Minden, mind, összes or mindegyik: how do you say "all", "every" and "each" in Hungarian?

"All the students" and "every student" are both minden diák or az összes diák, with the noun in the singular. "Everything" is minden, "everyone" is mindenki, and "all of them" or "each of them" is mind or mindegyik. The choice matters most when the word is an object: Mindent megnézek ("I'll look at everything") takes the indefinite verb, Mindet megnézem ("I'll look at all of them") the definite.

The rule: a noun, a pronoun, or a known group?

Hungarian sorts these words by grammar, not by the English "all" and "every". Ask two questions.

1. Is there a noun after the word? Then you need a determiner: minden, az összes, or mindegyik. All three take the noun in the singular, so the difference between "all" and "every" disappears.
2. Does the word stand alone? Then ask whether it refers to a group the listener already has in mind. "Everything" and "everyone" in general are mindent and mindenki. "All of them" and "each of them", meaning particular things just mentioned, are mind, mindegyik or az összes.

The second question also decides the verb. Wiktionary's usage note on minden puts it in one pair: the pronoun mind is a definite object (mindet megnézem, "I'll have a look at all of them"), while minden ("everything") is indefinite (mindent megnézek, "I'll have a look at everything"). Known group, definite verb; open-ended "everything", indefinite verb.

All the words in one table

Every word Hungarian uses for "all", "every", "each" and "whole", with the noun number and the verb form each one takes as an object. Where a Wiktionary entry has an example sentence, the table uses it.

Mindenki has no plural forms in Wiktionary's declension table, so its verb is always singular. The valamennyi row is not a misprint: see below.

Minden diák, az összes diák: the noun stays singular

Wiktionary states it for both words: minden means "every" and is "used with the noun in singular", and az összes means "all, every", "used with definite article and the noun in singular". The verb is singular too, as tart is in Wiktionary's Az összes bolt zárva tart holnap. This is the same rule that gives két alma and sok ember, set out on the plural page.

• Minden diák átment a vizsgán. Every student passed the exam. / All the students passed the exam.
• Az összes diák átment a vizsgán. All the students passed the exam.
• Minden ablak nyitva van. All the windows are open.

*Minden diákok and *az összes diákok are the classic English-speaker errors. The plural survives only in archaic phrases Wiktionary lists: mindenekelőtt ("first of all", literally "before everything"), minden oroszok cárja ("Tsar of all the Russias"), and összes művei or összes versei on the cover of someone's complete works or collected poems. Do not build new phrases on them.

Minden or az összes?

Wiktionary gives each as a synonym of the other, and in a sentence like the one above either is correct. The difference is the article. Az összes always has az, so it points to a definite set the listener can identify: the shops in this town, the students in this class. Minden has no article (the articles page lists minden nap among the phrases with no article), so it is the word for general statements. The proverbs Wiktionary lists under minden are general truths of this kind: Minden kezdet nehéz ("Every beginning is hard"), Minden út Rómába vezet ("All roads lead to Rome").

For "each and every", use minden egyes or mindegyik.

Mindent megnézek, mindet megnézem: which verb form

Hungarian verbs have two sets of endings depending on whether the object is definite (explained in full on the definite and indefinite conjugation page). The "all" words split cleanly between the two.

Mindent is open-ended, "everything there is"; mindet, mindegyiket and az összeset mean "all of them", a set already on the table. Az összes also carries an article, and an object with a or az always takes the definite verb.

So Mindent megnézek and Mindet megnézem differ in meaning: in a museum you look at everything; handed a stack of photos, you look at all of them. In the past tense the 1st person singular endings of the two sets coincide (megnéztem serves both), so the choice shows most clearly in the present.

Mind after a plural: A diákok mind átmentek

Mind is the odd one out, because it can come after the group it refers to, like English "the students all passed". Wiktionary lists it as an adverb meaning "with everyone, all (usually of persons)", synonymous with mindnyájan and mindannyian, and its example has a plural verb: Mind összegyűltek a ház előtt, "They all gathered in front of the house".

