Megy or jár: what is the difference in Hungarian?

Use megy for one trip, now or planned: Iskolába megyek, "I'm on my way to school". Use jár when the going is regular or is a status: Iskolába járok, "I go to school", meaning "I'm a pupil". On top of that, jár has a set of senses that have nothing to do with "go" in English: dating, a clock running, a tram in service, being entitled to something.

The rule in one sentence

Megy describes a journey; jár describes a pattern. Wiktionary groups the main senses of jár as "to habitually do something" and "to move regularly or repetitively", and every use in this article grows out of that idea of repetition.

• Hová mész? Where are you going? (right now)
• Hová jársz? Where do you go (regularly)? Which school or club do you attend?
• Úszni megyek. I'm going for a swim.
• Úszni járok. I go swimming (as a habit, for example twice a week).

The two verbs do not even look alike. Megy is one of the three truly irregular verbs (megyek, mész, megy, megyünk, mentek, mennek), while jár is perfectly regular and follows the back-vowel pattern on the present tense page: járok, jársz, jár, járunk, jártok, járnak. Its past is jártam, jártál, járt, jártunk, jártatok, jártak.

"I go to school": status, not frequency

Most explanations stop at "megy is now, jár is habitual". That is close but slightly off, and the gap is where learners go wrong. A routine journey can be described with megy when a frequency word does the work:

• Minden reggel busszal megyek dolgozni. Every morning I take the bus to work.
• Busszal járok dolgozni. I commute to work by bus.

Both are natural. The first tells the story of each morning's trip; the second states your routine as a fact about you. What megy cannot do is express attendance or membership. Iskolába megyek never means "I'm a pupil", however you frame it, and Egyetemre jár means "She's a university student" even if she is at home in bed right now.

The same holds in the past. Melyik iskolába jártál? is "Which school did you go to?", the standard way to ask where someone was educated. Melyik iskolába mentél? would ask which school you headed to on some particular day.

What jár means beyond "go": a sense table with case frames

The quickest way to read a jár sentence is to look at the case ending next to it. Each frame below is a separate sense listed in the Wiktionary entry; the examples are standard everyday Hungarian.

Notice that -val/-vel alone carries three different readings, and the noun decides. That gives the most useful minimal pair in this article: Péterrel megyek is "I'm going with Péter" (on this trip), while Péterrel járok is "I'm going out with Péter". The case itself is covered on the -val/-vel page.

The -nak/-nek frame also splits the two verbs cleanly. With jár the person in the dative is the one entitled: Ez jár nekem, "I'm entitled to this, I deserve it". With megy and a profession, -nak/-nek means "become": Orvosnak megy, "He's going to be a doctor".

The limit: jár for one completed visit

Here the "habitual" rule breaks. Jár also means a single visit, as long as the trip is over and you are back. Wiktionary lists this as "to visit, to have been to (go to a place and return)". The question every Hungarian host asks is:

• Jártál már Pécsen? Have you ever been to Pécs?
• Igen, tavaly jártam ott. Yes, I was there last year.
• Tegnap orvosnál jártam. I went to the doctor's yesterday (and I'm back).

What tells you this is a visit and not a habit is the case. Wiktionary's usage note states that the difference between the two senses is sometimes shown only by the case suffix: a "where" case (-ban/-ben, -on/-en, -nál/-nél) for the visit, a "where to" case (-ba/-be, -ra/-re, -hoz/-hez/-höz) for regular going. Learn them as pairs:

So a learner who says *Jártam Londonba to mean "I've been to London" has actually said something odd about a habit. The -ban/-ba distinction is the same one explained on the inner cases page, and why Pécs takes -en/-re instead is on -ban or -on with city names. Voltál már Pécsen? means the same as the jár version and is just as common.

Compare the past of megy: Pécsre mentem says where you headed. It does not say you came back, which is why a story that begins Tavaly Pécsre mentem... can continue with what happened there, while Tavaly Pécsen jártam sums up a finished visit.

Which verb? A decision list

1. Is it about a relationship? Dating someone is jár valakivel. Going somewhere in someone's company is megy valakivel.
2. Is the subject a clock, an engine or a bus line? Running or in service: jár (Jár a motor. Hétvégén nem jár a busz.).
3. Is something owed to someone? jár + -nak/-nek: Szabadság jár neki, "She's entitled to leave".
4. Is it attendance, membership, a course, treatment? jár + a "where to" case or an infinitive: Gimnáziumba jár. Edzeni jár.
5. Is it a finished visit ("have you been...")? jár + a "where" case: Jártál már Egerben? (or voltál).
6. Is it a routine you describe with a frequency word? Either works: Minden nap busszal megyek or Busszal járok.
7. Everything else, meaning one trip now, today or in a plan: megy.

For plans, the present of megy already covers the future: Holnap Szegedre megyek, "I'm going to Szeged tomorrow" (see future tense). A new routine uses jár in the same way: Szeptembertől egyetemre járok, "From September I'll be at university".

What megy does that jár does not

Megy has its own extended senses, and here jár would be wrong:

• Mi megy ma este a tévében? What's on TV tonight?
• Hogy megy a munka? How's work going?
• Nem megy a matek. I'm no good at maths. (Maths doesn't "go" for me.)
• Ez a táska nem megy a cipőmhöz. This bag doesn't go with my shoes.
• Nem megy be a kulcs. The key won't go in.

Wiktionary also gives megy a "work, function" sense, with jár listed as a synonym, so Nem megy a lift ("the lift isn't working") is fine. For clocks, though, the fixed phrase is jár az óra.

With prefixes: bemegy, lejár and friends

Both verbs take verbal prefixes, and the habitual flavour of jár survives in many of them. Lemegy a büfébe is "goes down to the cafeteria" once; Mindennap lejárunk a büfébe ebédelni is "We go down to the cafeteria for lunch every day". Prefixed jár verbs also drift into new meanings. The one you will meet first is lejár, "expire, run out": Lejárt az útlevelem, "My passport has expired"; Lejár az idő, "Time is running out". The prefix moves behind the verb under negation exactly as with megy: Nem megyek el, Még nem járt le ("It hasn't expired yet").

A third verb, halad, covers "make progress, proceed": Jól haladok, "I'm getting on well"; Lassan haladnak az autók, "The traffic is moving slowly". Use it when English "go" really means "progress".

Common learner errors

1. *Egyetemre megyek for "I'm a student". That is one trip to campus. Status is Egyetemre járok.
2. *Jártam Londonba for "I've been to London". A visit takes a "where" case: Jártam Londonban. or Voltam Londonban.
3. *Most iskolába járok for "I'm on my way to school now". Now is one trip: Most megyek iskolába.
4. Péterrel járok when you mean "I'm going with Péter". That announces a relationship. Say Péterrel megyek.
5. *Mi jár a tévében? Programmes take megy: Mi megy a tévében?

Sources and further reading

• Wiktionary, "jár": the grouped senses (go regularly, attend, date with -val/-vel, a device running, public transport in service, news going around, be owed with -nak/-nek, habitually wear), the visit sense "go to a place and return", and the usage note that a "where" or "where to" case can be the only marker separating a visit from regular attendance
• Wiktionary, "megy": the senses "go", "work, function" (with jár as synonym), "be on" for programmes, "match", "become" with professions, and the present conjugation
• Wiktionary, "lejár": "go down regularly" and "expire", with Mindennap lejárunk a büfébe ebédelni
• Hunlang, "Megy, jár, halad": a learner overview of the three verbs, including Ma nem járnak a buszok and Orvosnak megy

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