Welcome to C1! People often say that Hungarian word order is "free". That is only half true. It is free in the sense that subject, object and verb can come in almost any order, because the case endings show who is doing what. But it is not random. Every order means something slightly different, and Hungarians hear the difference at once. This lesson explains the system behind it. Once you understand it, a lot of things you have been copying by ear will suddenly make sense, especially where the verbal prefix goes.
The basic idea: topic, focus, verb
A Hungarian sentence is built around the verb. Before the verb there are two important positions:
- The topic, at the very start: what the sentence is about. It is usually something already known.
- The focus, directly in front of the verb: the new or important information, the part that answers a question or makes a contrast.
Everything after the verb is just "the rest", and the order there is fairly free.
| Topic | Focus | Verb | The rest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anna | tegnap | írta meg | a levelet. |
| A levelet | Anna | írta meg | tegnap. |
The first sentence means "Anna wrote the letter yesterday" (not today). The second means "The letter was written by Anna" (not by someone else). The words are the same. Only the order, and with it the meaning, has changed.
Stress follows the focus
The focus always gets the strongest stress in the sentence, and the verb after it is said without any stress at all. If you say ANNA írta meg a levelet, you are saying "it was Anna who wrote it". This is why English speakers often translate focus with a cleft sentence ("It was Anna who...") or with heavy stress ("Anna wrote it").
Neutral sentences: the prefix goes first
Not every sentence has a focus. A neutral sentence just reports what happened, with nothing emphasised. In a neutral sentence, the slot in front of the verb is taken by the verbal prefix (Lesson 14), and the prefix is joined to the verb:
Anna megírta a levelet. (Anna wrote the letter.)
Péter tegnap elutazott Bécsbe. (Peter left for Vienna yesterday.)
Megjött a levél. (The letter has arrived.)
Bementünk a boltba. (We went into the shop.)
This is the most important rule in the lesson: the slot directly before the verb can only hold one thing. In a neutral sentence it holds the prefix. When something else needs that slot (a focus, the word nem, a question word), the prefix has to move out of the way, and it goes after the verb.
Focus pushes the prefix out
Compare these sentences carefully. In each one, a different part is in focus, so the prefix meg moves after the verb:
Anna írta meg a levelet. (It was Anna who wrote the letter.)
Anna tegnap írta meg a levelet. (Anna wrote the letter yesterday (not some other day).)
Anna a levelet írta meg, nem a jelentést. (Anna wrote the letter, not the report.)
And here is the same thing with el:
Péter elutazott Bécsbe. (Peter left for Vienna.) Neutral.
Péter Bécsbe utazott el. (It was Vienna that Peter left for.)
Péter utazott el Bécsbe. (It was Peter who left for Vienna.)
Focus means "this one and no other"
Hungarian focus is exclusive. Anna írta meg a levelet doesn't only say that Anna wrote it. It says that Anna, and nobody else, wrote it. That is why you often see the focus followed by a correction: Nem Anna írta meg a levelet, hanem Péter. (It wasn't Anna who wrote the letter, it was Peter.) After a negative, "but" is hanem, not de.
Negation pushes the prefix out
The word nem also wants the slot in front of the verb. So in a negative sentence the prefix moves after the verb:
Anna nem írta meg a levelet. (Anna didn't write the letter.)
Még nem jött meg a levél. (The letter hasn't arrived yet.)
Nem mentünk be a boltba. (We didn't go into the shop.)
If you put nem in front of some other word, you deny only that word, and that word becomes the focus:
Nem Anna írta meg a levelet. (It wasn't Anna who wrote the letter.)
Nem tegnap írta meg. (She didn't write it yesterday (but on another day).)
Question words are always in focus
A question word (ki?, mit?, mikor?, hova? and so on) is the most important part of its sentence, so it always goes in the focus slot, directly in front of the verb. The prefix follows the verb:
Ki írta meg a levelet? (Who wrote the letter?)
Mikor jössz haza? (When are you coming home?)
Hova utazott el Péter? (Where did Peter go?)
Mit vettél meg? (What did you buy?)
Kivel mentél el moziba? (Who did you go to the cinema with?)
Notice that a topic can still come before the question word: Péter hova utazott el? (Where did Peter go?) is just as correct, and makes Peter the topic.
