What does “megbuktat” mean in Hungarian?

Megbuktat means to fail someone in school — a teacher’s action, not the student’s. It comes from bukik (to fall, to flunk): the plain buktat is “to cause to fail”, and the prefix meg- makes it a completed, decisive act. Hungarian school grades run 1 to 5, where 5 (ötös) is top and 1 (egyes, elégtelen) is a fail. Get one and you face a pótvizsga — a make-up exam, often at the end of August.

The family is worth knowing: megbukik (to fail, intransitive — also “to fall” politically), bukás (a failing grade), pótvizsga (resit). In the clip a stern tanár néni walks the class through year-end marks, hands out a négyes (4) here, refuses an ötös there, and finally tells one pupil “meg kell, hogy buktassalak” — I have to fail you — booking the dreaded August pótvizsga.