Az egyetemnek van uszodája.

Hungarian usually expresses to have with a possession structure, not with a direct equivalent of English have.

The pattern is:

[owner]-nak/-nek + van + [thing possessed]

So here:

• az egyetemnek = to the university / for the university
• van = there is
• uszodája = its swimming pool

Literally, the sentence is something like:

To the university, there is its swimming pool.

That is how Hungarian says The university has a swimming pool.

So Az egyetem van... would be ungrammatical for this meaning.

The ending -nek is the dative ending here.

Hungarian uses -nak/-nek on the possessor in this kind of sentence:

• a fiúnak van könyve = the boy has a book
• a háznak van kertje = the house has a garden
• az egyetemnek van uszodája = the university has a swimming pool

Why -nek and not -nak?
Because Hungarian vowel harmony chooses the form based on the vowels in the word. Egyetem contains front vowels, so it takes -nek.

Van is the he/she/it is form of lenni (to be).

In possession sentences, Hungarian uses van instead of a verb meaning have.

So:

• van = there is / exists
• the whole structure = someone has something

Examples:

• A lánynak van testvére. = The girl has a sibling.
• Péternek van autója. = Péter has a car.
• Az egyetemnek van uszodája. = The university has a swimming pool.

Because the possessed noun gets a possessive ending.

Base word:

• uszoda = swimming pool

Possessed form:

• uszodája = his/her/its swimming pool

The ending here is the 3rd person singular possessive ending, because the owner is the university, which counts as it.

So:

• uszoda = a swimming pool
• uszodája = its swimming pool

This is a very common Hungarian pattern:

• könyv → könyve = his/her/its book
• kert → kertje = his/her/its garden
• uszoda → uszodája = his/her/its swimming pool

Because Hungarian usually shows possession on the noun itself, not with a separate word like English his/her/its.

In English:

• its swimming pool

In Hungarian:

• uszodája

The its idea is built into the ending -ja here.

So Hungarian often does in one word what English does in two:

• the university's swimming pool / its swimming pool
  → az egyetem uszodája

And in the full possession sentence:

• Az egyetemnek van uszodája.

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

• a
• az

Use az before a word that begins with a vowel sound.

Since egyetem begins with a vowel, you say:

• az egyetem

not

• a egyetem

Then the dative ending is added:

• az egyetemnek

Usually it means simply:

The university has a swimming pool.

But because Hungarian uses a possessive form (uszodája), it can sometimes feel slightly like the university has its own swimming pool.

In normal usage, though, you should usually translate it naturally as:

The university has a swimming pool.

Hungarian possession often sounds more explicit than English, but that does not always mean extra emphasis.

In this possession pattern with van, Hungarian often leaves out the article before the possessed thing.

So:

• Az egyetemnek van uszodája.

not usually:

• Az egyetemnek van az uszodája.

The version with az would mean something different, more like The university has the swimming pool, referring to a specific already-known pool, and it would sound unusual in many contexts.

If you want to say a/one swimming pool more explicitly, you can also say:

• Az egyetemnek van egy uszodája.

That can mean The university has a swimming pool / one swimming pool.

No, not in standard Hungarian.

In this kind of sentence, the possessed noun normally needs the possessive ending:

• uszodája = its swimming pool

So the correct sentence is:

• Az egyetemnek van uszodája.

Without the possessive ending, uszoda would just mean swimming pool, and the structure would not properly express possession.

Yes, Hungarian word order is flexible, but the basic neutral order here is:

Az egyetemnek van uszodája.

You may also hear:

• Uszodája van az egyetemnek.

This can put more focus on uszodája, as if saying:

The university does have a swimming pool.

So the words can move, but the neutral beginner-friendly version is the original one.

Then the possessed noun would become plural:

• uszodái = its swimming pools

So:

• Az egyetemnek van uszodája. = The university has a swimming pool.
• Az egyetemnek vannak uszodái. = The university has swimming pools.

Notice that van changes to vannak because the possessed thing is now plural.

A few helpful points:

• gy is a soft consonant, somewhat like the d in British English duke or a softened dy sound.
• sz is pronounced like English s.
• zs is pronounced like the s in measure.
• j is pronounced like English y in yes.
• á is a long vowel, longer than plain a.

So roughly:

• egyetemnek ≈ EH-dyeh-tem-nek
• uszodája ≈ oo-so-DAA-ya

These are only rough English approximations, but they can help at the start.

They are related, but they do not mean the same thing.

• Az egyetemnek van uszodája.
  = The university has a swimming pool.

This is a full sentence about possession.

• Az egyetem uszodája
  = the university's swimming pool

This is just a noun phrase, not a complete statement by itself.

So:

• one tells you that the university possesses one
• the other names the pool belonging to the university