Ott van a repedés, ahol szivárog a víz.

Literally, it is something like There is the crack there or The crack is there.

In natural English, you would choose the wording based on context:

• There’s the crack.
• The crack is there.
• That’s where the crack is.

Hungarian is more comfortable than English with this kind of there + is / is there overlap, so the literal wording can sound a bit odd if translated word-for-word.

This is a very common question.

Hungarian often omits van in the present tense, but not in every kind of sentence.

It is usually omitted in 3rd person singular/plural when the predicate is:

• a noun: Ő tanár. = He is a teacher.
• an adjective: A ház nagy. = The house is big.

But with location or existence, van is normally kept:

• A könyv az asztalon van. = The book is on the table.
• Ott van a repedés. = The crack is there.

So here, because ott is a location word (there), van is needed.

Yes, and that is exactly why they work together.

Hungarian often uses a correlative pair:

• ott = there
• ahol = where

So Ott van a repedés, ahol szivárog a víz has a structure like:

there is the crack, where the water is leaking

This ott ... ahol ... pattern is very natural in Hungarian. It helps point to a place and then describe that place more specifically.

Ahol means where or more literally at the place where.

It is related to:

• hol? = where?
• ahol = where / the place where

So:

• Hol van? = Where is it?
• Ott van, ahol... = It is there, where...

In this sentence, ahol szivárog a víz means where the water is leaking/seeping.

Because the sentence is describing a location, not just a thing.

English might sometimes say:

• the crack where the water is leaking or
• the crack through which the water is leaking

Hungarian chooses the more natural location-based version here:

• ahol = where

So the sentence does not literally say the crack through which. It says something closer to the crack at the place where the water is seeping.

If you wanted a more explicit through which structure, Hungarian could say something like:

• a repedés, amelyen át szivárog a víz

But that is heavier and less simple than the original.

Because a is the definite article, like English the.

So:

• a repedés = the crack
• a víz = the water

Here, the speaker is talking about a specific crack and the water involved in that situation, not just any crack or water in general.

A useful thing to know: Hungarian often uses the definite article quite naturally with mass nouns like víz, even in places where English might simply say water.

So depending on context, English might translate:

• szivárog a víz as the water is leaking or just
• water is leaking

Because Hungarian word order is flexible, and it depends a lot on information structure: what is already known, what is new, what is being emphasized.

In szivárog a víz, the action/state is leaking / is seeping is being presented first, and a víz comes after it naturally.

This is very common when the clause is simply presenting what is happening:

• ahol szivárog a víz = where water is leaking / where the water is seeping

If you said:

• ahol a víz szivárog

that would also be grammatical, but it gives a víz more topic-like prominence, as if the water is what you want to foreground.

So the original sentence sounds natural and neutral.

Szivárog means something like:

• seep
• ooze
• leak slowly

It suggests movement through a small opening, crack, or porous material.

So it is often a very good match for:

• water seeping through a crack
• liquid leaking slowly

It is not exactly the same as every English use of leak:

• folyik is more like flow/run
• csöpög is more like drip

So szivárog is especially good here because a repedés is a crack, and water is coming through it slowly.

Because Hungarian normally separates subordinate clauses with a comma.

The part ahol szivárog a víz is a subordinate relative clause, so the comma is required:

• Ott van a repedés, ahol szivárog a víz.

This is more systematic in Hungarian than in English. In English, commas with relative clauses depend on the type of clause and style; in Hungarian, the comma before a subordinate clause is standard.

Yes. Hungarian allows several natural variations, with slightly different emphasis.

For example:

• Van egy repedés, ahol szivárog a víz.
  = There is a crack where the water is leaking.
  This introduces the crack as a crack, not the crack.

• A repedés ott van, ahol szivárog a víz.
  = The crack is there where the water is leaking.
  This puts a repedés first.

• Ott van a repedés, ahol a víz szivárog.
  Same basic meaning, but with slightly different internal emphasis in the second clause.

The original sentence is very natural if someone is pointing out the place of the crack.

A few useful points:

• sz is pronounced like English s in see
• s by itself in Hungarian is pronounced like English sh
• á is a long open vowel
• é is a long vowel somewhat like the vowel in say (but cleaner, with less glide)

So roughly:

• Ott → ott
• repedés → RE-pe-désh
• ahol → A-hol
• szivárog → SI-vá-rog
• víz → veez

Hungarian stress is normally on the first syllable of each word:

• OTT van a RE-pe-dés, A-hol SZI-vá-rog a víz.