Better Hungarian

Previously I posted about using ‘van’ to mean ‘have’. Now I will be going over its use as a verb meaning ‘to be’. The initial concept is simple, but as with everything there are some nuances and situational exceptions that will also need to be explained.

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General Use & Conjugation

First I will provide a conjugation table of the present tense ‘van’ (to be):

én	mi	te	ti	ő	ők	ön	önök
vagyok	vagyunk	vagy	vagytok	van	vannak	van	vannak

At its most basic, ‘van‘ functions just like the verb ‘to be‘ in English. However, because Hungarian word order works differently, these sentences are not constructed the same as in English.

Posts recommended to review first:

Neutral Sentences
Focus Sentences
Articles

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We’ll begin with a simple sentence: “I am a mother”

Anya vagyok¹

¹As mentioned in other posts, the pronouns (in this case, ‘én’) can be omitted in most situations, as the conjugated verb makes the subject clear.

Other Examples:

Amerikai vagyok (I am American)

Diákok vagytok (You all are students)

Okosak vagyunk (We are smart)

Gyönyörű vagy (You are beautiful)

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When to Omit ‘van’

You may have noticed in the above examples, I only used first person and second person subjects. This is because with 3rd person subjects (both singular and plural), ‘van‘ is omitted from the sentence, except for the following situations. This applies to present tense only.

Since ön/önök are conjugated the same as 3rd person, these rules apply to those subjects as well.

1. There is/there are phrases
   • Macskák vannak a kertben (There are cats in the garden)
   • Sok ember van ebben a szobában (There are a lot of people in this room)
2. Adverbial Complements (if unfamiliar with this term, check the wiki here. I will make a post on this eventually)
   • Tamás a kocsiban van (Tamás is in the car)
   • A rendőr itt van (The police officer is here)
   • Gábor rosszul van (Gábor is sick)

Otherwise, in 3rd person present tense, ‘van’ is not necessary in the sentence.

A tanár kedves (The teacher (is) nice)

Zoltán mérnök (Zoltán (is) an engineer)

Azok az emberek szegények (Those people (are) poor)

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‘Van’ (to be) in Other Tenses

In all other tenses, ‘van‘ will be present regardless of subject.

Conjugations

	Past	Future	Conditional Present	Conditional Past	Subjunctive/Imperative
én	voltam	leszek	lennék	lettem volna	legyek
mi	voltunk	leszünk	lennénk	lettünk volna	legyünk
te	voltál	leszel	lennél	lettél volna	légy/legyél
ti	voltatok	lesztek	lennétek	lettetek volna	legyetek
ő	volt	lesz	lenne	lett volna	legyen
ők	voltak	lesznek	lennének	lettek volna	legyenek
ön	volt	lesz	lenne	lett volna	legyen
önök	voltak	lesznek	lennének	lettek volna	legyenek

Examples

I have more in-depth posts on the conditional and subjunctive/imperative tenses that you can look at when ready, so don’t stress about them at this time.

Énekes voltam (I was a singer)

Béla orvos lesz (Béla will be a doctor)

Ha itt lennél velem, sokkal vidámabb lennék (If you were¹ here with me, I would be much happier)

¹While in English the past tense is used here, Hungarian still uses the conditional tense. So it would literally translate to “If you would be here with me, I would be much happier”.

Ferenc gyorsabb lett volna, de túl fáradt volt (Ferenc would have been faster, but he was too tired)

Ne legyünk dühösek ma (Let’s not be angry today)

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‘Van’ (to be) – Negation

For there is/there are phrases and adverbial complements in 3rd person, ‘van’ is negated with ‘nincs‘ (singular) or ‘nincsenek‘ (plural). This only applies to present tense.

Note that ‘van‘ will be removed from these sentences, despite being present in the non-negated sentences.

Ildikó nincs a boltban (Ildikó (is) not in the store)

Nincsenek diákok az iskolában ((There are) no students in the school)

There is an ‘exception’ where “nem” is used even in these sentences, and that is when it is attached to the adverbial complement itself and not the verb. This usually occurs when you are putting an emphasis on something, and is typically followed with “hanem” (rather/but). For further explanation on emphasised sentences, see my “focus sentences” post that is linked at the beginning of this post.

Ildikó nem a boltban van, hanem a moziban (Ildikó (is) not in the store, but (rather) in the cinema)

Nem diákok vannak az iskolában, hanem tanárok (There are not students in the school, but (rather) teachers)

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For all other types of sentences, regardless of subject, we add “nem“. If modifying the verb itself, it will come directly before the verb (if it is present).

Ez a tanár nem rossz (This teacher (is) not bad)

Nem vagyok jól (I am not well)

Nem vagy macska (You are not a cat)

Ön nem az anyám (You (are) not my mother)