Az ipari anyag erős.

Both a and az mean the in Hungarian.

The choice depends on the sound at the beginning of the next word:

• a is used before a consonant
• az is used before a vowel

Here the next word is ipari, which begins with i, so Hungarian uses az:

• az ipari anyag

This is similar to the difference between a and an in English, although in Hungarian both forms still mean the, not a/an.

Ipari means industrial.

It comes from the noun ipar, which means industry.
The ending -i is a very common Hungarian suffix that turns a noun into an adjective meaning something like:

• related to
• of
• connected with

So:

• ipar = industry
• ipari = industrial

You will see this pattern a lot in Hungarian:

• iskola = school → iskolai = school-related, school
• Budapest → budapesti = from Budapest, Budapest-related

Anyag means material or substance.

In this sentence, az ipari anyag means the industrial material.

It is the subject of the sentence.

In Hungarian, the verb to be is often omitted in the present tense, third person, when one noun or adjective is describing another.

So English:

• The industrial material is strong.

becomes Hungarian:

• Az ipari anyag erős.

There is no written is here, but the meaning is still clearly is.

This happens very often:

• A ház nagy. = The house is big.
• A leves forró. = The soup is hot.

But in other tenses or persons, the verb appears:

• Erős vagyok. = I am strong.
• Erős volt. = It was strong.

Erős means strong.

In this sentence, it is a predicate adjective: it tells you what the subject is like.

So the structure is:

• Az ipari anyag = the industrial material
• erős = strong

Together: The industrial material is strong.

Hungarian adjectives usually do not agree with the noun in gender, because Hungarian has no grammatical gender like masculine/feminine/neuter.

They also do not change in the same way adjectives do in many Indo-European languages.

So:

• ipari anyag = industrial material
• erős anyag = strong material

The adjective stays the same form.

Even in predicate position, it stays simple in the singular:

• Az anyag erős. = The material is strong.

In the plural predicate, Hungarian often does mark the adjective:

• Az anyagok erősek. = The materials are strong.

So agreement is much more limited than in many European languages.

The neutral, straightforward word order is:

• Az ipari anyag erős.

This is the most natural way to say The industrial material is strong.

Hungarian word order is fairly flexible, but changes often affect focus or emphasis.

For example, a different order could emphasize a particular part of the sentence, but for a beginner, the given sentence is the normal neutral pattern:

• subject + predicate adjective

So yes, word order can change in Hungarian, but this version is the standard one.

A helpful approximation is:

• EH-roesh

A few pronunciation notes:

• e is like e in bed
• r is rolled or tapped
• ő is a long rounded vowel, somewhat like the vowel in French peu or German schön, but longer
• s in Hungarian is pronounced like English sh

So erős does not sound like it ends in English s.
The final s sounds like sh.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Az ipari anyag erős.
• ahz EE-paw-ree AW-nyawg EH-roesh

A few useful points:

• az sounds like ahz
• ipari has stress on the first syllable: IPari
• anyag begins with ny, which sounds like ny in canyon
• erős also has first-syllable stress

In Hungarian, the stress is almost always on the first syllable of each word.

If you want to say The industrial materials are strong, you would say:

• Az ipari anyagok erősek.

Changes:

• anyag → anyagok = materials
• erős → erősek = strong (plural predicate form)

So Hungarian often marks both the noun and the predicate adjective in plural sentences like this.

Yes, az can also mean that in other contexts, but in this sentence it is definitely the definite article the.

Why?

Because it comes directly before the noun phrase:

• az ipari anyag

That structure strongly signals that az is an article here, not a demonstrative pronoun.

So in this sentence, read it simply as:

• az = the