Az evező a kenuban van.

to be

Breakdown of Az evező a kenuban van.

• az: the
• kenu: a canoe
• evező: a paddle or oar

Questions & Answers about Az evező a kenuban van.

Why is it az evező but a kenuban?

Both a and az mean the. Hungarian chooses between them based on the sound that follows:

• az before a vowel sound
• a before a consonant sound

So:

• az evező = the paddle/oar because evező starts with e
• a kenuban = in the canoe because kenuban starts with k

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

What does kenuban literally mean?

Kenuban is made of:

• kenu = canoe
• -ban = in

So kenuban literally means in a canoe / in the canoe, depending on context. In the full sentence, the article a makes it definite:

• a kenuban = in the canoe

Hungarian often uses suffixes where English uses separate words like in, on, to, and so on.

Why is the ending -ban and not -ben?