Page:Simplified grammar of the Hungarian language.djvu/88

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Defective verbs are those which have only certain particular tenses and persons. They are:

1. nincs or nincsen (negative of van), is not, or has not.

Plural: nincsenek, are not, or has none.

Note.—If the agent is in the nominative case, nincsen is to be translated (like van) by the verb "to be" with the negative "not"; with the attributive case, it is to be rendered by "to have" negatived; as—

Nincs is a contraction of nem, "not," and van, "is." If used in the sense o£ "to be," this contracted form can be used only in the third person singular and third person plural: in all other tenses and persons they are to be separated; as—


 * atyám nincs itt, my father is not here.
 * atyám nem volt itt, my father was not here.
 * ő nincs, he is not.
 * én nem vagyok, I am not.

2. Sincs, sincsen—plural: sincsenek—are contractions oi sem, neither, and nincs, nincsen, or nincsenek; for instance, a bátyám nincs itthon, my elder brother is not at home; anyám sincs, nor