Mond or beszél: which Hungarian verb means say, tell, speak or talk?

Use mond when you report the words: Azt mondta, hogy késik, "She said she's running late". Use beszél when talking is the activity: Beszéltem az orvossal, "I talked to the doctor". The quick test is the object. Mond always has something said as its object; plain beszél has none, and puts the person, the topic and the language into other cases.

The rule: the words, or the activity

Wiktionary labels mond "transitive": "to say, tell", with the person told in -nak/-nek. It labels beszél "intransitive", transitive only "in certain phrases": "to speak, talk", with the partner in -val/-vel and the topic in -ról/-ről. Elon.io's verb reference draws the same line from the other side: mond is for when "the point is a particular utterance or message", and beszél is the broader verb for speaking and conversation.

• Mit mondtál? What did you say? (the words)
• Miről beszéltél? What were you talking about? (the topic)
• Azt mondta nekem, hogy holnap jön. He told me he's coming tomorrow.
• Sokat beszélt a munkájáról. She talked a lot about her work.

Notice that Mit mondtál? and Miről beszéltél? ask about the same conversation. The first asks for the content, which mond holds as its object, mit. The second asks for the subject matter, which beszél can only hold in a case, miről.

"Mond = say, beszél = speak": where that breaks

The pairing every phrasebook starts with is right as far as it goes. "Say" is almost always mond, and "speak a language" is beszél. It persists because those are the two uses a beginner meets first: Mit mond? and Beszél angolul?

It breaks on the two English verbs in between. "Tell" is not one Hungarian verb but four, depending on what is told, and only one of them is mond. "Talk to someone" is beszél, but not with the case English speakers expect: the person you talk to goes into -val/-vel, "with", not the dative "to" that mond takes. Learners who map "say/tell to someone" onto one case and "speak/talk to someone" onto the same case produce *Beszéltem Péternek, the slip the case frames below are there to prevent.

Decision table: which verb for which English word

Every common use of say, tell, speak and talk, with the Hungarian verb and the frame it takes.

The table shows the pattern behind the "tell" rows. If what is told is a statement or a fact, it is mond or megmond. If it is an account with a beginning and an end, it is elmond, which Wiktionary glosses as "recite, recount, relate, report, tell". If it is a story or an experience, it is mesél, "to tell someone a story", with the listener in -nak/-nek and the subject in -ról/-ről. And if all you are passing on is a signal ("let me know", "give me a shout"), it is szól.

Case frames: who you tell, who you talk with

Both verbs are easy once you see which slots each one has. Elon.io sums up mond as the frame mond valakinek valamit: "addressee takes dative, content takes accusative". For beszél it lists three oblique frames: a language "in adverbial -ul/-ül, a conversation partner in instrumental -val/-vel, and a topic in delative -ról/-ről".

The person you tell is in the dative, because something is handed to them: the words. The person you talk with is in the instrumental, because a conversation is something you do together, as with találkozik valakivel, "meet someone". The topic takes the "about" sense of -ról/-ről from the surface cases. The last frame, -hoz/-hez/-höz, is the one Wiktionary marks "one-sidedly": addressing someone, as a speaker addresses a hall, rather than talking with them.

The language frame is the reason beszél needs no object even when English has one. Angolul is an adverb, "in English", built with the -ul/-ül ending described on the adverbs page. Tud angolul says the same thing with the verb for knowing, as on the page about tud and ismer.

Definite or indefinite: azt mondta, hogy

Because mond always has an object, it constantly has to choose between the two conjugations. Reported speech settles it: a hogy clause counts as a definite object, so the verb is definite, and Hungarian usually announces the clause with azt. Elon.io lists *azt mondott, hogy as a mistake for azt mondta, hogy.

• Mondott valamit? Did he say anything? (indefinite object)
• Mit mondott? What did he say? (question word: indefinite)
• Azt mondta, hogy pontosan érkezik. He said he will arrive on time. (clause: definite)
• Ezt nem mondtam. I didn't say that. (definite)

Beszél almost never faces the choice. Elon.io notes that its definite forms appear only when it means "speak a language" with an accusative noun: beszéli a japán nyelvet, "speaks Japanese". With japánul there is no object and the verb stays indefinite. The full rules for choosing between the two sets of endings are on the definite and indefinite conjugation page.

