Causatives, Passives, and Impersonal Strategies: Contrasts and Learner Traps

English uses passive syntax both to suppress an agent and to keep an affected entity as subject. Hungarian usually achieves those discourse goals without changing to passive voice. It can topicalize an object in an active clause, leave the subject implicit, use generic third-person plural, or describe a result with -va/-ve + van. A causative answers a different question: who arranged, compelled, or enabled the event?

This page contrasts choices that share an English translation. The productive morphology appears on the forms page, and central contexts appear on the usage page.

Doing an action versus arranging it

The extra causative -tat- changes Dóra from performer to causer. The technician can remain unexpressed. English learners often miss this morphological difference because English have carries the causative function as a separate word.

If the performer matters, mark it according to the base verb's valency:

Because megjavít already has accusative a kerékpárt, instrumental-comitative a szerelővel marks the causee. With an intransitive base, the causee is commonly accusative:

This opposition is productive, but individual causatives can lexicalize specialized meanings. Mutat “show,” for example, is historically/formally related to causation but is learned as an ordinary lexical verb, not generated afresh as “make see.”

Causative or explicit control verb?

The causative suffix itself does not reliably distinguish force from permission.

The first can be coercive or simply describe an assigned classroom activity. The second explicitly encodes permission. For unequivocal force, use kényszerít:

Event report or result state?

The active clause reports an event and names its agent. The -va/-ve clause presents the system's current state. A past time locating the action itself therefore favors an active reformulation:

This is active generic third-person plural, despite the natural English passive translation. A rendszer tegnap frissítve volt can be grammatical, but it means that the system was in an updated state yesterday; it does not by itself locate the updating event yesterday.

Unknown agent or generic norm?

Third-person plural can hide a particular unknown actor or express what people generally do.

The first implies actual but unidentified thieves. The second has a generic human subject comparable to English “people.” A singular impersonal strategy is available with certain predicates and contexts—Itt nem szabad dohányozni “Smoking is not allowed here”—but there is no single universal passive replacement.

An active clause can also omit a contextually known subject:

The second subject is recoverable from coordination. Calling every omitted subject “impersonal” would be wrong: here the agent is specific and known.

Topical object versus passive subject

Hungarian can begin with an object without turning it into a grammatical subject.

A szerződést retains accusative -t, and Júlia is preverbal focus. The clause is active. Compare an agent-backgrounding report:

The early object serves as topic in both. In the first, the focused agent is the new contrast; in the second, generic plural suppresses it. English passive subjecthood is not needed because Hungarian case and verb agreement preserve roles independently of order.

Modern impersonal expression versus old passive

The first is neutral contemporary Hungarian: accusative topic plus generic plural active verb. The second uses the old passive and sounds historical, solemn, humorous, or bureaucratically archaizing. Fixed formulas such as közhírré tétetik remain recognizable, but productive use in ordinary reporting is not standard modern style.

Formal register does not automatically license the old passive. Academic and administrative Hungarian generally favors an institution as agent, a generic plural, a deverbal noun, or a construction such as sor kerül valamire “something takes place,” selected for meaning rather than as a mechanical ban on active voice.

Definiteness survives causativization

The causative is conjugated like another transitive Hungarian verb. Its object still determines definite versus indefinite agreement.

Indefinite egy igazolást selects íratok; definite az igazolást selects megíratom. The instrumental causee does not determine conjugation. Learners who focus only on the long causative stem often overlook the final agreement ending.

Decision tree

1. Does the grammatical subject perform the action? Use an ordinary active verb.
2. Does the subject arrange, compel, permit, or commission it? Use a causative; check whether the base verb already has an accusative object before marking the causee.
3. Is permission or force itself important? Prefer an explicit control verb such as megenged or kényszerít.
4. Do you report an event while leaving a human agent unnamed? Use active third-person plural, often with the affected object as topic.
5. Do you describe the current resulting condition? Use -va/-ve + van/vannak.
6. Are you quoting, parodying, or deliberately imitating old official style? Only then consider -atik/-etik.

Diagnostic exercise

Choose the best continuation.

1. You commissioned a craftsperson to reupholster your chair: Újrakárpitoztattam a széket.
2. The relevant event happened yesterday, actor unknown: Tegnap kézbesítették a csomagot.
3. You discover the package's present condition: A csomag fel van bontva.
4. A modern notice says applications are checked continuously: A kérelmeket folyamatosan ellenőrzik.

Item 1 is a service causative: the subject commissioned rather than personally performed the work. Item 2 is generic-plural event reporting; item 3 is a result state; item 4 is neutral formal impersonal usage, not an old passive.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Causatives add a causer; passive-like strategies suppress or background an agent.
• The base verb's valency determines whether a causee can be accusative or must be distinguished from an existing object.
• Generic third-person plural reports events; -va/-ve + van profiles resulting states.
• An object can be topical without becoming a passive subject.
• Reserve -atik/-etik for genuine archaic or deliberately marked register.