A mélység nagy.

A is the definite article, equivalent to English the.

So a mélység means the depth. Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

• a before most consonant sounds
• az before vowel sounds

Since mélység starts with m, it takes a.

In Hungarian, when an adjective is used as the predicate of a sentence—basically the part that says what something is like—it comes after the noun.

So:

• A mélység nagy. = The depth is great/large.

Compare that with an adjective directly in front of a noun:

• a nagy mélység = the great depth

So the position changes depending on the job of the adjective:

• before the noun: directly describing it
• after the noun: saying something about it in the sentence

In Hungarian, the verb to be is often left out in the present tense, third person.

That means sentences like:

• A mélység nagy.
• literally: The depth large.
• natural English: The depth is large.

This omission is completely normal in Hungarian.

But in other persons, van/vagyok/vagy, etc. do appear:

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

And in past or future tense, the verb is also expressed.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

MAYL-shayg

More carefully:

• mély sounds roughly like mail, but not exactly
• ség has a sh sound at the beginning because s in Hungarian is pronounced sh
• the é is a long vowel, like a longer ay
• the final g is pronounced clearly

A more detailed breakdown:

• m = like English m
• é = long ay
• ly in modern Hungarian is pronounced like j, so here it sounds like y
• s = sh
• é = long ay
• g = hard g, as in go

The accent marks in Hungarian are not optional—they are part of the spelling.

In mélység:

• é is a long vowel
• it is pronounced differently from short e

Hungarian vowel length matters, so changing vowel length can change the word.

So you should think of:

• e and é as different vowels
• not just the same vowel with extra emphasis

The accents are important for both pronunciation and correct spelling.

Hungarian spelling works differently from English.

In Hungarian:

• s = sh
• sz = s

So in mélység, the s is pronounced sh.

This is one of the first spelling rules English speakers usually need to get used to, because it feels reversed at first.

Yes. Mélység is related to mély, which means deep.

• mély = deep
• mélység = depth

The ending -ség is a common noun-forming suffix in Hungarian. It often creates an abstract noun, similar to English endings like -ness or -ity.

So very roughly:

• mély → deep
• mélység → deepness/depth

Because mélység means depth, which is a noun.

You describe the noun depth with an adjective like nagy = great/large:

• A mélység nagy. = The depth is great.

But mély means deep, and it normally describes something that has depth:

• A kút mély. = The well is deep.

So Hungarian is making the same distinction English makes:

• The well is deep.
• The depth is great.

Yes, Hungarian word order is flexible, but changes in word order often change the focus or emphasis.

• A mélység nagy. is a neutral statement.
• Nagy a mélység. puts more emphasis on nagy—something like The depth is great or It is great, the depth depending on context.

So both can be correct, but they are not used in exactly the same way.

No. Hungarian does not have grammatical gender like he/she or noun genders such as masculine/feminine/neuter.

In A mélység nagy, nothing changes because of gender. That is one reason Hungarian grammar can feel simpler than many European languages in this area.

In sentences like this one, van is usually omitted in the present tense, third person:

• A mélység nagy.

But van can appear in other kinds of sentences, especially when talking about existence or location:

• Itt van. = It is here.
• Van idő. = There is time.

So Hungarian does have a present-tense form of to be, but it is not used in exactly the same way English uses is.