At its core, this concept is simple, but there is quite a lot to go over. To (hopefully) avoid overwhelming anyone new to this concept, I’ll be splitting this into 3 posts again. This first post will go over the common, basic pronouns that you will encounter most regularly. The other two posts will cover everything else.

Interrogative pronouns are basically question words, like ‘who‘, ‘what‘, ‘where‘, etc. Relative pronouns are used to refer back to the question word or other subject (person, thing, etc – whatever you were talking about in the first clause) in the sentence (there’s more explanation here if you need).

It might be a bit confusing at first to tell the specific difference between the interrogative and relative, but just remember the general rule:

interrogative = asking a question, something you don’t have an answer to

relative = referring back to the question word in order to identify it or give more information/context.

In Hungarian, creating a relative pronoun just involves adding “a” to the beginning of the interrogative pronoun (i.e. ‘mi‘ (what) becomes ‘ami‘ (that which), ‘ki‘ (who) becomes ‘aki‘ (the one who)). Remember to add the correct case (accusative, dative, etc) to the relative pronoun if needed. 

I’ll provide some charts here for reference. If they confuse you at first, don’t worry, as I will be providing more explanations and examples below.

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Basic Question Words

Interrogative	English	Relative	English
mi	what	ami	that which
ki	who	aki	the one who
mikor	when	amikor	the time at which
miért	why	amiért	(the reason) why, for that which
mely1 (literary)	which (one)	amely1	that which
melyik	which (one of)	amelyik	the (specific) one which
hogy(an)	how	ahogy(an)	the way that/as soon as

¹I will be explaining the difference between ‘ami‘ and ‘amely‘ further down in the post

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Examples

mi / ami

Interrogative 

Mit rajzol? (What are you drawing?)

Miről beszélsz? (What are you talking about?)

Mit csinálsz? (What are you doing?)

Mi van a dobozban? (What’s in the box?)

Nem tudom, hogy mi a baj (I don’t know what the problem is)
literally: I don’t know, that what is the problem

Relative 

A képben, amit festek¹, van egy kígyó (In the picture that I am drawing, there is a snake)

¹Verbs will always be indefinite after a relative pronoun

Ez az a játek, amiről tegnap beszéltem (This is the game that I was talking about yesterday)

Add ide (nekem)¹ a dobozt, amiben a könyvek vannak (Give me the box that the books are in)
literally: Give me the box, in which the books are

¹Just saying “add nekem” (give me) sounds like you’re asking for something as a gift to keep

Látod a cicákat, amik¹ most sétálnak az úton? (Do you see the cats that are walking in the street right now?)

¹When the subject is plural, you will make the relative pronoun plural as well. This includes if there are other cases involved (i.e. “A dobozok, amik a konyhában vannak” (The boxes, that are in the kitchen))

Note: Some might say that “amik” is rather uncouth, and that you should use “amelyek” instead, but you don’t have to. It’s mentioned down below, but “amely(ek)” has specific rules for its use, and most of the time everyone these days uses “ami” / “amik” anyway. If you want to sound more “elegant” in your speech, you can use amely(ek) when the rule applies, but there will be situations where “ami(k)” is better anyway.

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ki / aki

Interrogative

Kit láttál ma? (Who did you see today?)

Kinek adtad a könyvet? (Who did you give the book to?)

Ki telefonál? (Who is calling?)

Ki a legszebben lány a világon? (Who is the most beautiful girl in the world?)

Tudod, ki mondta ezt? (Do you know who said this?)

Relative

A férfi, akit láttam ma, nagyon magas volt (The man, who I saw today, was very tall)

A lány, akinek adtam a könyvet, Budapesten lakik (The girl, to whom I gave the book, lives in Budapest)

Nézd a gyereket, aki egyedül játszik (Look at the child who is playing alone)

Nem én voltam az, aki hazudott (I was not the one who lied)
literally: I was not that (one), who lied

Az emberek, akik¹ a kanapén ülnek, dohányoznak (The people, who are sitting on the couch, are smoking)

¹When the subject is plural, you will make the relative pronoun plural as well. This includes if there are other cases involved (i.e. “az emberek, akiknek adtam a könyvet…” (the people, to whom I gave the book))

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mikor / amikor

Interrogative

Mikor megyünk a boltba? (When are we going to the store?)

Mikor kezdődik az óra? (When does the class begin?) 

Mikor nézted azt a filmet? (When did you watch that movie?)

