Csinál or tesz: which Hungarian verb means do, make or put?

Use csinál for everyday "do" and for making a thing: Mit csinálsz?, "What are you doing?", Vacsorát csinálok, "I'm making dinner". Use tesz for "put" (Tedd az asztalra!, "Put it on the table!") and for making something into a state: boldoggá tesz, "makes happy". The quick test is what comes out: a new object means csinál; a thing moved, or a thing changed, means tesz.

The rule: a new thing, a moved thing, a changed thing

Both verbs translate "do", and Wiktionary lists each as a synonym of the other in that sense. Beyond it they part. Wiktionary gives csinál one other sense, "to make", with készít and alkot as synonyms. It gives tesz four, and the two that matter most are "to place, to put" with a where-to case, and "to make (to cause to be)" with the result in -vá/-vé.

• Mit csinálsz ma este? What are you doing tonight?
• Csináltam egy széket! I made a chair!
• Hova tetted a kulcsot? A táskádba tettem. Where did you put the key? I put it in your bag.
• Ez a hír boldoggá tett. This news made me happy.

"Tesz never means make": where that breaks

The rule most learner guides give is the one Catch Budapest states outright: "You must not use 'csinál' for 'to put' and 'tesz' for 'to make.'" The first half is right. Csinál never means "put", and *Csináld az asztalra is not Hungarian. The second half is right only for objects. You cannot tesz a chair, a cake or a sandwich into existence.

It is wrong for the "make" that means "cause to be": make someone happy, make something possible. That "make" is tesz, and Wiktionary's translation table for English "make" gives tesz for the senses "to cause to be" and "to indicate or suggest to be". The rule persists because beginners meet "make a thing" first, and there it holds.

• Az új híd lehetővé teszi, hogy gyalog is átjussunk. The new bridge makes it possible to cross on foot.

Decision table: which verb for which English word

Common uses of do, make and put, with the Hungarian verb and its frame. The rows that are neither verb are where English speakers slip most.

Hungarian has no all-purpose "make" for decisions, mistakes, money and beds. Wiktionary translates "make a decision" as döntést hozni, literally "bring a decision", and "make a mistake" as téved, hibázik, hibát követ el or hibát ejt, with no csinál or tesz among them. For "make + noun", look up the noun, not the verb.

Csinál: doing and making

Csinál is the verb of ordinary activity. Wiktionary gives mit csinálsz? as the informal and mit csinál? as the formal translation of "what are you doing?", and Catch Budapest's advice is the same: for a casual "what are you doing tonight?" you use csinál, not tesz.

• Nem csinál mást, csak olvas. He does nothing but read.
• Ebédet csinál. She's making lunch.
• Viccet csinál mindenből. He makes a joke of everything.
• Orvost csinált a fiából. He made a doctor of his son.

The last example is csinál's answer to "make into": the new identity is the object, and the person or material it is made from goes into -ból/-ből. Two more senses are worth knowing. Úgy csinál, mintha... means "acts as if, pretends", which the Hungarian Wiktionary labels humorous. And used without an object and with a place, csinál is a euphemism for soiling oneself, the dictionary's example being A nadrágjába csinált, so do not leave its object out.

The other "make" for objects is készít, "to make, prepare, construct", which Wiktionary lists first for "make" in the sense "to construct": Szendvicset készítek and Szendvicset csinálok describe the same sandwich.

Megcsinál and csináltat

With meg-, Wiktionary gives two senses: "to do, to make, to prepare", the completed version of csinál, and "to repair, to mend, to fix". So Megcsináltad? is "Have you done it?" or "Did you fix it?" The causative csináltat, "to have something done or made", is how Hungarian says "I'm having it made" or "I'm getting it repaired"; its forms are on the causative page.

• A szerelő gyorsan megcsinálta a mosógépet. The repairman fixed the washing machine quickly.
• Megcsináltatom a cipőmet. I'm having my shoes repaired.

Tesz as "put": always a where-to case

Wiktionary's gloss for the "put" sense is "with lative": the place takes a case answering "where to?", not "where?". That means -ba/-be, -ra/-re, -hoz/-hez/-höz or a where-to postposition such as mellé or alá, as after verbs of motion (see local cases).

• Tedd a tejet a hűtőbe! Put the milk in the fridge!
• Az asztalra tettem a leveledet. I put your letter on the table.

Wiktionary lists rak, helyez and pakol as synonyms. Rak is the other everyday "put" (Rakd el a játékokat!, "Put the toys away!"); helyez is labelled formal: szabadlábra helyez, "release on parole". With a prefix, tesz produces most of the English phrasal verbs with "put":

Feltesz also poses a question in formal Hungarian, kérdést tesz fel; everyday asking is on the page about kér and kérdez.

