The past tense in Hungarian is certainly not particularly easy, but it is nothing to be scared of. You'll see it presented in text books quite late in their chapters because it is fiddly (but not as fiddly as the conjunctive-imperative).

Hungairan has only one past tense, the nominative past tense, which corresponds to all English forms. For example, the past tense word mentem corresponds to the tenses I went, I was going, I had gone, I have gone.

The characteristic letter for the past tense is -t-. A verb with a -t- in its ending is of the past tense (ingoring the 2nd person pl -tok- that we saw in the present tense). The base ending is applied before the personal endings, but the base ending comes in two different flavours. The main question of conjugation surrounds the form that this -t- must take. You must ask yourself:

• should the base ending be -t- or -ott/ett/ött-?

We will therefore look at three groups of verb that have different rules applied. Having selected the group that our verb falls into, the personal endings are then very easy and familiar if you have studied possession. But first let us work out which group a verb falls into.

These are the three groups of verbs that have different rules applied when forming the past tense in Hungarian.

• Group A.
  Verbs that take the long form of the suffix in all persons. The form that the base suffix takes before any personal forms is -ott-, -ett- or -ött-.

• Group B.
  Verbs that take the short form of the suffix in all persons. The form that the base suffix takes before any personal forms is -t-.

• Group C.
  Verbs that take the short form of the suffix -t- in most persons except in the third person singular which then takes -ott, -ett or -ött.

Remember that this group of verbs will always form the past tense base with -ott-, -ett- or -ött- before we add the personal suffixes.

Verbs that fall into this group are defined by these rules:

1. Verbs that end in two consonants (except --d).
2. Verbs that end in -ít.
3. Monosyllabic verbs that end in -t except lát.

Let's look at some example verbs that fall into Group A and see the reason why they fall into this group.

• játsz|ik becomes játsz-ott (rule 1)
• tekint becomes tekint-ett (1)
• épít becomes épít-ett (2)
• takarít becomes takarít-ott (2)
• fűt becomes fűt-ött (3)
• jut becomes jut-ott (3)

Remember that this group of verbs will always form the past tense base with -t- before we add the personal suffixes.

Verbs that fall into this group are defined by these rules:

1. Verbs that end in the "Summering Johnny" consonants, which are the same consonants that force the accusative case ending to be directly appied, too:
   • -s -l -r -n -ny -j -ly
2. Di-syllabic verbs that end in -ad or -ed.

Let's look at some example verbs that fall into Group B and see the reason why they fall into this group.

• beszél becomes beszél-t- (rule 1)
• vár becomes vár-t- (1)
• kíván becomes kíván-t- (1)
• foly becomes foly-t- (1)
• fáj becomes fáj-t- (1)
• marad becomes marad-t (2)
• ébred becomes ébred-t (2)

Remember that this group of verbs will usually form the past tense base with the short base -t- except for the third person singular when they use -ott-, -ett- or -ött-. Then we add the personal suffixes.  The definite does not have this third group and it's the same as Group B.

Verbs that fall into this group are defined by these "rules":

1. All other verbs that are not in Group A or B. This include those that would normally fall into Group A according to Rule 1, i.e. ending in two consonants, but that end in -d.
2. The following exceptions.

Here are some example of Group C verbs that are here due to them simply not fitting A or B - that is, they are in Group C because of rule 1..

• ad becomes ad-t and ad-ott
• szeret becomes szeret-t- and szeret-ett
• köhög becomes köhög-t- and köhög-ött
• olvas becomes olvas-t- and olvas-ott
• hív becomes hív-t- and hív-ott

Here are some examples of -d verbs that ordinarily would be Group A but that are actually Group C because of their final -d

• mond becomes mond-t- and mond-ott
• küld becomes küld-t- and küld-ött
• kezd becomes kezd-t- and kezd-ett

Now let us see the exceptions that are in Group C because of idiosyncractic behavior let's be fair - Hungarian has hardly any, especially compared to English.

• lát becomes lát-t- and lát-ott. This is not in Group A as might be guessed.
• fogad becomes fogad-t- and fogad-ott. This is not Group B as might be guessed.
• tagad becomes tagad-t- and tagad-ott. This is not Group B as might be guessed.
• enged becomes enged-t- and enged-ett. This is not Group B as might be guessed.

The personal ending for the past tense in Hungarian are very similar to those of possession. Let's look at spome examples from all three groups. I have pilfered these examples from Zoltan Bánhidi's book.

Person	Characteristic ending	Endings	Group A e.g.	Group B and C e.g.
én	-m	-am, -em	tartottam, építettem	vártam, kértem	adtam, győztem
te	-d	-ad, -ed	tartottad, építetted	vártad, kérted	adtad, győzted
ő	-a	-a, -e	tartotta, építette	várte, kérte	adta, győzte
mi	-uk	-uk, -ük	tartottuk, építettük	vártuk, kértük	adtuk, győztük
ti	-'tok	-átok, -étek	tartottátok, építettétek	vártátok, kértétek	adtátok, győztétek
ők	-'k	-ék, -ék	tartották, építették	vártták, kérták	adták, győzték

Person	Characteristic ending	Endings	Group A e.g.	Group B e.g.	Group C e.g.
én	-m	-am, -em	tartottam, építettem	vártam, kértem	adtam, győztem
te	-l	-ál, -él	tartottál, építettél	vártál, kértél	adtál, győztél
ő	(nothing)	(nothing)	tartott, épített	várt, kért	adott, győzött
mi	-unk	-unk, -ünk	tartottunk, építettünk	vártunk, kértünk	adtunk, győztünk
ti	-tok	-atok, -etek	tartottatok, építettetek	vártatok, kértetek	adtatok, győztetek
ők	-k	-ak, -ek	tartottak, építettek	vártak, kértek	adtak, győztek
én/téged	-alak	-alak, -elek	tartottalak, építettelek	vártalak, kértelek	adtalak, győztelek

You may note that, in comparing these two tables, you see only minimal differences. Those differences are noteably the following:

• (te) - the -l becomes -d and the vowel shortens
• (ő) - the (nothing) becomes -a
• (mi) - the -unk becomes -uk
• (ti) - the first vowel lengthens to become -átok
• (ők) - the vowel lengthens to become -ák

Just like in many languages, Hungarian has some irregular verbs, particularly those very basic human functions such as "be", "go", "come", etc. These are listed here in a form that shows, essentially, the third person singular past stem. That is, the past tense stem to which the personal ending can be immediately applied. When there is an irregularity in the stem, this will be highlighted.

Present tense stem	Infinitive	Past tense stem	Irregularities or example	Meaning
megy	men(ni)	ment	mentem	I went
jön	jön(ni)	jött	jöttem	I came
esz|ik	en(ni)	ett, evett	ettem, evett	I ate, he ate
isz|ik	in(ni)	itt, ivott	ittam, ivott	I drank, he drank
tesz|ik	ten(ni)	tett	tettem	I do
vesz|ik	ven(ni)	vett	vettem	I take
visz|ik	vin(ni)	vittem	vittem	I carry
hisz|ik	hin(ni)	hitt	hittem	I believe
van	len(ni)	volt	voltam	I was
lesz	len(ni)	lett	lettem	I became

There are other irregular verbs, but these are the "big guns".