Az ipari eszköz nagy.

big

Breakdown of Az ipari eszköz nagy.

• az: the
• ipari: industrial
• eszköz: a tool or device

Questions & Answers about Az ipari eszköz nagy.

Why is there no word for is in Az ipari eszköz nagy?

In Hungarian, the verb to be is often left out in the present tense when the subject is third person singular or plural.

So instead of saying something literally like The industrial tool is big, Hungarian simply says:

Az ipari eszköz nagy.

This is completely normal.

But in other persons, Hungarian does use the verb:

• Én nagy vagyok = I am big
• Te nagy vagy = You are big

So the missing is is not a mistake; it is a basic feature of Hungarian grammar.

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

Az is the definite article, meaning the.

Hungarian has two forms of the:

• a
• az

Which one you use depends on the sound at the beginning of the next word:

• a before a consonant
• az before a vowel

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

az ipari eszköz

This is similar to English a / an, but Hungarian does this with the definite article instead.