-ettünk
Hungarian
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
-ett (past tense suffix) + -ünk (first-person plural suffix)
Suffix
-ettünk
- (past tense suffix) Used to form the first-person plural past tense of verbs (indicative mood, indefinite conjugations).
- fest (“to paint”) → festettünk (“we painted”)
- segít (“to help”) → segítettünk (“we helped”)
Usage notes
- (past-tense suffix) Variants:
- -tunk is added to most back-vowel verbs
- -tünk is added to most front-vowel verbs
- -ttunk is added to back-vowel verbs ending in a vowel (hí, fú, ó, ró, rí, szí)
- -ttünk is added to front-vowel verbs ending in a vowel (lő, nyű, sző)
- -ottunk is added to back-vowel verbs ending in two consonants or a long vowel + t, or to monosyllables ending in -t (fut, nyit, except lát)
- -ettünk is added to unrounded front-vowel verbs ending in two consonants or a long vowel + t, or to monosyllables ending in -t (vet)
- -öttünk is added to rounded front-vowel verbs ending in two consonants or a long vowel + t, or to monosyllables ending in -t (köt, süt, üt)
Etymology 2
-et (causative suffix) + -t (past-tense suffix) + -ünk (first-person plural suffix)
Suffix
-ettünk
- (past-tense causative suffix) Used to form the first-person plural causative past tense of verbs (indefinite conjugation), used with -val/-vel, e.g. vele, velük etc., otherwise coinciding with the above forms.
- fest (“to paint”) → festettünk (“we had him/her/them paint (something)”)
- megért (“to understand”) → megértettünk (“we made him/her/them understand (something)”)
Usage notes
Homonymy exists between regular and causative past tense forms of consonant + t types of front-vowel verbs, in all the six persons, both with definite and indefinite endings, except for the third-person singular indefinite form (-ettem, -ettél, –, -ettünk, -ettetek, -ettek; -ettem, -etted, -ette, -ettük, -ettétek, -ették; -ettelek). On the other hand, other types of front-vowel verbs as well as back-vowel verbs take different forms for the regular and the causative past tense (e.g. -ottam and -attam, e.g. ugrottam and ugrattam among similar back-vowel verbs, other front-vowel verb types having clearly distinct forms: kértem vs. kérettem, kerestem vs. kerestettem). However, the -val/-vel argument is compulsory with the causative sense, so it makes the distinction easier (e.g. megértettem velük a különbséget – “I made them understand the difference”).