Felkelti

Felkelti is a Hungarian verb meaning to arouse or to wake up, with a common figurative sense of attracting attention, interest, or a response. It is formed from the prefix fel- (up, forth) and the causative stem kelteni (to cause to rise), so the literal sense is “to cause to rise up.”

In everyday usage, felkelti is most often used with abstract objects such as attention, interest, curiosity, or suspicion. Typical constructions include felkelti az érdeklődést (to arouse interest), felkelti a figyelmet (to attract attention), felkelti a gyanút (to arouse suspicion), or felkelti a kíváncsiságot (to stir curiosity). The phrase can be used in present, past, and conditional tenses, depending on the sentence. The direct object is usually in the accusative case, for example: A beszéd felkelti a hallgatóság figyelmét. (The speech arouses the audience’s attention.)

Felkelti is less commonly used for literal waking of a person; that sense is typically expressed with felébreszteni or felébresztés. In most contexts, felkelti remains a more formal or literary way to describe provoking a response rather than simply waking someone.

Grammatically, felkelteni is the infinitive form, and felkelti is the third-person singular present indicative form. The verb behaves as a regular transitively used Hungarian verb with the same prefix-based derivation found in other prefixed verbs.