This is personally one of my favorite parts of Hungarian, and I find it really interesting and fun to study. You may have heard that Hungarian doesn’t really have a fixed word order, and that’s somewhat true, but there are in fact some general guidelines one follows when making sentences in Hungarian. Word order depends a lot on what element you’re wanting to emphasise, and how you’re giving the information.

This post will cover neutral, un-emphasised sentences. To read about focus/emphasised sentences, please see the post here.

---

Overview

The “basic” word order in Hungarian is the same as English: Subject-Verb-Object (SVO)

• Tamás eszi az almát. (Tamás is eating the apple)
• Zsuzsi énekel egy dalt. (Zsuzsi sings a song)

These are what we call “neutral” sentences, which don’t emphasise any particular thing. If we wanted to add emphasis, however, then the word order would change.

Say someone was talking about Tamás, and they said “Tamás is eating the banana“. If you saw this to be incorrect, and wanted to express this, you could phrase the sentence as such:

Az almát eszi Tamás (lit: the apple eating Tamás) – Object-Verb-Subject (OVS)
※ here the emphasis is on “az almát“, because you are stressing that “no, it is not the banana Tamás is eating, but the apple“.

Now say someone were to ask “What is Tamás doing to that apple?” If you can see that Tamás is eating the apple, you could say:

Eszi Tamás az almát (lit: eating Tamás the apple) – Verb-Subject-Object (VSO)
※ here the emphasis is on “eszi“, because that is the answer to the previous question. You are basically saying “eating is what Tamás is doing to the apple” (rather than say, throwing it away or using it for target practice).

---

Neutral Sentence Structure

In a neutral (un-emphasised) sentence, the structure looks somewhat like this:

topic || neutral preverb || verb || X

In a neutral sentence, the topic is the beginning of a sentence. It can be comprised of the following:

a) a subject (‘Tamás’)
b) general time expressions (‘Ma’, ‘Tegnap este’….)
c) information already known

The topic can also be empty, if the topic is already known and understood from context.

The preverb comes before the conjugated verb in the sentence. This is where any emphasized elements would go, but in a neutral sentence it can be filled by the following:

a) coverbs (meg, el, ki, be…)
b) adverbs or adverbial phrases (gyorsan, valóban, mindig…)
c) verbal complements (read the post on verbal complements here)

In the example sentence, there is no preverb. If we wanted to add one, we could say something like “Tamás gyorsan eszi az almát” (Tamás is quickly eating the apple). “Gyorsan” would be in the preverb position.

The verb position is for the conjugated verb in the sentence. In this case, it would be “eszi“. If the verb has a coverb (meg, be, ki…) attached, that coverb will occupy the preverb position (i.e. remain on the front of the verb).

The X can be filled by anything except the conjugated verb. It can contain several things or be empty, and can occur in any order. In neutral sentences, it typically comes right after the conjugated verb. In the example sentence, “Tamás eszi az almát”, the X position is occupied by “az almát“.

So altogether the sentence is structured as such:

Topic	Verb	X
Tamás	eszi	az almát

And if we wanted to add the word “gyorsan”:

Topic	Preverb	Verb	X
Tamás	gyorsan	eszi	az almát

---

Let’s look at a few more example sentences:

Tegnap este rendeltünk egy pizzát (Last night we ordered a pizza)

Preverb	Verb	X
Tegnap este	rendeltünk	egy pizzát

There is no “topic“, because the pronoun (mi) is left off (as it is in most Hungarian sentences). This is fine! As said previously, the topic section can be entirely empty.

A bátyáid a kanapén ülnek (Your brothers are sitting on the sofa)
lit: your brothers on the sofa are sitting

Topic	Preverb	Verb
A bátyáid	a kanapén	ülnek

There is no “X” here, as this section is also entirely optional and can stay empty.

---

More Neutral Sentence Examples

Valóban bízol benne mindezek után? (Do you really trust him after all this?)

Preverb	Verb	X
Valóban	bízol	benne mindezek után

---

A kutya mindig megeszi a gyerekeim házi feladatait (The dog always eats my children’s homework)

Topic	Preverb	Verb	X
A kutya	mindig meg-	eszi	a gyerekeim házi feladatait

---

A király az országomba jön (The king comes to my kingdom)
lit: the king to my kingdom comes

Topic	Preverb	Verb
A király	az országomba	jön

---

Énekeltünk a fánál (We sang by the tree)

Verb	X
Énekeltünk	a fánál

---

A családjuk az erdőben él (Their family lives in the forest)
lit: their family in the forest lives

Topic	Preverb	Verb
A családjuk	az erdőben	él

---

As you can see, sentences can get a bit more complicated the more information you add, but for the most part the structure is relatively simple, and it does have some rules. If you follow these examples, you shouldn’t have any trouble making neutral sentences in Hungarian.