Grammar Topic

Functions of Verbal Prefixes: Completed Action and Change of Direction

Hungarian verbal prefixes have three main functions:

• They show the spatial direction of an action: up, down, in, out, back, across.
• They make an action complete or result-oriented, similar to the difference between “write” and “write down / finish writing.”
• They can completely change the lexical meaning of a verb.

1. Common spatial prefixes
These come from words of place and direction. They show where the action is headed.

Prefix	Direction	Example with megy (to go)	English
be-	inward	bemegy	go in, enter
ki-	outward	kimegy	go out, exit
fel- / föl-	upward	felmegy	go up
le-	downward	lemegy	go down
el-	away	elmegy	go away, leave
oda-	over there / toward something	odamegy	go over there, approach
ide-	here / toward me	idejön (with jön)	come here, approach here
vissza-	back	visszamegy	go back, return
át-	across, through	átmegy	go across, pass through

2. Result prefixes: meg- and el-
The prefix meg- often has no spatial meaning. It shows that the action reaches a result or is completed.

• ír (to write) -> megír (to write up / finish writing)
• tanul (to study, learn) -> megtanul (to learn completely)
• eszik (to eat) -> megeszik (to eat up)

Sometimes el- has this result meaning too:

• olvas (to read) -> elolvas (to read through / finish reading)
• alszik (to sleep) -> elalszik (to fall asleep)

3. Change of lexical meaning
Sometimes the prefix changes the meaning so much that the new verb must be learned as a separate vocabulary item.

• fázik (to feel cold) -> megfázik (to catch a cold)
• ad (to give) -> elad (to sell)

---

Reading Practice

• A lány bemegy az üzletbe. [The girl enters the store.]
• A fiú kimegy a szobából. [The boy goes out of the room.]
• A macska felugrik a székre. [The cat jumps up onto the chair.]
• A macska leugrik a székről. [The cat jumps down from the chair.]
• János levelet ír. [János is writing a letter. Process.]
• János megírja a levelet. [János writes / finishes the letter. Result.]
• A gyerek alszik. [The child is sleeping.]
• A gyerek elalszik. [The child falls asleep.]
• Kérem, olvassa el ezt a könyvet. [Please read this book.]
• Éva ma este elmegy moziba. [Éva is going out to the movies tonight.]