A csomagolás nagy és erős.

big

Breakdown of A csomagolás nagy és erős.

• és: and
• az: the
• erős: strong

Questions & Answers about A csomagolás nagy és erős.

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

A 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

Since csomagolás begins with cs, which is a consonant sound, a is the correct form: a csomagolás.

For comparison:

• a ház = the house
• az autó = the car

Why is there no word for is in this sentence?

In Hungarian, the verb to be is often left out in the present tense, third person when the predicate is a noun or adjective.

So:

• A csomagolás nagy és erős.

literally looks like:

• The packaging big and strong.

But it naturally means:

• The packaging is big and strong.

This is completely normal in Hungarian.

The verb appears in other situations, for example:

• Én erős vagyok. = I am strong.
• Te nagy vagy. = You are big.
• A csomagolás nagy volt. = The packaging was big.

So in your sentence, leaving out is is correct.