tartottunk

Tartottunk is a Hungarian verb form that corresponds to the first-person plural (we) in the simple past tense of the verb tartani, which means to hold or to keep. The form is built from the stem tart-, the past tense marker -ott-, and the personal suffix -unk, yielding tartottunk. It is used when describing a past action performed by the speaker together with others.

Morphology and usage notes:

Tartottunk is part of the common past tense system in Hungarian. It expresses a completed action in the past carried out by a group including the speaker. In certain contexts, Hungarian also has the past definite form tartottuk for cases where the direct object is definite or specified; tartottuk translates roughly as “we held it” or “we held (the) [object].” By contrast, tartottunk is used when the object is indefinite or omitted.

Grammatical context:

As with other Hungarian verbs, tartottunk can appear in sentences describing physical holding, such as objects held in the hands, or more generally, a past instance of keeping or maintaining something. It does not itself encode aspect or mood beyond past tense in ordinary usage, but it participates in the broader system of definite and indefinite conjugation when a direct object is present.

Example:

Tartottunk egy labdát a kezünkben. (We held a ball in our hands.)

Related forms include tartottam (I held), tartottál (you held), tartott (he/she/it held), tartottunk (we held, indefinite), tartottatok (you held), and tartottak (they held). When the object is definite, the corresponding past definite form tartottuk is used: Tartottuk a labdát.