válik

Hungarian

Etymology

Most likely from Proto-Finno-Ugric *wëlka-. Cognate with Finnish valkama (“boat-shore, spot on the banks where a path across ice or water starts, haven”), Northern Sami vuolgit (“to go, leave, depart, be, become, go out from”), Eastern Mari волем (voĺem, “to go down, fall”), and Northern Mansi (vaᵞi̮li, “to descend, be killed by a bear”). Possibly contaminated with the meaning "become", based off the root val-/vol- found in való (“suitable, real, existing”) and in some conjugations of the verb van (“to be, exist”) (volt, volna). The latter root comes from Proto-Finno-Ugric *wole- (“to be, become”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: vá‧lik
• Rhymes: -aːlik

Verb

válik

1. (intransitive) to become, to turn or turn into (something -vá/-vé or -ra/-re with valóra)

   Synonyms: változik, átváltozik, alakul, átalakul, lesz

   Active-voice counterpart: tesz

   a vér nem válik vízzé ― blood is thicker than water (literally, “the blood does not turn into water”)

2. (intransitive) to become, to make, to come to (out of someone -ból/-ből)

   Synonym: lesz

   Remek orvos válik majd belőle. ― He'll make a great doctor. (literally, “A great doctor will become out of him.”)

3. (intransitive, mostly in set phrases: becsületére, büszkeségére, dicséretére, díszére, egészségére, hasznára, javára, üdvösségére, szégyenére, kárára) to cause, boost, heighten, improve, enhance, or contribute to a certain state or quality of someone, to induce or bring about something, to serve as something for someone (-ra/-re)
4. (intransitive) to separate, to part (from something -tól/-től)

   Synonym: elkülönül

   Perfectives: elválik, különválik, szétválik

   • 1995, Lajos Parti Nagy, Esti kréta, Jelenkor. From the poem Nyár, némafilm (’Summer, silent film’ – translation by Kinga Dornacher and Stephen Humphreys, published under the title Europink, published 1999:

     Ma bolyhos csönd a nyár, keringő vattazápor, / válik a nyár, fehér bohóc a cirkuszától

     This quiet summer day is a shower-waltz of wooldust, / the aspen’s parting – sad pierrot leaves his circus

5. (intransitive) to divorce (to legally dissolve a marriage between two people) (from someone -tól/-től)

   Perfective: elválik

   Válik a férjétől. ― She is divorcing her husband.

Usage notes

This verb is called a pseudo-ik verb, as its -ik ending presents itself only in the 3rd-person singular (indicative present) form, but it is not an -ik verb in any other aspect. As a result, it cannot take the -om/-em/-öm ending in the 1st-person singular (indicative present) form, even in the most erudite style, only -ok/-ek/-ök. Naturally, the optional -m ending cannot appear, either, in their subjunctive or conditional 1st-person singular forms, so only -jak/-jek and -nék is possible in these respective forms. These verbs include the following: bomlik, (el)bújik, (meg)érik, (le)folyik, (össze)gyűlik, hazudik, (le)hull(ik), (bele)/(oda)illik, (meg)jelenik, (el)kopik, (el)múlik, ömlik, (meg)születik, (meg)szűnik, (meg)telik, tojik, (el)törik, (el)/(fel)tűnik, (el)válik, and (el)züllik. (Ki)nyílik partially belongs here, as it cannot take the first-person -om ending but it can take the third-person -jék.

Conjugation

Derived terms

(With verbal prefixes):

References

Further reading

• válik in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN