Két éve, két évig or két évre: "for two years" and "two years ago" in Hungarian

Use két éve with a present tense verb for "for two years, up to now": Két éve lakom itt. Use the same két éve with a past tense verb for a one-off event: Két éve költöztem ide, "I moved here two years ago". Use két évig for a stretch with an end (Két évig laktam ott), and két évre for the period an action sets up: Két évre jöttem, "I came for two years".

The three forms, defined

English "for two years" hides three different Hungarian forms. Each one is the noun év ("year") with a different ending.

• Két éve is a possessive time form. It is év plus the "his, her, its" ending -e (see possessive suffixes). Word for word it is "two years of it". Wiktionary lists this use under éve and names the same pattern for other time words: perce, órája, napja, hete, hónapja, évtizede and ideje ("its time").
• Két évig is év plus -ig, the case for "until, up to" (the terminative). With a length of time it means "for" that long.
• Két évre is év plus -ra/-re, the case for "onto" (the sublative). With time, Wiktionary glosses it "for, by".

The possessive form is the one that confuses people, because it has two meanings. Wiktionary's usage note gives the rule. With a durative verb in the present tense, it means "for". A durative verb describes a state or an activity that goes on: waiting, living, learning. With an instantaneous verb in the past tense, it means "ago". An instantaneous verb describes a one-off event: arriving, moving, leaving.

• Fél órája várom a vonatot. I have been waiting for the train for half an hour.
• Fél órája érkeztem meg. I arrived half an hour ago.

Same fél órája, two meanings. The verb decides. This is why our postpositions guide says that két éve does double duty and the tense tells the two apart.

The possessive form of each time word

Note hét → hete: the week word shortens its vowel before this ending. Wiktionary also lists másodperce (seconds) and évszázada (centuries) in the same set.

One move, seven sentences

Take a man called Bence. Suppose he moved to Szeged two years ago, in 2024. Before that he lived in Vienna for five years. On Friday he is going home to his parents for a week. And a form he owes his landlord has to be ready by Wednesday. Here is how each fact sorts.

1. The move. Moving is a one-off event, and it is over, so the possessive form with the past means "ago": Két éve költözött Szegedre.
2. His life there now. Living is durative, and it is still going on. Possessive form with the present: Két éve lakik Szegeden. English says "has been living", but Hungarian uses the present tense.
3. The Vienna years. A stretch that is over takes -ig: Előtte öt évig Bécsben lakott.
4. The trip home. The week is the period the trip sets up, so -re: Pénteken egy hétre hazautazik.
5. The form. A deadline is also -ra/-re: Szerdára kész lesz.
6. The starting point. A date or a moment takes óta, "since": 2024 óta lakik Szegeden.
7. His return. A length of time counted forward from now takes múlva: Egy hét múlva visszajön.

Sentences 1 and 2 use the very same két éve. Only the verb and its tense change.

"For" up to now: possessive form + present

When something started in the past and is still true, Hungarian uses the possessive time form and a present tense verb. English uses the present perfect ("have been waiting"). Hungarian does not.

• Fél órája várom a vonatot. I have been waiting for the train for half an hour.
• Egy órája várunk rád. We have been waiting for you for an hour.
• Hosszú ideje várunk rád. We have been waiting for you for a long time.
• Két éve lakom itt. I've been living here for two years.

The first three come from Wiktionary's entries for éve and the possessive ending -ja. Putting the verb in the past is the classic error; see the present tense.

The negative exception: 10 éve nem láttam

One past tense does mean "for, up to now": the negative. Wikipedia's Hungarian grammar gives 10 éve nem láttam, "I haven't seen him for 10 years". The logic holds. What lasts up to now is the not-seeing, and the last time you saw him lies in the past.

"Ago": possessive form + past, or -val/-vel ezelőtt

With an event that happened once, the possessive time form and the past tense mean "ago".

• Fél órája érkeztem meg. I arrived half an hour ago.
• Két éve ment el. She left two years ago.
• 10 éve költözött el. He moved away 10 years ago.

Look at megérkezik and elköltözik. The prefixes meg- and el- make the event complete and one-off (see verbal prefixes). That is the instantaneous kind of verb Wiktionary's note describes.

The longer form: -val/-vel ezelőtt

Ezelőtt is ez ("this") plus előtt ("before"). On its own it means "formerly, previously". As a postposition it means "ago", and Wiktionary notes that the noun before it takes -val/-vel: Három évvel ezelőtt történt, "It happened three years ago". Wikipedia gives the same pair side by side: 10 éve költözött el and 10 évvel ezelőtt költözött el, both "He moved away 10 years ago".

This form only ever means "ago", and Wikipedia pairs it with the past tense. So it cannot be misread as "for". The -val/-vel ending follows the instrumental rules, so the v turns into the last consonant after a consonant: perccel, órával, nappal, héttel, hónappal, évvel, évtizeddel. Do not mix the two forms. *Két éve ezelőtt is wrong; say két éve or két évvel ezelőtt.

A stretch with an end: -ig

Wiktionary gives -ig three senses: "up to" a place, "until" a time, and "for a specified length of time". Its example of the third: A levél olyan hosszú volt, hogy tíz percig olvastam, "The letter was so long that I read it for 10 minutes". The reading began and ended. That is the stretch with an end.

• 5 évig laktam Londonban. I lived in London for 5 years.
• Egy percig sem maradok itt! I won't stay here even for a minute!

Both come from Wikipedia. The second is not in the past. -ig marks a stretch with edges, and the stretch can lie in the past or the future. Compare the minimal pair:

• Két éve lakom itt. I've been living here for two years (and still am).
• Két évig laktam ott. I lived there for two years (and then left).

