Hallgat

Hallgat is a Hungarian verb meaning to listen or to heed. In everyday use it denotes paying attention to sounds, speech, or music, and it can also express compliance with advice or orders when used with appropriate complements, such as hallgat a tanácsra (heeds the advice).

In transitive usage, hallgat takes the thing heard as the object in the accusative, for example zenét hallgatok (I listen to music). It can describe both passive and active listening, as in hallgattuk a beszédet (we listened to the speech) or hallgass meg ezt a dalt (listen to this song). The sense can broaden to imply attention to someone’s words or instruction, for instance hallgatni valaki szavára (to heed someone's words).

The verb is conjugated as follows in the present indicative: hallgatok, hallgatsz, hallgat, hallgatunk, hallgattok, hallgatnak. The imperative forms include hallgass! and hallgassátok!, used to command someone to listen. The related noun hallgató means a listener or, in an academic context, a student or an auditor attending lectures.

Hallgat appears primarily as a common verb in Hungarian, but the root also appears in related forms such as hallgató, which broadens to refer to a person who listens or attends, particularly in educational settings. In most contexts, hallgat conveys the act of listening, attention, or compliance within speech and auditory experiences.