Definite Conjugation

One of the peculiarities of the Hungarian language is that the form of the inflected verb reveals who (in what number and person) performs the given action.

Therefore, whatever the tense, we distinguish between two types of conjugation, the general (subject) and the definite (object) form.

In the regular conjugation, verbs can only be transitive.

Examples of transitive verbs: olvasni, élni, enni, inni, főzni stb.

When conjugating verbs in the past tense, the verb is modified with the sign of the past tense ( -t ) (e.g.: eszek - ettem).

Since we use only the past tense in Hungarian, the past tense form of verbs is the same in all cases. It only changes depending on the number and person of the subject, as well as subject and object conjugation.

Let's take as an example the forms of the transitive verb lőni according to the past tense object conjugation:

én lőttem
te lőtted
ő lőtte
mi lőttük
ti lőttétek
ők lőtték

A definite article often follows a verb with a definite conjugation: Lőttem a vadat, Meglőtted a vadat.

Let's take as an example another transitive verb, the past tense form of the verb keresni:

én kerestem
te kerested
ő kereste
mi kerestük
ti kerestétek
ők keresték