Indefinite 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 general conjugation, verbs can be both transitive and intransitive. An object never follows the inflected form of intransitive verbs, so their conjugation will always be general (subject). In the case of transitive verbs, the conjugation can be both general (subject) and definite (object).

Examples of intransitive verbs: jönni, menni, történni, érkezni etc.

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

When conjugating verbs in the past tense, the verb is modified with ( -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.

Take the past tense forms of the intransitive verb jönni as an example:

én jöttem
te jöttél
ő jött
mi jöttünk
ti jöttetek
ők jöttek

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

én kerestem
te kerestél
ő keresett
mi kerestünk
ti kerestetek
ők kerestek