Elfelejtettem, hogy mikor kezdődik a buli (I forgot when the party starts)

Relative

Láttam egy cicát, amikor mentünk a boltba (I saw a cat, (at the time) when I went to the store)

Mindig kólát iszom, amikor vacsorázom (I always drink coke, (at the times) when I eat dinner)

Amikor gyerek voltam, szerettem kint játszani (When I was a child, I loved playing outside)

Az anyukám mindig kiabál velem, amikor nem csinálom meg a házi feladatot (My mother always yells at me when I don’t do my homework)

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miért / amiért

“Miért“, as you probably know, means “why“, and it basically functions the same as in English.

Interrogative

Miért nem etted meg az almát? (Why didn’t you eat the apple?)

Miért tetszik neked az a szám? (Why do you like that song?)

Tudod, hogy miért nem jött Petra? (Do you know why Petra didn’t come?)

Relative

When it gets to “amiért“, however, there are a couple different ways it can be used.

First Usage

a + miért = REASON for something. A segue for the rest of the sentence, or referring back to the sentence as a whole. You could basically just replace it with “mert” (because) and it would still be fine.

[…] azért, amiért […] = azért, mert […]

–Miért nem beszélsz velem? (Why aren’t you talking to me?)
-Azért, amiért beárultál anyukámnak, hogy cigiztem (Because you snitched to my mom that I was smoking)
^literally “for that (reason), what for/for what…” It sounds a bit funky and redundant in English, but you can rephrase it as “for this reason (azért), which is that (amiért)….”

Börtönbe küldték a politikust, amiért kenőpénzt fogadott el (The politician was sent to prison for accepting bribes)
literally: “they sent the politician to prison, because he was accepting bribes“. As mentioned above, you could replace “amiért” with “mert“, and it would have the same meaning. There’s more information about the “azért, mert” construction in my post on -ért.

Rákényszerült a cég, hogy végleg bezárjon, amiért megszegte a törvényt (The company was forced to permanently shut down, the reason being that they broke the law)

Second Usage

This usage is fairly uncommon, but it’s helpful to know the difference.

ami + ért = PURPOSE of something. -ért is a modifier that means ‘for‘, and you can read the post about it here. In these cases, you can not just replace with “mert“.

-Melyik csomagért mentél ma a postára? (For which package did you go to the post office today?)

-Azért, amiért¹ a múltkor elfelejtettem ((I went) for the one that I forgot (to get) last time)
literally: for that (one), for which I forgot last time (again, the repetition of “for that/for which” sounds weird in English, but this is the normal construction in Hungarian).

¹You could also say “azért, amelyikért a múltkor elfelejtettem” ((I went) for the one which I forgot (to get) last time) – melyik/amelyik are covered farther down in the post

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mely / amely

“Mely” is literary and you will not use this in regular conversation. It basically means “which (one)” (i.e. “which countries have the best food?”) 

The plural, “melyek“ (which oneS), is still used, but only in the plural form. 

For the singular, nowadays, “melyik” is used. 

You can basically ignore “mely” and “amely” completely, but I’ll be explaining them all the same for anyone who wants to know.

“Amely” (plural: amelyek) functions basically the same as “ami” (plural: amik), as both are used to refer back to a noun. However, amely is more literary and formal, and it’s much less frequently used nowadays. Most people will just use “ami” regardless.

That said, there are technically ‘rules’ for when to use ami vs amely.

Amely(ek) can only refer back to an actual, countable, specific noun (or nouns) that were named and spelled out in the sentence.

Az ablakot, amelyet a rabló menekülés közben betört, ma kicserélték
(The window that the robber broke while fleeing, has been replaced today) – here you are referring to a single, specific window that you described in the first clause

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Note that the part of the sentence with the relative pronoun is basically an “extra” part inserted in between two parts of a single sentence. The beginning and end of the sentence still need to match grammatically even without the middle part with the relative pronoun.

With relative pronoun: Az ajtók, amelyeket a múlt héten rendeltük, végre megérkeztek (The doors, which we ordered last month, have finally arrived)

Without relative pronoun: Az ajtók¹ végre megérkeztek (The doors finally arrived)

¹Although in the middle part, “amyelyeket” is accusative, this middle part is basically its own sentence and does not have to match the rest grammatically. Amelyeket refers to the doors being ordered, a direct action that requires the accusative. The rest of the sentence is referring to the doors arriving, which is not a direct action (nothing is being done to the doors). Therefore, while “amelyeket” takes the accusative, the subject (az ajtók) does not.

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A sok víz, ami azóta lefolyt a Dunán (the large amount of water that has flowed down the Danube since then) – you can’t technically ‘count’ water, which makes it a more general noun and not specific enough for “amely“.

Megteszik, amit tudnak (They are doing what they can) – again, the “what” here is not a specific, countable noun, so it would take “ami” and not “amely“.