-ig or the accusative?

Hungarian has a second way to say how long: the accusative -t. Wikipedia's grammar draws a line by verb type. The accusative goes with dynamic verbs (2 órát segítettünk, "We helped for 2 hours"). -ig goes with stative verbs (5 évig laktam Londonban). The line is not sharp. The same article allows both with van: Három napot/napig volt távol, "He was away for three days". And Wiktionary's own -ig example uses olvas, "read", which is an activity.

The trap: két óráig maradunk

Because -ig means both "until" and "for", it can be ambiguous with hours. Wiktionary's usage note gives the example. Két óráig maradunk can mean "We'll stay until 2 o'clock" or "We'll stay for two hours". The clash comes from óra, which names both a length (an hour) and a clock time (two o'clock).

Wiktionary gives two ways out. For the length, use the accusative: Két órát maradunk, "We're staying for two hours". Or count forward from now: Két óra múlva indulunk, "We're leaving in two hours". For the clock time, drop óra. Without óra, the number "two" is kettő (see telling the time), so Kettőig maradunk can only mean "until two".

A planned period or a deadline: -ra/-re

-ra/-re measures the period that comes after the action, not the action itself. Wikipedia's grammar shows it with one trip described two ways:

• Három napra ment el. He left for three days.
• Három napot/napig volt távol. He was away for three days.

The leaving took a moment. The three days are the stay it set up, so they take -ra. Being away is the stay itself, so it takes the accusative or -ig. Wiktionary's short examples work the same way: egy pillanatra and egy percre, both "for a moment". In the worked example, egy hétre hazautazik follows this pattern: the trip sets up a week at home.

Deadlines: szerdára

With a day or a point in time, -ra/-re means "by". Wiktionary's examples are Kész lesz szerdára?, "Will it be ready by Wednesday?", and Kész lesz keddre?, "by Tuesday". -ig can also mean "by" with some verbs (Péntekig befejezem); the minor cases guide covers that use.

Since and from now: óta and múlva

Óta means "since". It follows a point in time and, like the possessive form, it takes the present tense for something still going on. Wiktionary's example: Hat óra óta dolgozom rajta, "I've been working on it since six o'clock". It also works with a person's era: Napóleon óta nem történt ilyen, "Such a thing hasn't happened since Napoleon's time".

Óta can also mean "for", as in Évek óta itt vagyok, "I've been here for years". Wiktionary marks this sense as less common. It adds that the possessive form is the more common choice when a number comes first. So "for two years, up to now" is két éve, and óta is best kept for a starting point: 2024 óta, hat óra óta, évek óta.

Múlva counts forward from now: "in" a length of time. It comes from múlik, "pass", and Wiktionary glosses it "after, at the end of the given amount of time". The noun before it has no ending: egy perc múlva, "in a minute"; kis idő múlva, "shortly, in a little while". Never use múlva for the past; that is ezelőtt or the possessive form.

Decision table: which form for which "for"

The case endings in the fourth column follow the usual rules. -ig never changes and lengthens a final a (óráig). -ra/-re follows vowel harmony. And hét keeps its long vowel before these endings (hétig, hétre, héttel), unlike in hete.

Four mistakes learners make

1. *Két éve laktam itt for "I've been living here for two years". If it is still true, the verb is present: Két éve lakom itt.
2. *Két éve ezelőtt for "two years ago". Pick one form: két éve or két évvel ezelőtt.
3. Két óráig maradunk when the length matters. It can be heard as "until two". Say Két órát maradunk for the length, or Kettőig maradunk for the clock time.
4. *Két év múlva költöztem ide for "two years ago". Múlva looks forward only. Use Két éve költöztem ide.

What this page does not settle

The table covers the English "for", "ago", "since" and "in" of time. It does not cover the other jobs of English "for". A person you do something for takes the dative, and fetching, price and reasons take -ért. Those are on their own pages.

Two lines on this page are soft, and the sources say so. The choice between -ig and the accusative for a length of time is a tendency by verb type, not a strict rule: Három napot/napig volt távol allows both. And whether a verb counts as durative or instantaneous is usually clear from the verb and its prefix, but the rule needs the context of the sentence. The firm rulings are these. The possessive form with the present means "for, up to now". With a past one-off event it means "ago". -val/-vel ezelőtt means "ago" only. Óta is "since" and múlva is "from now".

Sources and further reading

• Wiktionary, "éve": the usage note on possessive time forms ("for" with a durative present, "ago" with an instantaneous past), Fél órája várom a vonatot and Fél órája érkeztem meg, and the list ideje, másodperce, perce, órája, napja, hete, hónapja, évtizede, évszázada
• Wiktionary, "-ja": the paired examples két éve / egy órája / hosszú ideje ment el ("ago") and ... várunk rád ("for")
• Wiktionary, "-ig": the three senses, tíz percig olvastam, and the usage note on Két óráig maradunk with Két órát maradunk and Két óra múlva indulunk
• Wiktionary, "-ra" and "-re": the time sense "for, by", egy pillanatra, egy percre, Kész lesz szerdára? and Kész lesz keddre?
• Wiktionary, "ezelőtt", "óta" and "múlva": senses, the -val/-vel rule for ezelőtt, óta as "since" and less commonly "for", and múlva as "in"
• Wikipedia, "Hungarian grammar", section on expressing time: accusative with dynamic verbs and -ig with stative verbs, the negative past 10 éve nem láttam, 10 évvel ezelőtt, and Három napra ment el against Három napot/napig volt távol

Frequently asked questions