A lábas nagy.

the

Breakdown of A lábas nagy.

• nagy: large
• lábas: a saucepan

Questions & Answers about A lábas nagy.

Why does the sentence start with A? Doesn’t that mean a/an?

In Hungarian, a is the definite article the, not the indefinite article.

• a is used before a consonant
• az is used before a vowel

So A lábas means the pot.

If you wanted a pot, Hungarian would normally use egy lábas.

Where is the verb is?

Hungarian usually leaves out is in the present tense when the sentence is:

• third person
• and the predicate is a noun or adjective

So:

• A lábas nagy. = The pot is big.

This is completely normal in Hungarian.

But in other persons, the verb appears:

• Nagy vagyok. = I am big.
• Nagy vagy. = You are big.

Why is nagy after lábas instead of before it?