Az ékszer drága.

the

Breakdown of Az ékszer drága.

• drága: expensive
• ékszer: jewellery

Questions & Answers about Az ékszer drága.

What does az mean, and why is it az instead of a?

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

Why is there no word for is in this sentence?

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

Why does come after ? In English, usually comes before the noun.