Hungarian does not have a unique verb that equates to ‘have’ in English (in regards to possessing/owning something), so they use a combination of the dative case, possessive suffixes, and the verb ‘van’ (to be). It might sound complicated, but I will try to break it down simply enough here.
I highly recommend viewing the linked posts on dative case and possessive suffixes if you haven’t already, as knowledge of those are required.
‘Van’ Construction
Who is the owner? Put them in the dative case. If it is a personal pronoun (én, te, etc) you can leave it out, as the subject is usually evident from the suffixes.
The possessive ending is applied to the item that is owned, with the suffix corresponding to the owner. You do not have to use the definite articles a/az in these cases.
Add ‘van‘. It will be conjugated in 3rd person (regardless of subject), either singular or plural depending on the number of items. ‘Van‘ is the singular, while ‘vannak‘ is plural.
In regards to sentence structure: in neutral sentences, the owner is the topic, while the item is considered a preverb.
Example:
To see how it works, let’s take the simple sentence “Petra has a cat“.
- Petra is the owner/topic, so we add the dative case, and it becomes Petrának.
- Make ‘macska‘ possessive with regards to owner (in this case, 3rd person singular), so it becomes ‘macskája‘.
- Add ‘van‘ after ‘macskája’ (as there is only a single item, and not multiple).
The whole sentence: Petrának macskája van.
The sentence ‘literally’ translates to: “To Petra there is her cat“. But it just means “Petra has/owns a cat”.
Let’s look at the same sentence in plural this time: “Petra has cats“.
Petrának macskái vannak.
- ‘macska‘ takes the plural possessive ending instead of the singular one
- ‘van‘ changes to ‘vannak‘
Other Examples:
(Neki)1 háza van (Xe has a house)
1Remember that personal pronouns can be ommitted from the sentence.
(Neked) kocsid van (You have a car)
(Nekünk) drága tévénk van (We have an expensive TV)
(Nekik) fekete kutyáik vannak (They have black dogs)
You get the idea?
Articles
As mentioned above, with the ‘van’ construction it is not necessary to use the definite articles a/az. However, you can use the indefinite article (egy), which usually comes after the verb (van).
(Neki) van egy szép ruhája (Xe has a nice/pretty dress)
(Nekem) van egy nagy táskám (I have a big bag)
(Neked) van egy hangos madarad (You have a loud bird)
‘Van’ Tenses
‘Van’ can occur in all tenses. While it can also mean “to be”, we will only be discussing it in this post in relation to the ‘have’ usage. I will also only be including the 3rd person conjugations, as the other ones are not needed here.
Singular (3rd person)
| Present | Past | Future | Conditional Present | Conditional Past | Subjunctive | Potential |
| van | volt | lesz1 | lenne | lett volna | legyen | lehet2 |
1The future, conditional, and subjunctive tenses look different, as the regular infinitive of ‘van’ is ‘lenni‘, which can also be translated as ‘become’.
2I will eventually make a post about this ‘tense’ and how to use it, but essentially it means something might be possible, or will be possible under certain conditions. Example: ‘neked rossz anyád lehet, ha engedi ezt a viselkedést‘. Interestingly, the most fluid translation in English would be ‘you must have a bad mother, if (she) allows this behavior’. Usually ‘must’ is associated with something that is obligatory, but it can also be used to express an assumption (in which case, ‘lehet’ would be used in Hungarian).
Plural (3rd person)
| Present | Past | Future | Conditional Present | Conditional Past | Subjunctive |
| vannak | voltak | lesznek | lennének | lettek volna | legyenek |
Examples
(Nekem) kedves macskám volt a gyerekkoromban (I had a nice cat in my childhood)
(Nekik) jó ötleteik lesznek (They will have good ideas)
Ha több pénzem lenne, Magyarországra utaznék (If I had1 more money, I would travel to Hungary)
1Note that in English, we technically use past tense in this sort of conditional phrase (‘if I were you’, ‘if you were here’), but in Hungarian these would literally translate “if I would be you” and “if you would be here”.
Azt szeretném, hogy több barátom legyen (I would like to have more friends1)
1It would literally translate to ‘I would like it that I have more friends’, but this sounds unnatural in English. The subjunctive is a tricky tense that will be covered in its own post, so don’t worry too much about it here.
Állataim lettek volna, de tilos volt a korábbi lakásban (I would have had animals/pets, but (it) was forbidden in the previous apartment)
Negation of ‘van’
When negating ‘van’, two things change:
- ‘Van’ is dropped out, and you add ‘nincs‘ instead (‘nincsenek‘ if it is multiple items in the sentence). ‘Nincs‘ is a negation that functions the same way as “kein/keine” in German, if you are familiar with that.
- The word order changes slightly. Whereas ‘van’ would typically go after the owned item, it is switched in the negative, and ‘nincs‘, which more or less takes the place of ‘van’, comes first.
Examples:
(Neki) nincsenek kutyái (Xe does not have1 (any) dogs)
1‘Does not have’ can of course be shortened to ‘has no’ (i.e. ‘xe has no dogs’)
(Nekem) nincs munkám (I don’t have a job)
Other Tenses
‘Nincs‘ is only used with the present tense of ‘van’. With the other tenses, the regular ‘nem/ne’ will be used. ‘Van’ will also still be present, but it will come before the item and after ‘nem/ne’.
(Neki) nem volt buszjegye (Xe didn’t have a bus ticket)
(Nekem) soha nem lesz állatom (I will never have an animal/pet)
(Neked) ne legyen rossz kedved egész nap (Don’t be in a bad mood all day1)
1The ‘have’ construction in Hungarian is used in some common expressions like this. It would literally translate ‘don’t have a bad mood all day’, but we don’t say ‘have a mood’ in English.
Different Ways to Express ‘van’
Besides the regular use, there are a couple other ways you can use ‘van/to have’ that have slightly different meanings. I will list different ways of saying the same sentence and explain how to use each of them.
- Van (egy) tollam (I have a pen)
- Nálam van a tollam (I have my pen on me/with me)
- Megvan a tollam (I’ve got my pen)
1. Van (egy) tollam
This is the basic, regular use of ‘van’ and just expresses that you have/own something without being more specific.
2. Nálam van a tollam
In Hungarian, the addessive case -nál/-nél can be used to mean ‘on one’s person‘, as in ‘this person has this thing on them/in their possession right at this moment‘.
Van egy tollad? (Do you have a pen?)
Nincs, hanem nála van. (No, but xe’s got one on xem)
3. Megvan a tollam
The best way I can explain this one is that it is particularly specific. It typically is used when:
1) Something you have been looking for is found
2) Something that was being worked on has been completed
3) An item is expected to be with the person and it is not lost or misplaced. It is essentially a reassurance of “I/you/they do indeed have this thing”.
Note that the definite article a/az will always be used in these cases, as it is referring to a definite object.
Megvan a pénzem, megtaláltam a tárcámat. (I’ve got my money (with me), I found my wallet)
Megvan az esernyőd? Esik az eső. (Did you remember your umbrella? It’s raining)
Sajnálom, nincs meg a feladatom. Holnap hozhatom? (Sorry, I don’t have my assignment (with me). Can I bring (it) tomorrow?)
And that’s it! I hope that my explanations were understandable, but don’t hesitate to contact me if you have further questions or are confused on something.
Better Hungarian 
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