A bolhapiac ma nyitva van.

A is the Hungarian definite article, equivalent to English the.

So:

• a bolhapiac = the flea market

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

• a before a consonant
• az before a vowel

For example:

• a bolt = the shop
• az iskola = the school

Because bolhapiac starts with a consonant sound, Hungarian uses a.

Bolhapiac is a compound word:

• bolha = flea
• piac = market

So literally it means flea market, just like in English.

Hungarian often forms nouns by combining two existing words into one single word, so bolhapiac is written as one word, not two.

Ma means today.

Hungarian word order is more flexible than English word order, and it often depends on focus and emphasis, not just grammar.

In A bolhapiac ma nyitva van, ma is placed before nyitva van in a neutral, natural way:

• A bolhapiac ma nyitva van. = The flea market is open today.

You could also move things around for emphasis, for example:

• Ma a bolhapiac nyitva van. = Today, the flea market is open.
• Nyitva van ma a bolhapiac. = more marked, less neutral

So the original sentence is a normal, everyday way to say it.

This is a very common learner question.

Nyitva van is the usual Hungarian way to say that something is open in the sense of being in an open state or open for business.

• A bolt nyitva van. = The shop is open.
• Az ajtó nyitva van. = The door is open.

Here, nyitva is not a simple adjective like English open. It is more like a state expression meaning in an opened/open state.

By contrast, nyitott is an adjective/participle meaning something like:

• opened
• open-minded in some contexts
• sometimes open, but not always the most natural choice for shops or opening hours

So for businesses, doors, windows, etc., nyitva van is usually the natural choice.

That is true, but only in certain cases.

In Hungarian, the present-tense form of to be is often omitted in the third person when the predicate is a noun or a simple adjective:

• A piac nagy. = The market is big.
• Ő tanár. = He/She is a teacher.

But nyitva behaves differently. It is part of a predicate that normally keeps van:

• A bolt nyitva van.
• Az ajtó csukva van.
• Minden kész van. or more commonly kész in some contexts, depending on structure

So in A bolhapiac ma nyitva van, van is required and sounds natural.

You might be understood, but A bolhapiac ma nyitva van is the more natural and standard way to say The flea market is open today.

Why?

• nyitva van = describes the current state: it is open
• nyitott can sound more adjectival and is less idiomatic for opening status in many everyday situations

For shops, offices, markets, and doors, Hungarian strongly prefers:

• nyitva van = is open
• zárva van = is closed

So if you are talking about whether a place is operating today, nyitva van is the safest choice.

Ma is an adverb, meaning today.

It is not carrying a visible case ending here. It simply functions as a time expression.

Other common time adverbs work similarly:

• ma = today
• holnap = tomorrow
• tegnap = yesterday
• most = now

So in this sentence, ma just tells us when the flea market is open.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation would be:

aw BOL-ha-pee-ats maw NYIT-vaw vawn

A few helpful notes:

• a is pronounced more like aw than the English a in cat
• bolha sounds roughly like BOL-ha
• piac is roughly PEE-ats
• ny is a special Hungarian sound, similar to the ny in Spanish señor or the ni in onion
• nyitva is roughly NYIT-va
• van sounds like vawn

Hungarian stress is very regular: it falls on the first syllable of each word:

• A
• BOLhapiac
• ma
• NYITva
• van

Because Hungarian commonly writes compound nouns as one word.

So:

• bolha
  • piac → bolhapiac

This is very normal in Hungarian. English often uses separate words where Hungarian prefers compounds.

More examples:

• vasútállomás = railway station
• könyvesbolt = bookshop
• hálószoba = bedroom

So bolhapiac being one word is exactly what you should expect in Hungarian.

Usually, if you mean the flea market, you would keep the article:

• A bolhapiac ma nyitva van.

Without a, the sentence would sound less natural in most ordinary contexts unless you were speaking in a very special style, like headlines, signs, or very compressed speech.

Hungarian uses the definite article quite often when referring to a specific known thing, much like English uses the.

So for normal everyday speech, the full sentence with a is the best choice.

You can say:

• A bolhapiac ma nincs nyitva. = The flea market isn’t open today.

This is the most natural negative form.

Notice that Hungarian uses nincs as the negative form of van in this kind of sentence.

You may also hear:

• A bolhapiac ma zárva van. = The flea market is closed today.

That is often even more natural, depending on context.

So:

• nyitva van = is open
• nincs nyitva = is not open
• zárva van = is closed

The simplest spoken yes/no question is:

• A bolhapiac ma nyitva van?

Hungarian often forms yes/no questions just with intonation, without changing the word order.

You can also use the question particle -e in more formal or careful language:

• A bolhapiac ma nyitva van-e?

But in everyday speech, the plain intonation question is much more common.

A very literal breakdown is:

• A = the
• bolhapiac = flea market
• ma = today
• nyitva = open / in an open state
• van = is

So, very literally:

• The flea market today open is.

Of course, natural English is:

• The flea market is open today.

This kind of word-for-word comparison can help, but it is best to learn nyitva van as a single pattern meaning is open.