Az üveghulladék külön van.

The glass waste is separate.

Breakdown of Az üveghulladék külön van.

• lenni: to be
• az: the
• külön: separately
• üveghulladék: glass waste

Questions & Answers about Az üveghulladék külön van.

Why does the sentence start with Az and not A?

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

• a before most consonants
• az before vowels

Since üveghulladék starts with the vowel ü, the correct form is az:

• az üveghulladék

This is similar to English a/an, but Hungarian does this with the definite article instead.

What kind of word is üveghulladék? Is it one word or two?

It is one compound noun.

It is made from:

• üveg = glass
• hulladék = waste, trash

So üveghulladék literally means glass-waste, i.e. glass refuse / glass recycling / glass trash depending on context.

Hungarian very often forms compounds this way, and they are normally written as one word.

Why is there no word for is except van at the end?

Van is the 3rd person singular form of the verb lenni = to be.

So:

• van = is

In this sentence, van is used because the phrase describes a state or location-like condition: the glass waste is kept separately / is separate.

Hungarian often places van after the part carrying the main new information, which here is külön.