Lesson Nine: Past Tense

Vocabulary
Grammar
Exercises

Page last updated December 8, 1997.

Vocabulary

park (-ot) - park
játszik - to play
sör (-t) - beer
kávé (-t) - coffee
jegy (-et) - ticket
ad - to give
utca ('-t) - street
drága - expensive
olcsó - cheap
akkor - then
után - after (postposition: follows the noun) vacsora - dinner
kap - to get

A gyerekek a parkban jatszanak.
The children are playing in the park.

A bor nagyon drága, de a sör olcsó.
Wine is very expensive, but beer is cheap.

Vacsora után kérek kávét.
After dinner, I want (to have) coffee.

Grammar

Past Tense: Indefinite and Definite Conjugations

Like the present tense, the verbs in the past tense have separate endings for the definite and indefinite conjugations, and of course different endings for front and back vowel verbs. Also like the present, verb stems ending in certain letters or letter combinations have special rules. The past tense is characterized by the letter t plus a suffix, which usually looks similar to the present tense suffix. However, it is more complicated than just that. Here are the suffixes for the past tense with the rules governing their use following:
Indefinite Conjugation

	singular	plural
1st person	-am, -em	-unk, -ünk
2nd person	-ál, -él	atok, -etek
3rd person	----	-ak, ek

Definite Conjugation

	singular	plural
1st person	-am, -em	-uk, -ük
2nd person	-ad, -ed	átok, -étek
3rd person	-a, -e	-ák, ék

The Very Important Rules:

When conjugating a verb in the past you must consider four things: person, vowel harmony, indefinite/definite, and which category it falls into (see below).

Category 1: Verb stems ending in l, r, n, ny, or j (e.g. tanul, kér) take t plus any of the suffixes (stem + t + suffix).

Category 2: Verb stems ending in 2 consonants (e.g. ért) OR -ít (e.g. tanít) OR monosyllabic stems ending in t (e.g. jut) take ott/ett/ött before the suffixes.

Category 3: All other stems take t before the suffix, EXCEPT in the 3rd person singular indefinite form which takes the suffix ott/ett/ött (+ zero suffix).

Note 1: The verbs látni, küldeni, mondani (to say), and kezdeni (to start) fall into category 3, NOT 2 as expected.

Note 2: Many verbs, including lenni 'to be', enni 'to eat', and inni 'to drink' have irregular past tenses. As a rule, verbs with irregular infinitves have irregular pasts.

Here are some sample conjugations, followed by some sentences using the past tense:
kérni + t (category 1)

	indefinite	definite
1st sing.	kértem	kértem
2nd sing.	kértél	kérted
3rd sing.	kért	kérte
1st plural	kértünk	kértük
2nd plural	kértetek	kértétek
3rd plural	kértek	kérték

játszani + ott (category 2)

	indefinite	definite
1st sing.	játszottam	játszottam
2nd sing.	játszottál	játszottad
3rd sing.	játszott	játszotta
1st plural	játszottunk	játszottuk
2nd plural	játszottatok	játszottátok
3rd plural	játszottak	játszották

adni + t; except 3rd sing. indef. + ott (category 3)

	indefinite	definite
1st sing.	adtam	adtam
2nd sing.	adtál	adtad
3rd sing.	adott	adta
1st plural	adtunk	adtuk
2nd plural	adtatok	adtátok
3rd plural	adtak	adtátok

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Exercises

Translate the following sentences into English:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Translate the following into Hungarian:

6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Click here for the answers.

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