A yes/no question has no question word, so it is neutral, and the prefix stays in front. Only the intonation shows that it is a question:
Megírtad a levelet? (Have you written the letter?)
Hazajössz holnap? (Are you coming home tomorrow?)
And the natural answer repeats the prefix, which is the Hungarian way of saying "yes":
Meg. (Yes (I have).) A one-word answer: just the prefix.
Commands
You saw in Lesson 21 that in a command the prefix also goes after the verb: Írd meg a levelet! (Write the letter!) With ne it stays after: Ne írd meg! (Don't write it!)
Verbs with infinitives
With akar, tud, szeretne, kell, fog and similar words, the prefix of the infinitive climbs up in front of the first verb in a neutral sentence:
Meg akarom írni a levelet. (I want to write the letter.)
Meg fogom írni. (I will write it.)
El kell mennem. (I have to go.)
Haza tudsz jönni? (Can you come home?)
When something else takes the slot, the prefix stays on the infinitive, joined to it:
Nem akarom megírni a levelet. (I don't want to write the letter.)
Nem fogom megírni. (I won't write it.)
Holnap kell elmennem. (It's tomorrow that I have to go.)
Ki tud hazajönni? (Who can come home?)
Other words in the slot
The prefix is not the only thing that can sit in front of the verb in a neutral sentence. A bare noun (one with no article) also goes there, and so does a word that completes the verb's meaning, such as the destination of költözik:
Anna levelet ír. (Anna is writing a letter / letters.) An activity: "letter-writing".
Péter újságot olvas. (Peter is reading the paper.)
Tévét nézünk. (We are watching TV.)
Anna Budapestre költözik. (Anna is moving to Budapest.)
Péter beteg lett. (Peter has fallen ill.)
Compare Anna ír egy levelet. (Anna is writing a letter, one particular letter) with Anna levelet ír. (Anna is busy letter-writing). These words behave just like prefixes. In a negative, they move after the verb: Anna nem ír levelet. (Anna isn't writing a letter.)
Csak and is
Two little words cause a lot of confusion: csak (only) and is (also, too). They behave in opposite ways.
Csak makes a focus
Csak goes in front of the word it limits, and that word becomes the focus. So the prefix moves after the verb:
Csak Anna jött el. (Only Anna came.)
Csak egy kávét kérek. (I'd just like a coffee.)
Csak holnap jövök haza. (I'm not coming home until tomorrow.) Literally "only tomorrow".
Csak tegnap tudtam meg. (I only found out yesterday.)
Is does not
Is comes after the word it adds to, and that word is not a focus. So the prefix stays in front of the verb:
Anna is eljött. (Anna came too.)
Én is kérek egy kávét. (I'd like a coffee too.)
Holnap is eljövök. (I'll come tomorrow as well.)
When is comes between the prefix and the verb, it adds emphasis to the action itself: "and indeed did it".
Megígérte, és meg is csinálta. (He promised, and he actually did it.)
El is felejtettem! (I'd completely forgotten!)
A quick test
If you are unsure where the prefix goes, ask: is anything other than the prefix fighting for the slot in front of the verb? A focus, nem, csak + word, a question word, or a command form? If yes, the prefix goes after the verb. If no, it goes in front. Words with is and ordinary topics don't count.
Putting it all together
Here is one piece of news, Péter megvette a kenyeret (Peter bought the bread), told in six different ways:
| Hungarian | What it means |
|---|---|
| Péter megvette a kenyeret. | Peter bought the bread. (Neutral.) |
| Péter vette meg a kenyeret. | It was Peter who bought the bread. |
| Péter a kenyeret vette meg. | What Peter bought was the bread. |
| A kenyeret Péter vette meg. | As for the bread, Peter bought it. |
| Péter nem vette meg a kenyeret. | Peter didn't buy the bread. |
| Péter is megvette a kenyeret. | Peter bought the bread too. |
You can read more on the grammar page on word order.
Conclusion
Word order is where Hungarian stops being a set of endings and becomes a way of thinking. Don't expect to get it right every time straight away. Listen for it: each time you hear a prefix after a verb, ask yourself what has taken its place. Learn the Vocabulary and practise with the Exercises. In Lesson 23 you will learn the participles, which let you pack a whole clause into a single word.