Gondol or hisz: how do you say "I think" in Hungarian?

Hungarian has three everyday ways to say "I think": szerintem, azt hiszem and úgy gondolom. They are not interchangeable. For a matter of taste, use szerintem or úgy gondolom: Szerintem Pécs szép város. For a guess from what you know, azt hiszem works as well as szerintem: Azt hiszem, holnap moziba megyek. And azt hiszi about someone else, or azt hittem about yourself, means the belief is wrong.

The three openers, defined

Each opener is built from a different word, and that word explains how it behaves.

• Szerintem is the postposition szerint, "according to", with the ending for "me". Wiktionary glosses this sense as "according to one's thought, belief, or guess" and gives Szerintem a másik út rövidebb, "I think the other way is shorter". Other forms: szerinted, szerinte, Kata szerint.
• Azt hiszem is the verb hisz, "believe", with azt, "that", pointing ahead to the clause that follows. Wiktionary gives hisz the sense "think, suppose, guess" only in statements with azt or úgy, or in negations: Azt hiszem, hogy szerencsénk volt, "I think we were lucky".
• Úgy gondolom is the verb gondol, "think", with úgy, "so, that way". Azt gondolom is the same verb with azt. Wiktionary's example is Én is így gondolom, "I think so too".

Pozsonyi Lilla's 2023 study in Hungarológiai Évkönyv compares all three for learners of Hungarian. It finds that szerint is the typical way to give an opinion in spoken Hungarian today. The two verb phrases, it argues, are fixed constructions. Each form (which person, which tense, azt or úgy) has its own preferred meaning, so they cannot be learned as plain synonyms of "I think".

Four kinds of opinion

The study's key idea is that "I think" does four different jobs. Its English summary calls them personal values, evidence and inference, advice, and citation. In plain terms:

1. Personal values (értékítélet): you judge something by your own standard. Szerintem a kollégium olcsó, "I think the dorm is cheap".
2. Evidence and inference (valószínűsítés/következtetés): you reckon something is likely, from experience or outside evidence. Plans and predictions belong here. Szerintem holnap moziba megyek, "I think I'll go to the cinema tomorrow".
3. Advice (tanács): you suggest what someone should do, with an imperative. Szerintem menjünk moziba! "I think we should go to the cinema!"
4. Citation (idézés): you report another person's view, "someone says that X". Jani szerint jó volt a film, "Jani says the film was good".

Szerint does all four jobs. The verb phrases each do only some of them.

One speaker, four questions

Take Zoé, from Tatabánya, and suppose she is asked four things. Here is how each answer sorts, using the study's rulings and examples.

1. Mi a véleményed Pécsről? "What do you think of Pécs?" She finds it beautiful. That is her own standard, so it is personal values. Szerintem nagyon szép város and Úgy gondolom, nagyon szép város both fit. Azt hiszem does not. The study marks the same pattern as wrong in meaning: #Azt hiszem, finom ez a bor against Szerintem finom ez a bor, "I think this wine is good".
2. Mit csinálsz holnap? "What are you doing tomorrow?" She is not sure, so she guesses: evidence and inference. Here the study lets learners swap freely: Szerintem holnap moziba megyek or Azt hiszem, holnap moziba megyek. Úgy gondolom passed the author's own judgment here, but the students picked only the other two.
3. Her friend asks what to do. That is advice. Szerintem menj el orvoshoz! "I think you should see a doctor!" is the natural choice. The verb phrases are accepted too, Azt hiszem only for "I", but the study marks ?Úgy gondolom, hogy menj el orvoshoz as odd.
4. What does Kata think of Pécs? That is citation. Kata szerint or Kata úgy gondolja is fine. Azt hiszi says Kata is mistaken, as in the study's own case: #Péter azt hiszi, Pécs nagy város, against Péter szerint or Péter azt gondolja.

So szerintem never goes wrong, úgy gondolom covers most of the same ground, and azt hiszem belongs to one job: the guess.

Which opener for which opinion

The study tested its forms twice. The author rated them on her own native intuition, then ten fifth- and sixth-year Hungarian-major students rated them in a questionnaire. The table gives the present-tense results. Where the two rounds differ, the cell says so.

Two rows need a word more. For advice, the study says the verb phrases work best with kellene or a similar form plus an infinitive: Azt hiszem / Úgy gondolom, jó lenne megkérdezni egy szakembert, "I think it would be good to ask an expert". For citation, a footnote adds that hisz and gondol need a thinking mind, so they cannot report a website: A honlap szerint 8-kor kezdődik a film, "According to the website, the film starts at 8", has no verb version.

For reporting what someone said, the study adds that azt mondta is often more natural than either verb phrase. That verb is covered on mond or beszél.

Azt hittem: "I thought (wrongly)"

Most forms of hisz imply a mistake. The study states it plainly: azt/úgy hiszi in the present, and every past form in every person, expresses a false belief. Only azt hiszem, "I", present, is a plain opinion.

• Azt hittem, hogy zárva van. I thought it was closed. (it wasn't)

The second person sits in between. In a matter of taste, the students read azt hiszed as a false belief too. For a guess they accepted Azt hiszed?, but the study still tells learners to avoid it. To ask, use Szerinted?, Mit gondolsz? or Úgy gondolod?.

In the past, the effect spreads to gondol, but only for guesses: past azt/úgy gondoltam about a guess reads as a guess that proved false. For a past matter of taste, úgy gondoltam is still a plain opinion.

