Verbal suppletion (Hungarian)

NoVSuppl: Verb stem suppletion does not exist.


There are two suppletive verb forms in Hungarian. One of them is the verb van ‘be’, since it shows a partial overlap with the paradigm of the lesz ‘become something’ verb, for example in the imperative mood (legyen ‘be!’), in the conditional mood (lenne ‘if it were’). On the other hand, the third person singular form of the substantive verb is van in the present tense, volt in the past tense, and volna in the conditional mood. This type of verb stem suppletion, however, is not systematic, since it does not depend on tense or aspect. The situation is the same with the verb jön ‘come’ in the imperative, where the second person singular form is gyere, while gyertek is used for second person plural subjects. These suppletive forms only appear in one person and one mood of the paradigm of jön.

Author: 

Nikolett F. Gulyás