A vízforraló ugyan bekapcsol, de gyorsan túlmelegszik.

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Breakdown of A vízforraló ugyan bekapcsol, de gyorsan túlmelegszik.

• az: the
• vízforraló: an electric kettle
• bekapcsolni: to switch on

Questions & Answers about A vízforraló ugyan bekapcsol, de gyorsan túlmelegszik.

Why does the sentence start with A?

A is the definite article, so here it means the.

So A vízforraló = the kettle.

Hungarian uses definite articles very regularly. In this sentence, it refers to a specific kettle that is being discussed, not kettles in general.

What does vízforraló literally mean?

Vízforraló is a compound word:

• víz = water
• forraló = something that boils / boiler

So literally it is something like water-boiler, which is the normal Hungarian word for kettle or electric kettle.

Compound nouns are very common in Hungarian, so this is a useful pattern to notice.

Does ugyan mean same here?

No, not in this sentence.

A learner may know words like ugyanaz = the same, but plain ugyan here is not being used that way. In this sentence, ugyan is a particle that adds a concessive meaning, something like:

• admittedly
• it’s true that
• granted

So A vízforraló ugyan bekapcsol, de... means roughly The kettle does switch on, but...