Megláttuk

Megláttuk is a Hungarian verb form meaning “we caught sight of” or “we saw,” with the nuance that the seeing was achieved or noticed after looking. It is the first-person plural past tense (past definite) of the perfective verb meglátni, formed with the prefix meg- attached to látni.

Morphologically, megláttuk is built from the stem meglát- plus the past tense personal ending -tuk. The meg- prefix signals a completed or sudden act of perception, and the double tt is a typical result of the root lát when combined with the past tense suffix. The form is used when the speakers refer to something they noticed or detected, often after some search or effort, rather than a simple, unremarked glance.

Usage of megláttuk tends to emphasize the discovery or recognition of something specific. It appears in narrative or descriptive contexts where the moment of noticing is central. For example: Megláttuk a csillagot az éjszakai égen. (We caught sight of the star in the night sky.) In contrast, láttuk would simply indicate that we saw it, without the nuance of discovery.

Related forms include meglátni (the infinitive “to catch sight of”); meglátás (the noun sense of sight or perception); and related verbs that convey glancing or glimpsing, such as megpillantani. Megláttuk remains a common option in Hungarian for expressing a deliberate moment of noticing something.