Szia! Learners who focus on high-frequency verbs start speaking confidently much faster than those who memorize random vocabulary lists.

Verbs are the engine of any language.

In Hungarian, this is especially true.

Because Hungarian is an agglutinative language, our verbs do a lot of heavy lifting. A single verb can tell you who’s doing the action, when they’re doing it, and even if they’re doing it to a specific object!

To help you get speaking right away, I’ve put together a list of the 100 most common Hungarian verbs. If you learn these, you’ll understand the vast majority of everyday conversations.

Why focus on Hungarian verbs?

In English, you use separate words to build a sentence: “I wait for you.”

In Hungarian, you can say all of that in just one word: várlak.

Because we attach suffixes (endings) to the ends of words, our verbs are incredibly powerful. When you know the root of a verb, you can add endings to express past, present, future, and conditional tenses.

By memorizing the 100 verbs in this guide, you’re essentially learning the building blocks for thousands of sentences.

Note: In Hungarian dictionaries, verbs are usually listed in the third-person singular form (e.g., csinál - he/she does). However, for beginners, it’s often easier to learn them in the infinitive form (ending in -ni, meaning “to do”). I’ve listed them in their infinitive form below to keep things simple.

The absolute essentials

Let’s start with the core of the language. These 12 verbs are the ones you’ll hear everywhere. They include the verbs for “to be”, “to have”, and essential helper verbs.

Here’s an example of how you might use these in a common sentence:

(Note: In casual, spoken Hungarian, you might hear regional shortcuts. For example, instead of saying “csinálok” (I’m doing), some native speakers drop the L and just say “csinálok” quickly as “csinák”, though it’s technically incorrect grammar!)

Motion and travel verbs

Whether you’re walking around Budapest or catching a train to Lake Balaton, you need to know how to move. Here are the 20 most common verbs related to motion and travel.

Communication and thought verbs

To have a conversation, you need words that describe speaking, thinking, and understanding. These 24 verbs will help you express your thoughts clearly.

Senses, feelings, and wants

Expressing how you feel and what you want is incredibly important for connecting with locals. Here are 20 common verbs related to emotions and physical senses.

Daily life and action verbs

To finish off our list of 100 verbs, here are 24 words for standard everyday actions. These cover everything from waking up and eating to working and paying for things.

Learning tips for Hungarian verbs

Now that you have the list, how do you learn them?

Here’s my best advice for tackling Hungarian verbs:

1. Learn verbs in context, not in isolation. Use the sentences above or make your own simple flashcards that include a full sentence.
2. Pay attention to prefixes. Many of these basic verbs take on completely new meanings when you add a tiny word to the front (like meg-, el-, ki-, or be-). For example, mondani means “to say”, but megmondani means “to tell someone definitively.”
3. Don’t worry about perfect grammar right away. Hungarian has two conjugation types (definite and indefinite) depending on whether there’s a specific object. As a beginner, focus on just being understood first!
4. Practice out loud. Hungarian pronunciation is phonetic, so once you learn the alphabet, you can read and pronounce any verb perfectly.

Start picking 5 verbs a day from these tables. Within a month, you’ll know the 100 most common Hungarian verbs.