Better Hungarian

There is a special conjugation in Hungarian when 1) you are the speaker, and 2) the direct object is ‘you’. This is only for informal te/ti. Formal Ön/Önök/maga/maguk will use the regular conjugation (you can see a chart about definite/indefinite pronouns here).

Note that ‘you’ must be the direct object (the thing/person that receives the action) – that means te and ti would take accusative case: téged and titeket respectively.

So to reiterate: this conjugation is only when the subject is ‘én’, and the direct object is ‘téged’ or ‘titeket’.

Now if we write this with ‘normal’ conjugation, we get sentences such as this:

(Én) szeretem téged (I love you)

(Én) látom titeket (I see you all)

Although these are technically correct grammatically, it sounds very strange and unnatural. Instead, it takes a special conjugation: (root verb stem) + -lak/-lek¹ (vowel harmony)

¹Sometimes the ending will take linking vowel a or e (-alak/-elek)

---

Examples

szeret > szeret + -lek = szeretlek (I love you) – note that you don’t need to include the pronoun én, as this is evident in the verb conjugation.

lát > lát + -lak = látlak (I see you)

néz > néz + -lek = nézlek (I’m watching you)

megüt > megüt + –lek = megütlek (I hit/punch you)

utál > utál + -lak = utállak (I hate you)

Now, this conjugation can also take all of the other tenses: past, conditional, and subjunctive/imperative. But it’s really easy to make these, as you just have to put a letter between the root verb and -(a)lak/-(e)lek ending.

Note that other tenses might take a linking vowel, even if the regular present tense does not.

---

Past: respective past tense ending (-t, -ott/-ett/-ött)

lát > lát + -t + -alak = láttalak (I saw you)

szeret > szeret + -t + -elek = szerettelek (I loved you)

utál > utál + -t + -alak = utáltalak (I hated you)

megüt > megüt + -ött + –elek = megütöttelek (I hit/punched you)

---

Conditional: add -n, change a/e to á/é

lát > lát + -n + -álak = látnálak (I would see you)

szeret > szeret + -n + -élek = szeretnélek (I would love you)

utál > utál + -n + -álak = utálnálak (I would hate you)

megüt > megüt + -n + –élek = megütnélek (I would hit/punch you)

---

Subjunctive: add -j

*Note that subjunctive conjugation is the same as imperative, but for -alak/-elek there is not much use for the imperative. You would just use the regular 2nd person imperative forms for commands. Therefore, the only purpose of this tense with -alak/-elek is as a subjunctive.

lát > lát + -j > -ss¹ + -alak = lássalak (I should² see you)

¹As I went over in my subjunctive/imperative post, for verbs with certain endings, you will change -j to -s, and in some cases the s will double. Typically it only doubles for verbs that end in short vowel + -t, but verbs ending in -át seems to be an exception, as both the t and the j will change to -ss in this case, despite á being a long vowel.

²There is more explanation in the specific posts linked above, but the subjunctive can be translated a few different ways. It can reflect a wish or other necessity, or asking/telling what someone should be doing. “Lássalak” could mean “I should see you” or “(I wish that) I may see you”. Usually it would be paired with another related verb, and a whole sentence would look something like “azt akarom, hogy lássalak” (I want to see you) or “azt tudom, hogy lássalak” (I know that I should see you).

szeret > szeret + -j > -ss¹ + -elek = szeresselek (I should love you)

¹Again, because this verb ends in a short vowel + -t (-et), the last -t and the -j will both become -s, making it double -ss.

utál > utál + -j + -alak = utáljalak (I should hate you)

megüt > megüt + -j > -ss + –elek = megüsselek (I should hit/punch you)