A tápkábel a dobozban van.

The power cable is in the box.

Breakdown of A tápkábel a dobozban van.

• lenni: to be
• az: the
• doboz: the box
• tápkábel: a power cable

Questions & Answers about A tápkábel a dobozban van.

What does the first a mean in A tápkábel?

It is the definite article, equivalent to the in English.

So:

• a tápkábel = the power cable

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

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

Since tápkábel starts with t, Hungarian uses a.

Why is there another a in a dobozban?

That second a also means the.

Hungarian normally keeps the article even when the noun has a case ending:

• a doboz = the box
• a dobozban = in the box

So the article is not replaced by the ending; you use both:

• a
  • doboz
    • -ban

What does -ban mean?