- The conjugated infinitive denotes action connected to the person. The non-conjugated infinitive has a general meaning:
- Itt nem szabad dohányoznia. ― S/he is not allowed to smoke here. (third person)
- Itt nem szabad dohányozni. ― Smoking is not allowed here. (general)
- With words like “important, necessary” etc., it is expressed in English as “for him/her to…”.
- Fontos eljönnie. ― It is important for him/her to come here. or It is important that s/he come here.
- Variants:
- -nia is added to back-vowel words that form their infinitive with -ni
- rohanni (“to run”) → Rohannia kell. ― He/she has to run.
- -nie is added to front-vowel words that form their infinitive with -ni
- nevetni (“to laugh”) → Nevetnie kell. ― He/she has to laugh.
- főzni (“to cook”) → Főznie kell. ― He/she has to cook.
- -ania is added to back-vowel words that form their infinitive with -ani
- tanítani (“to teach”) → Tanítania kell. ― He/she has to teach.
- -enie is added to front-vowel words that form their infinitive with -eni
- veszíteni (“to lose”) → Súlyt kell veszítenie. ― He/she has to lose weight.