A fiatal barátom a városban lakik.

Hungarian usually shows possession with a suffix on the noun, not with a separate word before it.

So:

• barát = friend
• barátom = my friend

The -om ending here means my.
So barátom is literally something like friend-my, but in natural English we say my friend.

If you want extra emphasis, Hungarian can also use én:

• az én barátom = my friend / it is my friend

But in a normal sentence, barátom by itself is the standard form.

This is very normal in Hungarian. A possessed noun phrase often still takes the definite article.

So:

• a barátom = my friend
• a fiatal barátom = my young friend

English does not say the my friend, but Hungarian often does use the article together with a possessive form. So this is not redundant or strange in Hungarian.

Fiatal means young, and it is an adjective describing barátom.

Hungarian adjectives usually do not change for gender, because Hungarian has no grammatical gender like English he/she distinctions in nouns and adjectives.

So:

• fiatal barát = young friend
• fiatal barátom = my young friend

The adjective stays fiatal.

It means in the city.

It breaks down like this:

• a = the
• város = city
• -ban = in

So városban literally means in city, and with the article a városban means in the city.

This is an example of Hungarian using a case ending instead of a separate preposition like English in.

Because of vowel harmony.

Hungarian suffixes often change shape depending on the vowels in the word they attach to. Város has back vowels, so it takes the back-vowel form:

• városban = in the city

A word with front vowels would normally take -ben instead:

• kertben = in the garden

So -ban / -ben are the same ending, just different harmonic forms.

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

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

Here the next words are fiatal and városban, both starting with consonants, so the article is a:

• a fiatal barátom
• a városban

If the next word began with a vowel, you would use az:

• az öreg barátom = my old friend

Hungarian usually leaves subject pronouns out when they are clear from the context.

In this sentence, the subject is already stated:

• A fiatal barátom = my young friend

So there is no need to add a separate he or she.

Also, Hungarian verbs do not show gender, so lakik can mean:

• he lives
• she lives
• sometimes even it lives, depending on context

Hungarian relies on context rather than grammatical gender here.

Lakik is the third person singular present tense form of lakni, which means to live or to reside.

So:

• lakni = to live / to reside
• lakik = he/she lives

In this sentence, it means lives in the sense of has their home in a place.

Yes, Hungarian word order is more flexible than English word order. It often shows topic and emphasis, not just grammar.

In this sentence:

• A fiatal barátom is the topic: we are talking about my young friend
• a városban lakik tells us something about that topic

So the sentence feels like:

• As for my young friend, he lives in the city

Other word orders are possible, but they can shift the emphasis. For example, a different order might put stronger focus on in the city rather than on my young friend.

Because lakik is the normal verb for living somewhere as your place of residence.

So:

• A városban lakik = He/She lives in the city

The verb él also means live, but it is broader. It can mean:

• to be alive
• to live life
• to live in a place, in some contexts

When you want to talk specifically about where someone resides, lakik is a very natural choice.

Because the case ending attaches to the noun, not to the article.

So the structure is:

• a = article
• város = noun
• -ban = case ending

That gives:

• a városban = in the city

The article remains a separate word, while the case ending goes on the noun itself. This is a very common Hungarian pattern.