küld: Complete Conjugation and Usage

Küld means “send”: the subject causes a person, object, or message to move without necessarily accompanying it. The sent theme is accusative, a recipient is commonly dative, and a physical or functional destination takes the appropriate goal case. The direct object controls indefinite versus definite conjugation.

English places to before both people and places, but Hungarian separates küldök Annának egy fájlt “send Anna a file” from orvoshoz küldöm Annát “send Anna to a doctor.” Prefixes further distinguish sending away, in, out, back, or across. This makes valency part of the lexical entry, not an optional addition to the translation.

For the spatial logic behind destinations such as orvoshoz, see the allative forms guide. This page focuses on how destination phrases combine specifically with küld.

Principal parts and nonfinite forms

Present indicative

The theme is the direct object: küldök egy fotót is indefinite, while küldöm a fotót is definite. A named recipient in the dative does not make the verb definite. The 2pl indefinite has the compact form küldtök; küldötök is also a standard expanded variant.

The special first-person-to-second-person form is küldelek: Elküldelek a háziorvoshoz “I’ll send you to the family doctor.” Because the direct object is “you,” this is neither the ordinary indefinite nor the definite third-person-object series.

Past and conditional

For future reference Hungarian often uses present tense with a time expression (Este elküldöm). El fogom küldeni is more explicit; fogom carries definite marking and elküldeni remains infinitival.

Imperative–subjunctive

The imperative marker follows the full stem: küldj. With a definite second-person command, the common short form is küldd. Although küld and küldd are pronounced alike in standard speech, the second d must appear in writing.

Personal infinitive

Because the bare infinitive is küldeni, the personal series contains a linking e: küldenem, not küldnöm. It is productive with impersonal predicates such as kell and szabad.

Recipient, destination, channel, and prefixes

Use -nak/-nek for the recipient of a thing or message: küld valakinek valamit. When the sent theme is a person and the goal is a place or purpose, use the relevant directional case: orvoshoz “to a doctor,” az irodába “into the office,” Budapestre “to Budapest,” vizsgálatra “for an examination.” A channel is often e-mailben, üzenetben, postán, or futárral.

Elküld is the most general bounded “send off/away” and can also mean dismiss someone from a job. Átküld sends across or forwards, beküld sends/submits in, kiküld dispatches out, and visszaküld returns by sending. Their meanings are conventional enough that each should be learned as a unit.

Negation and preverbal focus separate the prefix.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The sent theme is accusative; recipients take -nak/-nek, while destinations take a directional case.
• The direct object—not the recipient or destination—controls küldök versus küldöm.
• Preserve ü/ű and distinguish indicative küld from written imperative küldd.
• Personal infinitives use küldenem, küldened, küldenie, küldenünk, küldenetek, küldeniük.
• Prefixes encode route and boundedness and normally follow the verb under negation or focus.