Dropping hogy, and the bare verbs

After azt hiszem and úgy gondolom, the hogy ("that") is optional: Azt hiszem, (hogy) vihar lesz, "I think there'll be a storm". The study explains why: these openers only introduce the real statement and limit it to the speaker's view, all in one intonation curve.

Drop azt or úgy, and the meaning changes:

• Hiszem, hogy... with the verb stressed means faith, hope or conviction, and hogy must stay. Wiktionary's example is Hiszem, hogy egyszer jobb lesz a világ, "I believe the world will be better one day".
• Gondolom, ... unstressed is a loose assumption, or a shrug. elon.io glosses it "I assume": Gondolom, már értesítettek a programváltozásról, "I assume they've already told you about the schedule change". The students heard in it "a half-hearted opinion".
• GONdoltam, hogy... with the stress on the verb means an earlier assumption has now been confirmed, roughly "I knew it".

In fast speech azt hiszem shrinks to asziszem or asszem. Several of the students said that in the first person, for anything but a matter of taste, it is the form that sounds most natural to them.

Nem hiszem is the everyday "I don't think so". Wiktionary gives: Nem hiszem, hogy elérjük a buszt, "I don't think we'll catch the bus".

Gondol: think of, think about, what do you mean

A verb's case frame is the ending it puts on the word that goes with it. Gondol changes meaning with each one, and each choice also sets the conjugation.

The topic takes -ról/-ről, the target -ra/-re (see surface cases). English "about" covers both.

Azt gondoltam against arra gondoltam. The two look alike, because gondoltam is the same in both conjugations. elon.io draws the line: azt gondoltam reports a belief, arra gondoltam usually brings in a plan or a suggestion. Note also that Hungarian has no "think of doing" with an infinitive. Say arra gondolok, hogy elmegyek, "I'm thinking of going".

Gondolod? on its own is "Do you think so?", with the "so" understood (elon.io).

Gondolkodik: pondering a problem

Gondolkodik (also gondolkozik) is gondol plus a suffix, and it means "to ponder, to think thoroughly or lengthily", per Wiktionary. The thing you ponder takes -on/-en/-ön, not -ra:

• A feladaton gondolkodom. I'm thinking about the exercise.
• Napok óta gondolkodom a költözésen, de még nem döntöttem. I've been thinking about moving for days, but I haven't decided yet.

elon.io puts the difference in one line: gondol "can name a directed thought in an instant; gondolkodik profiles the ongoing mental process". They are two separate words, not two aspects of one verb. Gondolkodik is an -ik verb, so "I" is gondolkodom.

Hisz: believe someone, believe in, believe a claim

When hisz means "believe", the case on the person or thing decides which belief. The frames are elon.io's; Wiktionary's senses match:

English "believe in" does not become -ra: elon.io's error is *Hiszek a csapatra, and the fix is Hiszek a csapatban. Note too that el is a verbal prefix, so it moves behind the verb after nem: Nem hiszem el, never *Nem elhiszem.

The verb's forms are irregular: hisz, hitt, hinni, higgy, hívő. They follow the tesz, visz pattern on irregular verbs. The same root gives hit, "faith" (Wiktionary). The conjunction hiszen, "after all", comes from hiszem, as shown on mert or hiszen.

Meggondol, átgondol, kigondol

Prefixes make new verbs from gondol, and elon.io advises learning each as a whole entry. Meggondol valamit is "consider it", and meggondolja magát is "change one's mind". Átgondol is "think through": A részleteket nem gondoltuk át elég alaposan, "We didn't think the details through carefully enough". Kigondol is "devise": Ki gondolta ki ezt a rendszert? As with elhisz, the prefix moves after nem.

Four grammar mistakes learners make

1. *Azt hiszek, hogy... or *Azt gondolok, hogy... The azt is a definite object: Azt hiszem, Azt gondolom (elon.io).
2. *Mit gondolod? The question word mit takes the indefinite: Mit gondolsz?
3. *Minden este a családomról gondolok. for "I think of my family every evening". The person in your thoughts takes -ra/-re: Minden este a családomra gondolok.
4. *Hiszem Péter. for "I believe Péter". The person believed takes the dative: Hiszek Péternek.

What this page does not settle

The four-type grid rests on one study. Its data are the author's own judgments and a questionnaire answered by ten native speakers, all Hungarian-major students. Its final table is a set of recommendations for A1 to B1 learners, not a frequency count, and its choice between azt and úgy is, in its own word, an assumption. Stress matters too, in ways a written rule cannot carry: gondolom and GONdoltam are told apart by the voice.

The page also leaves out the formal openers. The study lists véleményem szerint and úgy vélem, hogy for more official registers, from intermediate level, but does not test them. When in doubt, use szerintem: in the study it fitted every kind of opinion.

Sources and further reading

• Pozsonyi Lilla, "„Azt hiszem, van egy kérdésem”: Az AZT/ÚGY HISZ… (HOGY) és az AZT/ÚGY GONDOL… (HOGY) kifejezések vizsgálata MID-szempontból", Hungarológiai Évkönyv 24/1-2 (2023), 151 to 168, open access, full text: the four opinion types, both rating tables, the false-belief readings and the learner recommendations
• elon.io, "gondol" (Hungarian verb reference): case frames, azt against arra gondoltam, gondolkodik, prefixed verbs, errors
• elon.io, "hisz" (Hungarian verb reference): stem chain, complement frames, errors
• Wiktionary, "hisz": senses, "think" only with azt/úgy or in negation, examples, derived terms
• Wiktionary, "gondol", "gondolkodik" and "szerint": senses, case frames and examples
• Wiktionary, "hit": the noun from hisz

Frequently asked questions