Az angol nehéz.

In Hungarian, language names are often used with the definite article when they act like nouns in a sentence. So Az angol nehéz is the normal way to say English is difficult.

That is different from English, where we usually just say English is difficult without the.

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

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

Because angol begins with a vowel, you say az angol.

Here, angol is a noun, meaning the English language.

But angol can also be:

• an adjective: angol könyv = English book
• a noun referring to a person: egy angol = an English person

So the word itself is flexible. In this sentence, the context makes it mean the language.

In Hungarian, names of languages and nationalities are normally written with lowercase letters:

• angol = English
• magyar = Hungarian
• német = German

So angol is lowercase here because that is the normal spelling. If it appeared at the beginning of a sentence, it would be capitalized only because it starts the sentence, not because it is a language name.

In the present tense, Hungarian usually leaves out van = is when the subject is third person and the predicate is a noun or adjective.

So:

• Az angol nehéz. = English is difficult.
• literally: The English difficult.

This is completely normal Hungarian grammar.

Nehéz can mean both difficult/hard and heavy.

For example:

• A feladat nehéz. = The task is difficult.
• A táska nehéz. = The bag is heavy.

In Az angol nehéz, it clearly means difficult.

Yes, absolutely.

Both are natural:

• Az angol nehéz.
• Nehéz az angol.

The difference is mainly emphasis.

• Az angol nehéz. is a neutral statement about English.
• Nehéz az angol. puts more focus on nehéz = difficult.

Hungarian word order is flexible, and changing the order often changes emphasis rather than basic meaning.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• az ≈ oz
• angol ≈ AWN-gol
• nehéz ≈ neh-hayz

A more precise version is:

• [ɒz ˈɒŋɡol ˈnɛheːz]

A few helpful pronunciation notes:

• Stress is always on the first syllable of each Hungarian word.
• é is a long vowel, roughly like ay in say, but cleaner and tenser.
• z is pronounced like English z.

Yes. Depending on context, az angol could also mean things like:

• the English one
• the English person
• the English man

Hungarian often relies on context to make this clear. In a simple sentence like Az angol nehéz, learners normally understand it as referring to the language.

Here it stays nehéz because the subject is singular.

Hungarian predicate adjectives can take a plural form if the subject is plural:

• Az angol nehéz. = English is difficult.
• A nyelvek nehezek. = The languages are difficult.

So in your sentence, the singular form nehéz is exactly what you would expect.