Valaki, senki or bárki: how do you say someone, no one and anyone in Hungarian?

Valaki is "someone", senki is "no one", bárki (or akárki) is "anyone at all" and mindenki is "everyone". English "anyone" is not one Hungarian word: in a question it is valaki (Láttál valakit?, "Did you see anyone?"), in a negative sentence it is senki (Nem láttam senkit, "I didn't see anyone"), and only when it means "no matter who" is it bárki.

One grid: question word plus prefix

None of these words has to be learned on its own. Each is a question word (ki "who", mi "what", hol "where", mikor "when", hogy "how") with a prefix in front. Wiktionary defines the four prefixes like this: vala- is "some- (attached to interrogative pronouns)"; se- is "none, no (person/thing/way/kind/place/...)"; bár- and its synonym akár- are "any (person/thing/way/kind/place/...)"; and mind- or minden- gives the "every-/all" column of its table of correlatives. The grid below is assembled from that table and the four prefix entries:

The bold cells are the ones that break the pattern. "Everything" is plain minden, not *mindenmi. "Always" and "never" are separate words, mindig and soha; Wiktionary's table does list semmikor, but soha is the word you need. "Neither, none of them" is usually egyik sem. And "nothing" is spelled semmi, with two m's. The last column is the subject of its own guide, minden or az összes, because minden also works before nouns.

The same grid has two more columns you already know: the a- relatives (aki, ami, ahol, see ami, amely or amelyik) and the e-/a- demonstratives (itt, ott, így, úgy, in ez or az). One question word, six prefixes, six meanings.

The trap: English "anyone" is three Hungarian words

English uses "anyone" in three different jobs, and Hungarian gives each job its own column. This is the single biggest source of mistakes with these words:

A question asks whether some person exists, so it uses the "some" word. Wiktionary records the phrasebook question under valaki itself:

• Beszél itt valaki angolul? Does anyone speak English here?
• Van itt valaki? Is anyone here?
• Kérsz valamit? Do you want anything?
• Voltál valahol a hétvégén? Did you go anywhere at the weekend?

A negative sentence uses the "no" word, and the verb is negated as well. English "I didn't see anyone" has one negative; Hungarian Nem láttam senkit has two, and both are required:

• Nem láttam senkit. I didn't see anyone.
• Nem kérek semmit. I don't want anything.
• Sehol nem találom a kulcsomat. I can't find my key anywhere.

Only when "anyone" means "any person you like, the choice is free" does Hungarian reach for bárki. Wiktionary glosses akárki as "whoever (no matter who)" and "any one out of an indefinite number of persons", with bárki as its synonym. The Hungarian Wikipedia's article on indefinite pronouns files them as megengedő névmások, "permissive pronouns", and its examples show the meaning:

• Ezt akárki megérti. Anyone (at all) can understand this.
• Itt beszélhetünk bármiről. We can talk about anything here.
• Bármelyik szálloda megfelel. Any hotel will do.

Notice how often the free-choice word comes with "can" or "will do". The -hat/-het ending (the potential) and bárki belong together naturally: Bárki jelentkezhet, "Anyone can apply".

Why the wrong version circulates

Dictionaries pair "anyone" with bárki: Wiktionary's own English entry for "anyone" lists only bárki and akárki. That is right for the English dictionary sense, "any person", but it leaves out the question and negative uses entirely. Learner pages then repeat the gap. Talkpal's "Senki vs. Bárki" lesson, one of the top results for this question, says bárki is typical in questions and gives Bárki látta a kulcsaimat? for "Has anyone seen my keys?". The everyday question is Látta valaki a kulcsaimat? The same page offers Bárki nem segíthet nekem ebben as a negative; "Nobody can help me with this" is Senki nem segíthet nekem ebben.

Senki, semmi, sehol: the verb must be negated too

The se- words never negate a sentence on their own. Wiktionary's note on soha states the rule for the whole column: like senki, semmi and sehol, it "is used with another word of negation". Before the verb that word is sem or nem; after the verb, nem goes in front of the verb:

• Senki nem telefonált. / Senki sem telefonált. Nobody phoned.
• Nem telefonált senki. Nobody phoned.
• Soha nem láttam még elefántot. I've never seen an elephant.
• Sosem láttam még elefántot. The same: sosem already contains the negative.

The last pair is Wiktionary's: sose and sosem have the sem built in, so no second negative follows. Where to put sem and nem, and what happens to verbal prefixes, is set out in negation: nem, ne, sem. *Láttam senkit is simply ungrammatical.

