Hungarian word order and focus
Hungarian word order is driven by meaning, not by subject and object. The typical sentence is topic + focus + verb + everything else: the element right before the verb is the focus (new or contrasted information), and a focused element, a question word or nem pushes the verbal prefix behind the verb.
On this page
Hungarian is often described as having "free" word order. It does not: the words can move, but every position carries a meaning. The same few words can say "János ate the cake", "It was János who ate the cake" or "What János ate was the cake", and the key to all of them is the slot immediately in front of the verb.
The sentence template
Hungarian syntax is usually described with a left-to-right template, following the work of Katalin É. Kiss:
| Topic | Quantifier / is phrases | Focus | Verb | Rest of the sentence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What the sentence is about (known, given) | mindenki, Mari is... | New, contrasted or exclusive information; question words | The finite verb | Everything else, in fairly free order |
| Péter | Marit | hívta | meg a buliba. |
The last row reads "It was Mari that Péter invited to the party." Subject and object can each appear in almost any slot, because the case endings (Marit has the accusative -t) already say who did what to whom. Position is therefore free to express something else: what is given, what is new and what is being contrasted.
Neutral sentences: the verb modifier slot
A neutral sentence answers "What happened?" with no special emphasis. In a neutral sentence the position before the verb is filled by a verb modifier, most often the verbal prefix itself:
- Péter meghívta Marit a buliba. Péter invited Mari to the party.
- A vonat megérkezett. The train has arrived.
When the verb has no prefix, other elements can act as its "prefix" in a neutral sentence: a bare noun object, a goal or a predicate adjective. These express a single activity together with the verb:
- Anna újságot olvas. Anna is reading the paper (doing newspaper-reading).
- Este tévét nézünk. In the evening we watch TV.
- Holnap Budapestre utazom. Tomorrow I'm travelling to Budapest.
- Mari beteg lett. Mari fell ill.
And if there is no verb modifier at all, a neutral sentence can simply start with the verb: Esik az eső. (It's raining.) Csörög a telefon. (The phone is ringing.)
Note: In a neutral sentence the prefix and the verb are pronounced as one word with stress on the prefix: MEGhívta. That stress pattern is your audible cue that no focus is present.
The focus position before the verb
To focus an element, put it immediately before the finite verb and stress it. Focus in Hungarian is exhaustive: it means "this one, and not the others", like an English cleft sentence (It was X who...). The crucial side effect is that the verbal prefix can no longer stand before the verb, so it moves behind it:
- PÉTER hívta meg Marit a buliba. It was Péter who invited Mari to the party.
- Péter MARIT hívta meg a buliba. It was Mari that Péter invited to the party.
- Péter a BULIBA hívta meg Marit. It was to the party that Péter invited Mari.
- HOLNAP utazom Budapestre. It's tomorrow that I'm travelling to Budapest.
- Én utazom holnap Budapestre. I am the one who's travelling to Budapest tomorrow.
The last example shows why subject pronouns appear at all in a pro-drop language: Utazom is enough to say "I travel", so adding én in front of the verb marks it as focus. Én fizetek. means "I'm paying" in the sense "it's on me".
Words like csak (only) always create a focus, so they also trigger separation: Csak Mari jött el. "Only Mari came."
When the verbal prefix separates
This is the most practical rule on the page. The verbal prefix (meg, el, be, ki, fel, le, haza...) stays in front of the verb only in positive, unfocused, indicative sentences. It moves behind the verb in these situations:
| Trigger | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Neutral (no separation) | Elmentem. | I left. |
| Focus | Tegnap mentem el. | It was yesterday that I left. |
| Negation with nem | Nem mentem el. | I didn't leave. |
| Question word | Mikor mentél el? | When did you leave? |
| csak (only) | Csak én mentem el. | Only I left. |
| Negative pronoun + sem | Senki sem ment el. | Nobody left. |
| Imperative | Menj el! | Go away! |
| Prohibition with ne | Ne menj el! | Don't go! |
And these do not separate the prefix, because they are not focus: is (also), universal quantifiers and most adverbs of time.
- Mari is eljött. Mari came too.
- Mindenki megérkezett. Everyone has arrived.
- Már elment. He/she has already left.
Auxiliary verbs pull the prefix forward
With akar (want), fog (future), tud (can), szokott (usually does) and similar verbs, a neutral sentence moves the prefix of the infinitive in front of the auxiliary. Focus or negation keep it on the infinitive:
- Meg akarom nézni a filmet. I want to watch the film.
- Nem akarom megnézni a filmet. I don't want to watch the film.
- A FILMET akarom megnézni, nem a meccset. It's the film I want to watch, not the match.
- Holnap el fogok menni. I will leave tomorrow.
See the future tense for more on fog.
