Az egyetemen úszom.

• Az = the
• egyetemen = at the university
• úszom = I swim

More literally:

• egyetem means university
• -en is a location ending
• úszom is the I form of the verb to swim

So the sentence is built very compactly: article + location + verb.

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

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

Because egyetemen starts with the vowel e, Hungarian uses az:

• az egyetemen

Compare:

• a házban = in the house
• az egyetemen = at the university

The base noun is egyetem, which means university.

Then Hungarian adds the ending -en to show location:

• egyetem = university
• egyetemen = at/on the university

So egyetemen is not a separate dictionary word; it is egyetem with a case ending attached.

egyetemen is in the superessive case, marked here by -en.

Hungarian often uses case endings where English uses prepositions. So instead of a separate word like at, Hungarian puts the location idea onto the noun itself:

• English: at the university
• Hungarian: az egyetem-en

This is a very common feature of Hungarian grammar.

Because Hungarian does not always match English prepositions in a simple way.

An English speaker may think:

• at/in the university → maybe -ban/-ben

But Hungarian uses different location endings with different nouns and place types. With egyetem, the normal idiomatic form is:

• egyetemen

So this is something you largely learn as part of the noun’s usage. It is best not to translate the ending too literally as only in, on, or at.

Not in the physical English sense.

The ending -on/-en/-ön often has a basic idea of on, but with many places and institutions it is simply the normal Hungarian way to express location, and in English it may translate as at or in.

So here:

• egyetemen is best understood as at the university
• it does not mean someone is physically on top of the university building

Because Hungarian usually does not need subject pronouns when the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.

In úszom, the ending shows first person singular, so I swim is already built into the verb.

That means:

• úszom = I swim

You can add én (I) if you want emphasis or contrast:

• Én az egyetemen úszom. = I swim at the university.
  This sounds more emphatic, like contrasting yourself with someone else.

The verb is built from:

• úszni = to swim

In Hungarian, verbs change form depending on person and number. Here the sentence needs I swim, so the verb becomes:

• úszom = I swim

You may also see the dictionary-style finite form:

• úszik = he/she/it swims

So:

• úszni = to swim
• úszik = he/she swims
• úszom = I swim

Yes, you may hear úszok in everyday Hungarian.

The verb úszik belongs to the traditional -ik verb group, and the more traditional/standard first-person singular form is:

• úszom

But in modern colloquial speech, many speakers also say:

• úszok

So for a learner:

• úszom is perfectly correct and matches your sentence
• úszok is also something you should recognize when listening

Yes, you can say Úszom az egyetemen, but the emphasis changes.

Hungarian word order is much more flexible than English word order. Different orders can sound more natural in different contexts.

• Az egyetemen úszom.
  This puts at the university first, often making it the topic or setting.

• Úszom az egyetemen.
  This is also grammatical, but it gives the sentence a different flow or emphasis.

Very roughly:

• fronting az egyetemen can make the location feel more prominent
• starting with úszom can make the action feel more prominent

So the sentence is not just about grammar; it is also about information structure.

Sometimes Hungarian does omit the article in institutional expressions, but it depends on the context and the verb.

For example:

• Egyetemen tanulok. = I study at university.
  This is a very natural generic expression.

But with úszom, the sentence usually refers to a specific place where the swimming happens, so:

• Az egyetemen úszom. is more natural

So a useful rule here is:

• keep az in this sentence unless you have a special reason not to

A rough pronunciation is:

• Az egyetemen úszom.
• /ɒz ˈɛɟɛtɛmɛn ˈuːsom/

A few helpful points:

• Stress is on the first syllable of each word.
• ú is a long vowel, like a long oo.
• sz is pronounced like English s, not like English z.
• gy is a soft consonant sound that English does not have exactly.

So úszom sounds roughly like OO-som, with the first syllable stressed.