-ettek
Hungarian
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
-ett (past tense suffix) + -ek (third-person plural suffix)
Suffix
-ettek
- (past tense suffix) Used to form the third-person plural past tense of verbs (indefinite conjugations).
- szerkeszt (“to edit”) → szerkesztettek (“they edited”)
- vetít (“to project”) → vetítettek (“they projected”)
- vet (“to sow”) → vetettek (“they sowed/sown”)
Usage notes
- (past-tense suffix) Variants:
- -tak is added to most back-vowel verbs
- -tek is added to most front-vowel verbs
- -ttak is added to back-vowel verbs ending in a vowel (hí, rí, szí; ó, ró; fú)
- -ttek is added to front-vowel verbs ending in a vowel (lő, nő, sző; nyű)
- -ottak 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)
- -ettek is added to unrounded front-vowel verbs ending in two consonants or a long vowel + t, or to monosyllables ending in -t (vet)
- -öttek 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) + -ek (third-person plural suffix)
Suffix
-ettek
- (past-tense causative suffix) Used to form the third-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”) → festettek (“they had someone paint (something)”)
- megért (“to understand”) → megértettek (“they made someone 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”).