With prefixes: megmond, elmond, megbeszél, rábeszél

Verbal prefixes do two different jobs here. On mond they mostly change the meaning, sometimes far from "say". On beszél they do something more useful to know: they give an intransitive verb an object. Elon.io calls this "changed valency".

Compare Beszéltünk a tervről, "We talked about the plan", with Megbeszéltük a tervet, "We discussed the plan" or "We agreed on the plan": the topic moves from -ról into the accusative. Rábeszél and lebeszél are antonyms in Wiktionary, and both put the person in the accusative: you talk someone into (-ra) or out of (-ról) something.

Megmond has one sense a child will teach you before any grammar book: Wiktionary records the "childish" Megmondalak anyukámnak!, "I'll tell on you to my mum!"

Szól: the third verb

Szól, built from szó, "word", sits between the two. Wiktionary lists ten senses, and four of them are everyday "tell" and "talk" meanings that neither mond nor beszél covers as neatly.

• Szólj, ha kell valami! Let me know if you need anything. (-nak/-nek: inform)
• Szólj hozzám! Talk to me! (-hoz/-hez/-höz: address)
• Miről szól a film? What is the film about? (-ról/-ről: be about)
• Mit szólnál, ha holnap mennénk? What would you say if we went tomorrow? (-hoz: react)
• Egész nap keveset szólt. She spoke very little all day.

The "be about" sense is the one learners miss. A film, a book or a song does not beszél about anything in Hungarian; it szól about it. The same verb is used for a phone or a radio making sound: szól a telefon, "the phone is ringing", and its derivative megszólal means both "start speaking" and "start ringing".

The forms you will use most

All three verbs are regular. The trap is in the imperative of mond: the definite form mondd is a homophone of the stem mond (Wiktionary lists it as one), so learners hear "mond" and write it with one d. Elon.io gives *Mond a címet as the error for Mondd a címet, "Tell me the address".

So Mondj valamit! is "Say something!" and Mondd! or Mondd meg! is "Say it!" or "Tell me (it)!" The longer variants mondjál and mondjad are on the imperative page.

Six mistakes learners make

1. *Mondtam Pétert. The person told is in the dative: Mondtam Péternek.
2. *Beszéltem Péternek. The person talked with is in the instrumental: Beszéltem Péterrel.
3. *Beszélek angol. Languages take the adverb: Beszélek angolul.
4. *Beszéltünk a vizsgát. The topic of plain beszél is -ról/-ről: Beszéltünk a vizsgáról, or with a prefix, Megbeszéltük a vizsgát.
5. *Azt mondott, hogy késik. A hogy clause is a definite object: Azt mondta, hogy késik.
6. *Miről beszél a könyv? Books and films do not talk: Miről szól a könyv?

Where the rule stops working

"Mond has an object, beszél does not" holds for the plain verbs and stops at the prefix: megbeszél, rábeszél, lebeszél and kibeszél are all transitive. Wiktionary also flags beszél as transitive "in certain phrases", and the language noun (beszéli a nyelvet) is the one you will meet. In the other direction, mond has a sense with no speaker at all: with weather, Wiktionary gives "to forecast", as in Esőt mondanak holnapra, "They're forecasting rain for tomorrow". And asking is not saying: requests and questions have their own pair of verbs, set out on the page about kér and kérdez.

Sources and further reading

• Wiktionary, "mond" and "beszél": transitivity labels, the -nak, -val, -hoz, -ról and -ul frames, the "forecast" sense, the mondd homophone, the orvos, előadó and whispering examples
• Wiktionary, "megmond", "elmond", "kimond", "lemond", "felmond", "megbeszél", "rábeszél", "lebeszél", "kibeszél" and "beszélget": senses and case frames
• Wiktionary, "szól", "megszólal" and "mesél": the inform, address, "be about" and react senses, and "tell a story"
• Elon.io verb reference, "mond" and "beszél": the two frames, definite azt mondta, hogy, beszéli a japán nyelvet, prefixes and changed valency, the witness, accountant, plan and receptionist examples, and the listed mistakes
• HungarianPod101, "Do you speak English?": Beszélsz angolul?, Beszél Ön angolul? and the -ul/-ül language adverbs

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