Tesz + -vá/-vé: making something into a state

This is the "make" that the "tesz never means make" rule forgets. The result goes into the translative case, -vá/-vé, whose v turns into a copy of a final consonant: boldog → boldoggá, nevetséges → nevetségessé. The full rule is on the minor cases page. Wiktionary names the intransitive partner too: what tesz does to something, the thing itself does with válik, "become".

• Az internet lehetővé tette a távmunkát. The internet made remote work possible.
• A távmunka lehetővé vált. Remote work became possible.

Some fixed expressions on this frame have drifted far from their parts, such as lóvá tesz, literally "make into a horse", meaning "deceive, make a fool of", which it traces to the folk belief that witches turned their victims into horses and flew on them; and próbára tesz, "put to the test", which uses -ra instead.

Tesz as "do": deeds, blame and "I'll see to it"

When tesz means "do", it is about acts and their consequences rather than how you spend your time. Catch Budapest calls it "slightly more formal and official" than csinál. Wiktionary's examples are orders, things done to someone (-val/-vel) and deeds done for someone (megtesz + -ért).

• Tedd azt, amit mondok! Do what I say!
• Ezt nem teheted velem. You can't do this to me.
• Érted bármit megtennék. I would do anything for you.
• Megtennéd, hogy idehozod a szemüvegem? Would you fetch me my glasses?

The last one is a polite request pattern worth stealing: Megtennéd, hogy...? uses the conditional; with Ön it is Megtenné, hogy...? With no object, megtesz also means "will do, be enough": Ez is megteszi, "This will do".

Two intransitive uses come up constantly and have no csinál equivalent:

• Nem tehetek róla, hogy beteg vagyok. I can't help being sick. (tehet róla: be to blame)
• Majd teszek róla, hogy meggondolja magát. I'll see to it that he changes his mind.

The forms you will use most

Csinál is fully regular. Tesz belongs to the small family with vesz, visz, hisz whose stem alternates: tesz in the present, tett in the past, tenn- in the infinitive and conditional, tegy- in the imperative. The full grid is on the irregular verbs page.

Both verbs take objects constantly, so the choice between Tedd! ("Put it!", a definite object) and Tegyél! ("Put some!") follows the rules on the definite and indefinite conjugation page.

Six mistakes learners make

1. *Tettem egy tortát. A new object is made, not put: Csináltam egy tortát, or Sütöttem egy tortát, "I baked a cake".
2. *Csináld a hűtőbe! Putting is tesz or rak: Tedd a hűtőbe!
3. *A hűtőben tettem. "Put" takes a where-to case: A hűtőbe tettem.
4. *Boldog csinálsz. A state is made with tesz and -vá/-vé: Boldoggá teszel.
5. *Döntést csináltam. Decisions are brought: Döntést hoztam.
6. *Mit teszel ma este? For plans and pastimes, the everyday verb is csinál: Mit csinálsz ma este?

Where the rule stops working

"New thing csinál, moved or changed thing tesz" covers the uses a learner needs, but the edges overlap. In the "do" sense the two really are synonyms, so Mit csináljak? and Mit tegyek? are both correct; the difference is register, not meaning. "Make into" has a csinál version too (orvost csinál a fiából), so -vá/-vé is not the only way to say it. Fixed phrases with tesz have to be learned one by one: szemrehányást tesz, "reproach", is in Wiktionary, but there is no rule that predicts which nouns pair with tesz and which with hoz or követ el.

Sources and further reading

• Wiktionary, "tesz" and "csinál": senses, the lative and -vá/-vé frames, válik, tehet róla, teszek róla, synonyms and the Tedd azt, teheted velem and Mit csináljak examples
• Wiktionary (Hungarian edition), "csinál" and "tesz": the "make into" sense with -ból, úgy csinál, mintha (humorous), the euphemistic sense, and the ebédet, széket, viccet, orvost examples
• Wiktionary, "megtesz", "megcsinál", "csináltat", "feltesz", "kitesz", "letesz", "lóvá tesz", "szemrehányást tesz", "rak", "helyez" and "készít": senses and examples
• Wiktionary, "make", "make a decision", "make a mistake" and "what are you doing": Hungarian translations
• Catch Budapest, "The 10 Most Important Hungarian Verbs": tesz as "slightly more formal and official", csinál for casual plans, and the "never" rule corrected above

Frequently asked questions