek, várjátok keresitek, másszátok 3rd Pl kérnek, várnak keresnek, másznak kérik, várják keresik, másszák 1st > 2nd (e.g. 'I ask you') kérlek, várlak kereslek, mászlak N/A N/A
*: mászik being an -ik verb, its indefinite 1st person singular form can be mászom instead of mászok in literary style. The ik ending in its indefinite 3rd person singular form naturally doesn't apply to verbs without this ending.
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 (to avoid two sibilants getting next to each other), or because of the assimilation of j. Incidentally, the latter forms (with doubled stem consonants) coincide with the subjunctive (or imperative) forms.
Futurity Futurity can be expressed in a variety of ways: By the auxiliary verb fog for any verb, expressing a strong intention or a necessity of events brought about by circumstances (fog menni = "will go", fog beszélni = "will speak", fog lenni = "will be".) The verb van, uniquely, has an inflected future tense (leszek, leszel etc.). (See van (to be).) By the present tense, when this is clearly a reference to a future time (e.g. the presence of explicit temporal adverbs, e.g. majd = soon) or in the case of verbs with perfective aspect. (Compare, e.g. "We're visiting Disneyland" in English: normally this indicates present tense, but adding "next July" makes it unambiguously future tense).
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 intransitive verbs and transitive verbs with direct objects that are 1st or 2nd person or indefinite, while definite forms are used for 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: Type I never uses link vowel (mostly those with "soft" ending consonants, i.e. sonorants) Type II only uses link vowel in the 3rd person singular indefinite (those that could be regarded as "middle-hard" consonants) Type III uses link vowel in every form (mostly those ending in the "hard" consonant t or a consonant cluster).
Conjugation Type IType IIType IIIExample Verbvár ("wait for somebody/something")mos ("wash somebody/something")tanít ("teach somebody/something") Direct ObjectIndefiniteDefiniteIndefiniteDefiniteIndefiniteDefinite 1st sg.vártamvártammostammostamtanítottamtanítottam 2nd sg.vártálvártadmostálmostadtanítottáltanítottad 3rd sg.vártvártamosottmostatanítotttanította 1st pl.vártunkvártukmostunkmostuktanítottunktanítottuk 2nd pl.vártatokvártátokmostatokmostátoktanítottatoktanítottátok 3rd pl.vártakvártákmostakmostáktanítottaktanították 1st person subj., 2nd person object vártalak mostalak tanítottalakRegular endings -l, -r, -n, -ny, -j, -ly (e.g. tanul, ír, pihen, hány, fáj, foly|ik) -ad, -ed (e.g. szalad, ébred) -s, -sz, -z (e.g. ás, úsz|ik, néz) -k, -g, -p, -b, -d*, -v, -f, -gy (e.g. lak|ik, vág, kap, dob, tud, hív, döf, hagy) -at, -et with 2 or more syllables (e.g. mutat, nevet) *: except for -ad/-ed, see I |colspan=2 valign=top|monosyllabic words ending in t (e.g. hat, vet, nyit, köt, fut, jut, süt, üt, fűt) long vowel + t (e.g. készít, tanít, bocsát) two consonants (e.g. játsz|ik, tart, választ, hall, hull|ik) -dz also belongs here (e.g. edz)Exceptions(partial list) áll, száll, varr (III) lát (III) and alkot ad, enged, fogad etc. (I)