rendhagyó

Rendhagyó is a Hungarian adjective meaning irregular or deviant from standard patterns. In linguistic and grammatical contexts, the term is used to describe forms that do not follow the usual inflection or conjugation rules of Hungarian. It is applied across word classes, though it is most commonly used for verbs (rendhagyó igék). It can also refer to nouns with irregular plurals or other atypical forms, and less frequently to adjectives or numerals with non-standard comparative or superlative forms. In everyday language, rendhagyó can also describe anything unusual or out of the ordinary.

Rendhagyó igék are verbs whose present-tense forms do not follow the regular pattern from the infinitive. Examples include lenni (to be): vagyok, vagy, van, vagyunk, vagytok, vannak; enni (to eat): eszek, eszel, eszik, eszünk, esztek, esznek; inni (to drink): iszom, iszol, iszik, iszunk, isztok, isznak; venni (to buy): veszek, veszel, vesz, veszünk, vesztek, vesznek; írni (to write): írok, írsz, ír, írunk, írtok, írnak; menni (to go): megyek, mész, megy, megyünk, mentek, mennek.

The concept is common in language teaching and lexicography, where rendhagyó forms are flagged to alert learners to exceptions to regular patterns. It underscores that not all words conform to a single, uniform paradigm and that irregularities require separate memorization or reference.