Az árnyék jó.

Az is the definite article, meaning the.

So:

• az árnyék = the shadow

Hungarian has two forms of the:

• a before most consonants
• az before vowels

Because árnyék begins with a vowel sound, Hungarian uses az.

Hungarian chooses the form of the definite article based on the sound that follows:

• a
  • consonant-initial word
• az
  • vowel-initial word

Since árnyék starts with á, which is a vowel, the correct form is az árnyék.

This is similar to the English difference between a and an.

In Hungarian, in simple present-tense sentences with to be, the verb is usually left out in the third person singular and plural.

So:

• Az árnyék jó. = The shadow is good.

There is no separate word for is here.

This happens with many similar sentences:

• A ház nagy. = The house is big.
• A leves meleg. = The soup is warm.

However, forms of to be do appear in other persons:

• Én jó vagyok. = I am good.
• Te jó vagy. = You are good.

Yes. Jó means good, and here it is an adjective describing árnyék.

So the structure is:

• Az árnyék = the subject
• jó = the adjective/predicate

Together: The shadow is good.

No. Hungarian does not have grammatical gender like English he/she distinctions in nouns, and adjectives do not change for gender.

Also, in this kind of basic predicate sentence, the adjective usually stays the same.

So:

• Az árnyék jó. = The shadow is good.
• Az árnyékok jók. = The shadows are good.

Notice that in the plural, the adjective can take a plural marker when it is part of the predicate: jók.

But there is no masculine/feminine/neuter agreement like in many European languages.

A rough pronunciation is:

AAR-nyaik

More helpfully, broken down:

• á = a long a, somewhat like a in father
• rny = the ny is like the ny sound in Spanish señor or the ni in onion
• ék = a long é, somewhat like ay in say, followed by k

Important points:

• Hungarian stress is almost always on the first syllable: ÁR-nyék
• The accents matter: á and é are long vowels

A rough pronunciation is:

yoh

Details:

• j in Hungarian is pronounced like English y in yes
• ó is a long o, roughly like the vowel in go, but held a bit longer

So jó sounds like yoh.

In Hungarian, the accent marks are not optional decoration. They are part of the spelling and change pronunciation.

In this sentence:

• á is a long vowel, different from a
• é is a long vowel, different from e
• ó is a long vowel, different from o

So:

• árnyék is not the same as arnyek
• jó is not the same as jo

When learning Hungarian, it is important to treat accented vowels as distinct letters.

The basic order here is:

Subject + predicate adjective

• Az árnyék = subject
• jó = predicate adjective

So literally:

• The shadow good.

This is normal Hungarian for The shadow is good.

Hungarian word order can be flexible, but the neutral, straightforward version here is Az árnyék jó.

Yes. Jó az árnyék is also possible, but it has a slightly different emphasis.

• Az árnyék jó. = neutral statement: The shadow is good.
• Jó az árnyék. = puts more focus on good, something like The shadow is good / The shade is nice / It’s good that there is shade, depending on context

Hungarian often uses word order to show emphasis or focus, so changing the order can change what sounds most important.

Its basic meaning is shadow, but depending on context it can sometimes overlap with shade.

For example, in a hot-weather context, English might say The shade is good, while Hungarian may use árnyék.

So the exact English translation can depend on the situation, even though the Hungarian word itself is straightforward.

Yes. It is grammatically complete and natural.

It is a short, simple sentence of the type:

• The X is good.

Because Hungarian omits is in this kind of present-tense sentence, Az árnyék jó. is fully correct on its own.

It may sound a little context-dependent, just as The shadow is good does in English, but grammatically it is perfectly normal.

The dictionary forms are exactly the ones you see here:

• árnyék = shadow
• jó = good

Neither word is inflected in this sentence.

• árnyék is singular
• jó is the basic adjective form

So this sentence is a good example of a very simple, uninflected Hungarian statement.