Tegnap ellenőriztem utoljára az egyenleget.

I last checked the account balance yesterday.

Breakdown of Tegnap ellenőriztem utoljára az egyenleget.

• az: the
• tegnap: yesterday
• ellenőrizni: to check
• egyenleg: an account balance

Questions & Answers about Tegnap ellenőriztem utoljára az egyenleget.

Can you break the sentence down word by word?

Yes:

• Tegnap = yesterday
• ellenőriztem = I checked / I verified
• utoljára = for the last time / last
• az = the
• egyenleget = balance in the object form

A very literal gloss would be:

• Tegnap = yesterday
• ellenőriztem = checked-I
• utoljára = for-the-last-time
• az egyenleget = the balance

So the sentence structure is not word-for-word like English, but each part is straightforward once you know the grammar.

Why does ellenőriztem mean I checked?

The base verb is ellenőrizni, meaning to check / to verify.

In ellenőriztem:

• the verb stem is ellenőriz-
• Hungarian past tense uses a -t- marker
• the ending shows first person singular: I

So ellenőriztem = I checked.

Hungarian usually packs a lot of information into the verb itself, so one word can already tell you:

• tense: past
• person: 1st person
• number: singular