Question words sit in the focus slot
A question word always goes into the focus position, directly before the verb, and separates the prefix just like any other focus. The answer usually puts the new information in the same slot:
- Ki hívta meg Marit? Who invited Mari?
- Péter hívta meg. Péter did (it was Péter who invited her).
- Kit hívott meg Péter? Whom did Péter invite?
- Mikor jössz haza? When are you coming home?
Note the verb forms: kit is an indefinite object, so it takes the indefinite hívott, while Marit is definite and takes hívta. See definite and indefinite conjugation. Yes/no questions need no word-order change at all: Meghívta Péter Marit? or Péter meghívta Marit? are both fine, marked by rise-fall intonation. More on this in asking questions.
Same words, different orders: a worked set
Here are the words János, megette (ate up) and a tortát (the cake) arranged in different ways. Capitals mark the main stress.
| Hungarian | Structure | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| János MEGette a tortát. | topic + neutral verb | János ate the cake. (plain report about János) |
| A tortát MEGette János. | topic (cake) + neutral verb | The cake got eaten by János. (the report is about the cake) |
| JÁNOS ette meg a tortát. | focus + verb | It was János who ate the cake (not someone else). |
| A tortát JÁNOS ette meg. | topic + focus + verb | As for the cake, it was János who ate it. |
| János a TORTÁT ette meg. | topic + focus + verb | What János ate was the cake (not the biscuits). |
| János NEM ette meg a tortát. | negated verb | János didn't eat the cake. |
| NEM JÁNOS ette meg a tortát. | negated focus | It wasn't János who ate the cake. |
| János MEG is ette a tortát. | emphasised prefix + is | János actually did eat the cake. |
An English speaker achieves the same effects mainly with stress (JOHN ate the cake) or with cleft sentences. Hungarian uses both stress and position, and the position is not optional: *JÁNOS megette a tortát with focus stress on János is ungrammatical, because the prefix must leave the preverbal slot.
Contrastive topic
A topic said with a rising tone sets up a contrast: A tortát megettem, a pogácsát nem. "The cake I ate, the scones I didn't." The negated half leaves out the verb entirely.
Typical learner errors
- Keeping the prefix under negation. *Nem megettem; correct Nem ettem meg. (See negation.)
- Keeping the prefix after a question word. *Ki megette a tortát?; correct Ki ette meg a tortát?
- Putting the question word at the start by English habit, far from the verb. *Mikor Péter megérkezett?; correct Mikor érkezett meg Péter?
- Adding subject pronouns everywhere. Én tanár vagyok is not wrong, but it contrasts you with someone else ("I, for my part, am a teacher"). The neutral sentence is simply Tanár vagyok.
- Separating the prefix after is. *Mari is jött el; correct Mari is eljött.
Memory trick: think of the slot before the verb as a single chair. Only one thing can sit in it: the prefix if nothing is special, otherwise the focus, the question word or nem. Whoever loses the chair stands behind the verb.
Sources and further reading
- Katalin É. Kiss, The Syntax of Hungarian (Cambridge University Press, 2002), chapters on topic, focus and the verb modifier
- István Kenesei, Robert M. Vago and Anna Fenyvesi, Hungarian (Descriptive Grammars series, Routledge, 1998), syntax chapter
- Carol H. Rounds, Hungarian: An Essential Grammar (2nd ed., Routledge, 2009), on word order and verbal prefixes
Key takeaways
- The template is topic + (quantifiers) + focus + verb + rest.
- The slot right before the verb holds either the verb modifier (neutral) or the focus.
- Focus, nem, question words, csak and imperatives push the verbal prefix behind the verb.
- is, mindenki and már do not: Mari is eljött.
- Subject pronouns placed before the verb are focus: Én fizetek. "I'm paying."
Frequently asked questions
Is Hungarian word order free?
No. The words can appear in many orders, but each order means something different, because position marks topic and focus. Grammatical roles are shown by case endings, which frees word order to show emphasis.
What is the focus position in Hungarian?
It is the position immediately before the finite verb. An element there is stressed and understood exclusively, as in PÉTER hívta meg Marit, "It was Péter who invited Mari".
Why is it "nem ettem meg" and not "nem megettem"?
nem occupies the slot before the verb, so the verbal prefix meg has to move behind it. The same happens with focused elements and question words.
What is the basic word order of Hungarian: SVO or SOV?
Neither label fits well. Hungarian is usually described as topic-prominent: topic first, then focus, then the verb. Neutral sentences often look like SVO (Péter meghívta Marit), but SOV and other orders are equally grammatical with different emphasis.
Where does the question word go in Hungarian?
Directly before the verb, in the focus slot, with the verbal prefix moving after the verb: Mikor érkezett meg Péter?