Optative mood (Hungarian)

NoOptInfl: There is no distinct verbal paradigm to express the optative mood.


(1) bár kész len-ne a feladat!

if_only ready be-cond.prs.3sg the task

‘If only the task were ready.’


(2) bárcsak árpi kölcsönad-ná nekem a könyv-é-t!

if_only Árpi lend-cond.prs.obj.3sg I.dat the book-3sg-acc

‘If only Árpi lent me his book.’


The optative mood is expressed by the conditional form of the verb and the bár/bárcsak ‘only if’ particles in Hungarian. There are no distinct optative morphological markers in Hungarian  (Kenesei et al. 1998: 312).

Author: 

Nikolett F. Gulyás