As I said above, it’s common now for people to just use “ami” in any situation, so you are safe just sticking to “ami” and the meaning comes across the same. As Alex puts it, “I don’t think I’ve ever used amely in actual speech in my LIFE”.

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melyik / amelyik

As mentioned above, “melyik” means “which (one)” (among a set of things). 

“amelyik” means “THE one which” (among a set of things – a specific, countable thing or person that is mentioned in the main clause – it follows the same “rules” as amely).
Plural: melyek (which oneS) ; amelyek (the –specific– oneS which)

Note: you might hear native Hungarians say “melyikek” or “amelyikek”. This is technically incorrect, but very common in casual speech.

Interrogative

Melyik inget kéred? (Which shirt are you looking for?)

Melyiket nézted? (Which one were you looking at?)

Relative

Kérem azt az inget, amelyiket tegnap láttam (I would like the shirt, which I saw yesterday)

Szeretném megvenni a filmet, amelyiket a múlt hónapban láttuk a moziban (I would like to buy the movie, which we saw at the cinema last month)

¹Amelyik(et) here is referring to a specific movie that you saw at a particular time and place. You could also replace with “ami(t)”, and in those cases you can be less specific (i.e. “szeretném megvenni a filmet, ami most moziban van” – I would like to see the film, that is in theaters right now) – this could be referring to several films, so the use of the less specific “ami” is appropriate.

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hogy(an) / ahogy(an)

The first thing to note is that “hogyan” and “ahogyan” are often shortened to “hogy” and “ahogy” respectively. The exception is when it is followed by a form of van (“to be”). Don’t confuse this with the other usage of “hogy” that I cover here.

Hogyan = how, the manner/method of something

Hogy(an) tanultad meg a magyar nyelvet? (How were you able to learn Hungarian?)

Hogy(an) festette Picasso ezt a képet?¹ (How did Picasso paint this picture)

¹This has a more broad meaning, and could be answered in many ways. How did he paint it – standing up, drunk, while sad, using his subconscious, in oil?

Alternatively, and to be more specific, you could say:

Milyen módszerrel festette Picasso ezt a képet?² (How/with what method did Picasso paint this picture?)

²In this case, it is more specifically referring to the medium/material Picasso painted with, in which case the only real viable answer would be “oil” (or whatever other medium).

Elnézést, hogy(an) juthatnék el a Nemzeti Színházhoz? (Excuse me, how would I get to the Nemzeti Színház?)

Hogy(an) tudtad megszerelni az autómat? (How did you fix my car?)
lit: “how were you able to fix my car” – asking for the specific way/method used to fix the car

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Hogy(an) vs Honnan

When asking about the source of information that someone knows (using the verb ‘tud‘), usually “honnan” (from where) is used, as opposed to “hogyan” (how/in what way).

For example: Honnan tudod a titkomat? (How/from where do you know my secret?) – asking for the source/where the information was learned from, rather than their specific method for acquiring the secret

-Már nem is hiányzom a Zsoltinak (Zsolti doesn’t even miss me anymore)
–Honnan tudod? (How/from where do you know (that)?) – in this case, it is implying that there wasn’t any source that they got the information from, and therefore they don’t actually know if it is true

-Rossz hírem van, srácok, bezárják a boltot és mindenkit kirúgnak (Bad news, guys, they’re gonna close the store and fire everyone)
–Honnan tudod?? (Where did you get that (information) from?)

It can be a little tricky sometimes, but the basic rules are this:

hogyan = what method did you utilize to acquire this knowledge/perform this task

honnan = from what source did you acquire this information

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Ahogyan = refers to the manner/method of something that has been brought up in the first clause. Note that it can not refer back to an actual noun, as there are better/more common ways for that.

The only things ahogyan can really refer back to are “azt” or “így / úgy“.
így = like this/in this way ; úgy = like that/in that way

Látod (azt), ahogy(an) mosolyog ez a férfi? (Do you see how/the way this guy is smiling?)

A munkából egyenesen a buliba mentem, úgy, ahogy(an) fel voltam öltözve (I went straight to the party from work, in the way/as/how I was already dressed)
literally: “from work I went straight to the party, like that, how I was dressed – meaning you didn’t change clothing after leaving work, and just wore your current outfit, and that is the manner (úgy) in which you went to the party.

Szórd meg a hús mindkét oldalát sóval így, ahogy(an) mutatom (Salt both sides of the meat like this, the way I’m showing you)

Nem tetszik, ahogy(an) az az ember méreget engem (I don’t like how/the way that guy is staring at me)