The Infinitive in -ni: Forms and Core Pattern

The Hungarian infinitive normally ends in -ni and names an action without its own tense: várni “to wait,” kérni “to ask,” olvasni “to read.” Its shape is not always formed by simply attaching two letters to the dictionary entry, and Hungarian infinitives are not always invariant: in impersonal constructions they can carry possessive-like person endings. This page establishes the forms; the infinitive usage page develops their meanings.

The basic -ni form

For many verbs, add -ni to the verb stem. Vowel harmony does not produce back and front variants of -ni: it remains -ni after both kinds of stem.

English uses to in some infinitives and an -ing form after verbs such as “like.” Hungarian uses the same -ni form in szeretek olvasni and akarok olvasni. Do not choose a Hungarian participle just because the idiomatic English translation has -ing.

Why -ani and -eni appear

Many stems require a linking vowel before -ni, producing -ani or -eni. Harmony normally selects a after back-vowel stems and e after front-vowel stems, but stem shape and lexical class determine whether a linking vowel appears at all.

There is no complete beginner shortcut that predicts every linking vowel from the final consonant alone. Learn the infinitive together with each common dictionary form. What harmony reliably explains is the contrast inside comparable patterns: mondani, tanítani versus küldeni, segíteni.

Irregular infinitives

Several extremely frequent verbs change their stem. Their doubled consonants are pronounced longer and must be written: menni is not meni. Hungarian digraphs and long consonants are meaningful spelling units.

These forms are genuinely irregular; memorization is more useful than forcing megy + ni or vesz + ni. Notice that the spelling preserves phonemic differences: jönni has short ö, while a word with ő would contain a different vowel.

Control verbs: who performs the infinitive?

After verbs such as akar “want,” tud “can/know how,” szeret “like,” and próbál “try,” the subject of the finite verb normally also performs the infinitive. Linguists call this control.

The finite forms carry person and tense; the plain infinitives do not. In akartam menni “I wanted to go,” akartam expresses first person and past time, while menni names the controlled action. Hungarian has no separate word corresponding to English infinitival to.

The infinitive itself is not past in the first sentence or future in the second. Time belongs to akartunk and fogok, plus the adverbs. See future forms for fog + infinitive.

Prefixes and infinitive shape

A verbal prefix can belong lexically to the infinitive: elmenni “to leave/go away,” megnézni “to look at,” felhívni “to call.” The infinitive ending still attaches to the verb, not to the prefix: el-men-ni, meg-néz-ni, fel-hív-ni. In a neutral clause with a finite control verb, the prefix often stands before that finite verb while its infinitive follows.

Here fel belongs in meaning to hívni but appears before akarom. With negation, it normally stays attached to the infinitive: Nem akarom felhívni. The base infinitive has not changed; Hungarian prefix syntax has placed one component elsewhere in the clause.

English keeps particles inside phrases such as “call up” or “look over” and has no close match for this movement. Learn the prefixed infinitive as one vocabulary item, then learn its sentence position separately on the prefix order page.

Citation form is not the English citation habit

English dictionaries list verbs under a bare form conventionally written with to: “to go.” Hungarian dictionaries normally list the third-person singular present indefinite form: megy, olvas, eszik. Therefore the dictionary entry is not always a transparent stem and is not the infinitive itself.

This distinction matters most with -ik and irregular verbs. From játszik, remove the third-person -ik before forming játszani. From eszik, learn enni as an irregular form. When recording vocabulary, write both forms—megy – menni, tesz – tenni—until the relation becomes automatic.

Personal infinitives: the pattern visible inside -ni

Hungarian can mark the understood performer of an infinitive in impersonal constructions. The endings resemble possessive endings; this is the key sense in which a non-finite form preserves participant relations. A full account belongs on the personal infinitive forms page, but the core paradigm should be recognizable.

The -i of plain -ni is absent before many person endings: vár-n-om, men-n-em. In third person it remains visible before -a/-e: vár-ni-a, men-ni-e. Harmony appears in the person endings even though plain -ni is invariant.

Segmentation exercise

Separate each form into meaningful parts.

1. olvasni → olvas-ni: stable stem plus infinitive suffix.
2. mondani → mond-a-ni: stem plus back-vowel linker plus infinitive suffix.
3. segíteni → segít-e-ni: -ít stem plus front-vowel linker plus infinitive suffix.
4. játszani → játsz-a-ni: remove dictionary-form -ik, then add linker and -ni.
5. mennem → men-n-em: irregular infinitive base plus first-person singular personal ending.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The basic infinitive suffix is invariant -ni: várni, kérni, főzni.
• Stem class and harmony produce -ani/-eni forms such as mondani and küldeni.
• Memorize frequent irregulars: menni, jönni, tenni, venni, vinni, hinni, enni, inni, and lenni.
• The finite control verb carries subject and tense; the plain infinitive names the dependent action.
• Personal infinitives such as mennem and mennie preserve the performer through possessive-like morphology.