The Verb Map

Hungarian Grammar 3

Chapter 1 · The Verb Map

🗺️ The Hungarian Verb — Az ige

Hungarian Grammar 1 gave you the present tense in two conjugations, and Hungarian Grammar 2 gave you the nouns and their cases. This course completes the verb: the past, the future, the conditional, the imperative and the subjunctive. Before the first new paradigm, this chapter lays out how a Hungarian verb form is built and draws one map of every form to come, so that each later chapter has a place to sit.

1. The parts of a verb form

Take the verb olvas (read) and watch the pieces change. Each row is one form; the highlighted part is the marker that tells you the tense or mood.

The markers are only a first look; Chapters 2 to 9 explain each one with its full paradigm and its harmony variants. What matters now is the pattern: the stem stays, the marker sits in the middle, the person ending closes the word, and the future is a separate helper word.

2. The infinitive and the stem

The infinitive ends in -ni and means "to …": olvasni (to read), látni (to see), kérni (to ask for). It is the form that follows helper verbs such as akar, tud, kell and fog (Chapter 5). After some consonants a linking vowel appears before -ni: mondani (to say), hallani (to hear).

The stem is what the endings attach to. For most verbs it is the form of the 3rd person singular in the present, and it is usually the infinitive without -ni.

3. The verb classes

Four groups of verbs behave differently in several of the forms ahead.

Chapter 4 treats the irregulars in the past; Chapters 7 and 8 meet them again in the imperative and the subjunctive.

4. The two conjugations, revisited

Hungarian Grammar 1, chapters 6 to 8, taught that the present tense has two sets of endings, chosen by whether the object is definite. Every tense and mood in this course repeats that choice, so here is the present in both sets as a reference.

The -ik verbs have their own present, where the 1st person singular takes the -m ending: eszem, eszel, eszik, eszünk, esztek, esznek (I eat, you eat…), iszom, iszol, iszik, iszunk, isztok, isznak. In everyday speech many people use -ok/-ek in the 1st person instead (eszek); the -m forms are the careful standard. Chapters 2 and 3 show how the -ik verbs behave in the past.

Remember also the special pair "I … you": látlak (I see you), szeretlek (I love you). It exists in the past too: láttalak (Chapter 3).

5. The map of the course

Here is every tense and mood ahead, with the 1st-person and 3rd-person forms of olvas in both conjugations. Use this table as the table of contents for the verb; each row is explained in the chapter named in the last column.

Two things stand out in this table. The 1st person singular of the past is the same in both conjugations (olvastam), though the 3rd person differs (olvasott against olvasta). And the future uses the helper fog followed by the infinitive, so it is a two-word form.

6. Three questions for every verb form

Whenever you meet or build a Hungarian verb form, ask these three questions in order. The rest of the course fills in the answers.

7. Time words and tense

A time word usually accompanies the tense. Learn the pairing as a signpost.

🗣️ In Use — Használatban

The forms on the map, heard once each. Do not worry about the details; the later chapters explain them.

📋 Quick Reference — Gyorstábla

✏️ Try It Yourself — Gyakorlás

Say the answer first, then click to check.