A rejtekhely a szobában van.

A is the Hungarian definite article, like the in English.

It appears twice because there are two definite noun phrases here:

• a rejtekhely = the hiding place
• a szobában = in the room

This is completely normal in Hungarian. Even when a noun has a case ending, it can still keep its article.

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

• a before a consonant
• az before a vowel

So here we get:

• a rejtekhely because rejtekhely starts with r
• a szobában because szobában starts with sz

Compare:

• az ajtó = the door
• az ablakban = in the window

Szobában is made of:

• szoba = room
• -ban = in

So szobában literally means in room, and with the article a szobában means in the room.

This -ban / -ben ending is a case suffix, called the inessive case. Hungarian often uses endings where English uses prepositions.

Examples:

• házban = in the house
• kertben = in the garden

Because many Hungarian nouns ending in -a or -e lengthen that final vowel when a suffix is added.

So:

• szoba → szobá
  • -ban → szobában

This is a very common pattern.

More examples:

• mese → mesében
• kutya → kutyában

So szobában is exactly what you should expect from szoba + -ban.

This is because of vowel harmony, which is a basic feature of Hungarian.

Hungarian suffixes often come in two forms:

• -ban after words with mostly back vowels
• -ben after words with mostly front vowels

Szoba has back vowels (o, a), so it takes -ban:

• szobában

Compare:

• kert → kertben
• szék → székben

That is a very common and very good question.

In Hungarian, the present-tense form of to be is often omitted in the 3rd person singular, but only in certain kinds of sentences.

It is usually omitted with:

• noun predicates: Ő tanár. = He is a teacher.
• adjective predicates: A rejtekhely titkos. = The hiding place is secret.

But it is normally kept with location:

• A rejtekhely a szobában van.
• A könyv az asztalon van.
• Itt van. = It is here.

So in this sentence, van is needed because the sentence says where something is.

Hungarian word order is much more flexible than English word order. It depends a lot on topic, focus, and what information is new or important.

In this sentence:

• A rejtekhely is the topic: what the sentence is about
• a szobában van tells us where it is

In location sentences, it is very normal for the place expression to come right before van, so van often ends up at the end.

So this word order is natural Hungarian, even though English would place is earlier.

Yes, that is also grammatical, but the emphasis changes.

• A rejtekhely a szobában van puts the hiding place first, so it sounds like an answer to Where is the hiding place?
• A szobában van a rejtekhely puts in the room first, so it sounds more like an answer to What is in the room?

So the basic meaning is similar, but the information structure is different.

A learner should remember that in Hungarian, changing word order often changes emphasis rather than the core meaning.

Yes. Rejtekhely is a compound noun.

• hely = place
• rejtek relates to hiding or concealment

So the word literally means something like hiding place.

Hungarian uses compounds very often, so recognizing parts like hely can really help with vocabulary.

A few useful pronunciation points:

• sz is pronounced like English s in see
• Hungarian s by itself is pronounced like English sh
• ly in modern standard Hungarian is pronounced like j, roughly like English y in yes
• Stress in Hungarian normally falls on the first syllable of each word

So:

• rejtekhely is stressed on REJ-
• szobában is stressed on SZO-
• van is just van

This means the spelling may look unfamiliar at first, but it becomes much easier once you learn the letter combinations.