Legutóbb

Legutóbb is a Hungarian adverb that means “the most recently” or “the last one in a recent sequence.” It is used to refer to the latest event or action up to the present moment and often appears in contexts where a reader or listener expects a most recent item among several occurrences.

Etymology and form: legutóbb is formed by adding the superlative prefix leg- to utóbb, an adverb meaning “recently” or “lately.” The construction emphasizes recency, signaling that the event in question is the latest among others.

Usage and nuance: Legutóbb is common in both spoken and written Hungarian and is typically used with verbs in the past tense to indicate the most recent instance. Examples include legutóbb találkoztunk vele (we just met him recently/the most recent time we met him) and legutóbb olvastam ezt a könyvet (I read this book most recently). It is used to distinguish the latest occurrence from earlier ones; it is not synonymous with utóbb, which simply means “recently,” nor with utoljára, which often marks the final item in a sequence or a last occurrence in a broader sense.

Related terms and alternatives: utóbb and nemrég can convey related time references, with utóbb indicating recentness without the explicit “most recent” emphasis, and nemrég meaning “recently” without a clear ranking among events. The adjective legutóbbi serves a similar idea in adjectival form, meaning “the most recent” as a modifier for nouns.

See also: Hungarian adverbs of time, temporal expressions, utóbbi, legutóbbi, nemrég.