Az ékszer drága.

Az is the Hungarian definite article, so it means the.

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

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

Because ékszer begins with the vowel é, the correct form is az ékszer.

Compare:

• a könyv = the book
• az ékszer = the jewelry / the jewel

In Hungarian, the verb to be is often omitted in the present tense, third person when the sentence is a simple statement like X is Y.

So:

• Az ékszer drága. = The jewelry is expensive.

Literally, Hungarian says something like The jewelry expensive.

But the verb is not always omitted. For example, in other persons it appears:

• Én drága vagyok. = I am expensive
• Te drága vagy. = You are expensive

And in the past tense it also appears:

• Az ékszer drága volt. = The jewelry was expensive

Here, drága is not being used directly before the noun as an adjective inside a noun phrase. It is the predicate of the sentence.

So:

• Az ékszer drága. = The jewelry is expensive.

But if you want to say the expensive jewelry, then the adjective comes before the noun:

• a drága ékszer = the expensive jewelry / the expensive jewel

So the difference is:

• Az ékszer drága. = The jewelry is expensive.
• A drága ékszer... = The expensive jewelry...

Ékszer can be a little broader than any one English word.

Depending on context, it can mean:

• jewel
• piece of jewelry
• jewelry in a general sense

So Az ékszer drága. could mean:

• The jewel is expensive.
• The piece of jewelry is expensive.
• sometimes even Jewelry is expensive, depending on context

Usually, context tells you which meaning is intended.

A simple English-friendly pronunciation guide would be:

• az ≈ ahz
• ékszer ≈ AYK-ser
• drága ≈ DRAA-gaw

A more accurate approximation is:

• az ÉEK-ser DRAA-gaw

A few useful notes:

• é is a long ay-like vowel
• sz is pronounced like English s
• plain Hungarian s would sound like English sh
• á is a long open vowel, somewhat like the a in father, but longer

Yes, they matter a lot. In Hungarian, accent marks are not optional. They show different vowels, and often vowel length too.

In this sentence:

• é is different from e
• á is different from a

So you should learn the words with their correct accents:

• ékszer
• drága

If you leave the accents off, native speakers will usually still guess what you mean from context, but it is considered incorrect spelling, and sometimes it can create confusion.

Yes, in this kind of sentence, the predicate adjective usually shows plural when the subject is plural.

So:

• Az ékszer drága. = The jewel / jewelry is expensive.
• Az ékszerek drágák. = The jewels are expensive.

Notice both changes:

• ékszer → ékszerek = jewel → jewels
• drága → drágák = expensive → expensive, plural predicate form

This is different from an adjective directly before a noun, where the adjective usually does not take a plural ending:

• drága ékszerek = expensive jewels

Yes, it can, depending on context.

In Hungarian, the definite article is often used in ways that do not match English exactly. So Az ékszer drága can refer to:

• a specific item: The piece of jewelry is expensive
• a general category: Jewelry is expensive

Context decides which reading is natural.

This is one reason why translating word-for-word can be misleading.

No. Hungarian does not have grammatical gender like many Indo-European languages do.

So:

• ékszer is not masculine or feminine
• drága does not change for gender
• az also does not change for gender

That makes Hungarian simpler in this area than languages like German, French, or Spanish.

Yes, you could say Drága az ékszer, but the emphasis changes.

The neutral, straightforward version is:

• Az ékszer drága.

If you say:

• Drága az ékszer.

then drága gets more focus, roughly like:

• The jewelry is expensive
• It’s expensive, the jewelry
• or The jewelry is expensive with emphasis on expensive

Hungarian word order is strongly connected to focus and information structure, not just fixed position rules. So both are grammatical, but they do not feel exactly the same.