Vala-: some, and also "ever"

The vala- column is the plain "some" set, and it covers more of English than "some-" does:

• Csöngetett valaki. Someone rang the bell.
• Valami nyugtalanít. Something is bothering me.
• Csukd be valamelyik ablakot! Close one of the windows (either one).

Three members are worth knowing separately. Valaha (vala- + ha) means both "once, formerly" and "ever": Jobban érzem magam, mint valaha, "I feel better than ever". Valamikor is "sometime", and Wiktionary warns that it comes from vala- + mikor, not from valami. And másvalaki is "someone else": Azt hittem, te hívtál, de másvalaki volt, "I thought you called, but it was someone else".

Bár- or akár-: no difference to learn

Wiktionary lists bár- and akár- as synonyms, each with the same definition, and the Hungarian Wikipedia calls them "synonym prefixes". Bárki and akárki, bármi and akármi, bárhol and akárhol can be swapped. Pick one set for your own speech and recognise the other.

There is a third way to say the same thing, and it is the one learners rarely meet in textbooks: put csak after a relative pronoun. Wiktionary gives csak after aki, ami, ahol the sense "-ever, no matter", with bár- and akár- as synonyms:

• Amit csak kérsz, megadom neked. I'll give you whatever you want.
• Ahol csak járt, mindenütt barátokat szerzett. He made friends wherever he went.

And is after a bár-/akár- word turns it into "no matter": akármit is, "no matter what". Wiktionary's example: Bármilyen hosszúra nyúlt is az előadás..., "No matter how long the lecture went on...".

Bárki after nem: "not just anyone"

Because bárki means "anyone you like", negating it does not give "nobody". It gives "not just anyone": the speaker is choosy. The Hungarian Wikipedia's example:

• Nem olvasok akármilyen újságot. I don't read just any newspaper.
• Nem olvasok semmilyen újságot. I don't read any newspaper at all.

So the two words are not interchangeable even in a negative sentence. Nem engedek be akárkit means "I don't let just anybody in"; Nem engedek be senkit means "I don't let anyone in".

Endings and conjugation

All of the -ki and -mi words take case endings like ordinary nouns, with front vowels for the -ki words: valakit, valakinek, valakivel; senkit, senkinek; bárkit, bárkivel. The -mi words follow mi: valamit, valamiről; semmit, semmiről; bármit; but minden gives mindent.

As objects, they all take the indefinite conjugation, even mindent and mindenkit, which feel definite in English:

• Látok valakit. I see someone.
• Nem ismerek itt senkit. I don't know anyone here.
• Bárkit megkérdezhetsz. You can ask anyone.
• Mindenkit ismer. She knows everyone.

*Nem látom senkit is a typical slip. The full list of what counts as definite is in definite and indefinite conjugation.

Typical learner errors

1. *Láttál bárkit? for "Did you see anyone?" → Láttál valakit?
2. *Nem láttam bárkit. for "I didn't see anyone" → Nem láttam senkit. With akárkit it would mean "not just anyone".
3. *Láttam senkit. → Nem láttam senkit. The verb must be negated.
4. *Sosem nem láttam. → Sosem láttam or Soha nem láttam.
5. *mindenmi, *semikor → minden, soha; "always" is mindig.
6. *Nem tudom semmit. → Nem tudok semmit. These objects are indefinite.

Where the grid stops applying

• Gaps and doublets. Not every cell is a single regular word: minden, mindig, soha and egyik sem are the ones to memorise, and some cells have two forms (mindenhol and mindenütt, sehogy and semmiképp).
• "Anyone" in an "if" clause usually follows the question pattern: Ha valaki keres, szólj!, "If anyone asks for me, let me know". For ha itself, see ha or amikor.
• Bár and akár alone are different words: bár is "although" and akár ... akár is "whether ... or". Only the prefixed forms belong to this grid.

Sources and further reading

• Wiktionary, "vala-", "se-", "bár-" and "akár-" (Hungarian): prefix definitions, synonyms and derived terms, and the Hungarian table of correlatives with its notes on csak and is
• Wiktionary, "valaki", "senki", "bárki", "akárki", "valami", "valaha", "soha", "csak", "is" and "anyone"
• Wikipedia (Hungarian), "Határozatlan névmás": the indefinite, permissive, collective and negative pronoun classes and their example sentences
• Talkpal, "Senki vs. Bárki", for the common learner-site claim that bárki is used in questions

Frequently asked questions