Questions & Answers about A tudományos terv az e-mailben van.
Why are there two different forms of the: a and az?
Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:
- a before a word that begins with a consonant sound
- az before a word that begins with a vowel sound
So here:
- A tudományos terv = the scientific plan
- az e-mailben = in the email
Because e-mailben starts with a vowel sound, Hungarian uses az.
This is similar to how English uses a and an, but Hungarian does it with the, not with the indefinite article.
What does -ben mean in e-mailben?
The ending -ben means in.
So:
- e-mail = email
- e-mailben = in the email / inside the email
Hungarian often expresses meanings like in, on, to, from, and so on with suffixes attached directly to the noun, instead of using separate prepositions.
A few similar examples:
- házban = in the house
- iskolában = in the school
- dobozban = in the box
So in this sentence, az e-mailben van literally means something like is in the email.
Why is it -ben and not -ban?