Subjunctive Mood - Hungarian

Hungarian

This mood in Hungarian is generally used to express polite demands and suggestions. The endings are identical between imperative, conjunctive and subjunctive; it is therefore often called the conjunctive-imperative mood.

Examples:

• Add nekem! – 'Give it to me.' – demand
• Menjünk! – 'Let's go.' – suggestion
• Menjek? – 'Shall I go?' – suggestion/question
• Menj! – 'Go!' – demand

Note that "demand" is nowhere near as rude as it might come across in English. It is a polite but firm request, but not as polite as, say, "would you...".

The characteristic letter in its ending is -j-, and in the definite conjunctive conjugation the endings appear very similar to those of singular possession, with a leading letter -j-.

An unusual feature of the mood's endings is that there exist a short and a long form for the second person singular (i.e. "you"). The formation of this for regular verbs differs between the indefinite and definite: the indefinite requires just the addition of -j, which differs from the longer ending in that the last two sounds are omitted (-j and not -jél for example in menj above, cf. menjél). The short version of the definite form also drops two letters, but another two. It drops, for example: the -ja- in -jad, leaving just -d, as can be seen in add above (instead of adjad).

There are several groups of exceptions involving verbs that end in -t. The rules for how this letter, and a preceding letter, should change when the subjunctive endings are applied are quite complicated, see the article Hungarian verbs. As usual, gemination of a final sibilant consonant is demonstrated when a j-initial ending is applied:

mos + -jak gives mossak 'let me wash' (-j- changes to -s-)

When referring to the demands of others, the subjunctive is demonstrated:

kérte, hogy menjek. 'He asked that I go. (He asked me to go.)' Here, "I go" is in the subjunctive.