Mood Choice in Complements

Hungarian divides that-clauses into three categories based on the semantic intent of the clause. While some versatile verbs can take multiple moods depending on meaning, many matrix verbs strictly require a specific mood:

1. The Indicative Mood
Used for asserted, factual, or epistemically evaluated events. This often follows verbs of saying, knowing, seeing, and believing.

• Látom, hogy jön. (I see that he is coming.)

2. The Subjunctive Mood
Used for non-factual, desired, commanded, or purpose-driven events. This follows verbs of ordering, wishing, requesting, permitting, and purpose clauses. The subjunctive is formed using the -j suffix. It is morphologically identical to the imperative mood, meaning there is no separate subjunctive conjugation table. This suffix often triggers sibilant assimilation as well as complex changes with verbs ending in -t.

• Akarom, hogy jöjjön. (I want him to come.)

Preverb Placement and Negative Clauses
Because the imperative and subjunctive are morphologically identical, Hungarian distinguishes them syntactically through the placement of the verbal prefix. For indirect commands or requests, the prefix splits and moves after the verb (e.g., Azt mondta, hogy menjek el. 'He told me to leave.'). For purpose clauses, wishes, or evaluations, the prefix stays attached to the front of the verb (e.g., Fontos, hogy elmenjek. 'It is important that I leave.'). Additionally, for negative purpose clauses, Hungarian uses nehogy or hogy ne. While nehogy prevents preverb splitting (e.g., Siess, nehogy lekéssük a vonatot. 'Hurry, lest we miss the train.'), using hogy ne acts as standard negation and forces the preverb to split (e.g., Siess, hogy ne késsük le a vonatot.).

3. The Conditional Mood
Used for hypothetical events, polite requests, or sometimes after negated verbs of belief or doubt. The conditional is formed using the -na/-ne/-ná/-né suffixes.

• Nem hiszem, hogy eljönne. (I don't believe he would come.)

Indirect Questions
To form indirect questions (equivalent to 'if' or 'whether'), Hungarian attaches the interrogative particle -e to the verb in the subordinate clause. Note that in standard prescriptive grammar, combining hogy and -e in the same clause is considered a pleonasm, so hogy is typically omitted: Nem tudom, eljön-e. (I don't know whether he will come.)

Anticipatory Pronouns (Utalószó)
A defining syntactic feature of Hungarian complement clauses is the frequent use of an anticipatory demonstrative pronoun (such as azt, arra, ahhoz) in the main clause that points forward to the hogy clause. For example: Azt akarom, hogy jöjjön. (I want [that] that he comes.)

Meaning Shifts
Many verbs can take different moods, which fundamentally changes their meaning. For example, mond (say) + indicative means 'to state a fact', whereas mond + subjunctive means 'to give a command'.

Important Distinctions
Unlike English, which uses infinitives for different-subject commands (e.g., 'I want him to go'), Hungarian requires hogy + subjunctive. However, for same-subject desires, Hungarian uses the infinitive (e.g., El akarok menni. 'I want to go.'). Furthermore, unlike Romance languages, Hungarian uses the indicative or conditional for verbs of emotion, hope, and doubt (e.g., remél 'hope' takes the indicative). Crucially, the subjunctive mood has no past tense in modern Hungarian. Even if the main verb is in the past tense, the subordinate subjunctive verb must remain in the present form (e.g., Azt akartam, hogy jöjjön. 'I wanted him to come.').