• A diákok mind átmentek a vizsgán. The students all passed the exam.
• A vendégek mind összegyűltek a ház előtt. The guests all gathered in front of the house.
• Mindannyian ott voltunk. We were all there.

Notice the number. The plural noun a diákok is fine here because mind is not standing in front of it as a determiner, and the verb is plural. Compare Minden diák átment: singular noun, singular verb. Used as a pronoun, though, mind is "grammatically singular" in Wiktionary's words: A fogaim nem jók, de még mind megvan, "My teeth are not perfect, but I still have all of them", with the singular megvan.

Why mind is not just another minden

Ágnes Bende-Farkas, analysing mind in Old Hungarian, argues that it "operates on pluralities" and points to its affinity for demonstratives (mind ezek, "all these", in old and modern Hungarian alike; Wiktionary also has the compound mindez, "all this"). She also notes that mind "was (and still is) compatible with collective and reciprocal predication (unlike minden)". In practice that means predicates that only make sense of a group as a whole, or of members acting on each other:

• A diákok mind ismerik egymást. The students all know each other.
• *Minden diák ismeri egymást. (wrong: "each other" needs a plural, and minden diák is singular)

With egymás ("each other"), start from a plural noun and add mind.

"Both" is mindkét plus a singular noun: Mindkét férfinak igaza volt, "Both men were right". Like két, it stands only before a noun; alone it is mindkettő (see numbers).

Valamennyi: the word that means "some" and "all"

Wiktionary files valamennyi as a contranym. Without stress it means "some"; formal and stressed, it means "all", synonymous with mind and összes. As an object, the verb ending gives the meaning away:

• Valamennyit elvittek. They have taken away some of it. (indefinite -tek, stress on el)
• Valamennyit elvitték. They have taken away all of it. (definite -ték, stress on va-)

This is the same rule as mindent against mindet, compressed into one word: "some" is open, "all of it" is a known whole. In speech the stress decides; the word order and focus page explains how stress and focus work in a Hungarian sentence. As a learner, you can use valamennyi safely only in reading. When you mean "all", say az összes, and for "all of them" Wiktionary gives valamennyiük.

Egész: "all" of one thing

When "all" means "the whole of" ("all day"), Hungarian uses egész, "whole, entire, complete (with all parts included, with nothing missing)", with a singular noun.

• egész nap all day
• Ezek a gépek az egész világon elterjedtek. These machines spread across the whole world.
• az egész the whole thing

So minden nap is "every day", one day after another, and egész nap is "all day", one day from start to finish.

Typical learner errors

• *minden diákok, *az összes diákok. The noun is singular: minden diák, az összes diák.
• *összes diák without the article. Az összes always has az.
• *Mindent megnézem, *Mindegyiket megnézek. The verb forms are the other way round: Mindent megnézek, Mindegyiket megnézem.
• *Mindenki voltak ott. Mindenki is singular: Mindenki ott volt, or Mindannyian ott voltak with a plural verb.

"Nobody" and "not everyone" are a separate pair. "Nobody came" is not minden with nem but Senki sem jött, with the matching negative word; the nem, ne and sem page covers how it pairs with sem. For "a lot of" and "many", which also take a singular noun, see nagyon or sok.

Where the rules stop

• The Bende-Farkas findings. Her abstract analyses Old Hungarian. Of the points quoted here, she marks the compatibility with collective and reciprocal predicates as still true today; the rest describes the older language.
• Relative clauses. "Everything that" is minden, ami (mindent, amit), never amely; see ami, amely, amelyik.

Sources and further reading

• Wiktionary, "minden" (Hungarian): determiner with a singular noun, archaic plurals, the usage note on mindent megnézek and mindet megnézem, synonyms mindegyik, minden egyes
• Wiktionary, "mind": pronoun (grammatically singular), adverb with a plural verb
• Wiktionary, "összes", "mindegyik", "mindenki", "valamennyi", "egész", "mindannyian", "mindkét", "minden egyes" and "mindez"
• Ágnes Bende-Farkas, "The Semantics of Floating Mind 'All' in Old Hungarian", abstract, 11th International Conference on the Structure of Hungarian (ICSH11), Budapest, 2013

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