szóltak

Szóltak is a Hungarian verb form that appears in two main senses corresponding to the verb szól. The primary meaning is “they spoke” or “they told (someone something),” while a second meaning is “they rang” or “they sounded,” as in bells or alarms. The form is the third-person plural past tense.

Grammatical notes: szól has the present tense forms szólok, szólsz, szól, szólunk, szóloltak? Actually correct: szólok, szólsz, szól, szólunk, szóltok, szólnak. In the past tense, the corresponding forms are szóltam, szóltál, szólt, szóltunk, szóltatok, szóltak. When used in the sense “to tell,” the verb often takes indirect object constructions such as “szóltak nekünk” or clauses introduced with “hogy” (they told us, that…). Example: “A tanárok szóltak, hogy elhalasztják a vizsgát.”

Examples:

- They told us that the exam would be postponed: “A tanárok szóltak, hogy elhalasztják a vizsgát.”

- The bells rang: “A harangok szóltak.” This sense is especially common in narrative or descriptive contexts.

Related usage: szól is the base verb, with related forms including the imperative szólj (tell!), and the subjunctive/conditional forms built from the same root. The past tense form szóltak can therefore appear in narrative reports, news, or everyday speech to indicate plural subjects performing the action in the past.

In summary, szóltak functions as a versatile past-tense form of szól, used for both communication (telling) and acoustic events (ringing), depending on context.