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Personal pronouns and ’to be’

SINGULAR

én (I)
te (you) / Ön (you, formal)
ő (he/she)

PLURAL

mi (we)
ti (you) / Önök (you, formal)
ők (they)

As you can see in the chart, Hungarian does not distinguish between grammatical genders (’ő’ stands for both ’he’ and ’she’). In the second person, there is a formal pronoun (singular ’Ön’, plural ’Önök’) and an informal one, too (singular ’te’, plural ’ti’).

Please note that personal pronouns usually do not appear in sentences. They are only used when the person mentioned has to be emphasised. (Éhes vagyok. = I am hungry.)

The verb ’van’ is the Hungarian equivalent of the English ’to be’. Its forms in the present tense are:

én vagyok
te vagy
ő / Ön van
mi vagyunk
ti vagytok
ők / Önök vannak

In the third person, you do not always have to use the verb forms ’van’ or ’vannak’, only when you speak about location and also in some expressions.

Examples:
Magyar vagyok. (I am Hungarian.)
Én magyar vagyok és ő japán. (I am Hungarian and he/she is Japanese.)
Ön angol? (Are you English?)
Anna itt van. (Anna is here.)
A fiúk a kocsiban vannak. (The boys are in the car.)
Mari szép. (Mary is beautiful.)
Az orvos a kórházban van. (The doctor is in the hospital.)
Hol vannak a kulcsok? (Where are the keys?)
Külföldiek vagyunk. (We are foreigners.)
Hogy vagy? (How are you?)

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