Az ifjúsági könyv érdekes.

the book

Breakdown of Az ifjúsági könyv érdekes.

• érdekes: interesting
• az: the
• ifjúsági: for young people; youth

Questions & Answers about Az ifjúsági könyv érdekes.

Why is it az and not a?

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

• a before a consonant sound
• az before a vowel sound

Here the next word is ifjúsági, which begins with the vowel i, so Hungarian uses az.

So:

• az ifjúsági könyv
• but a könyv

A useful thing to remember is that the article matches the next word it directly comes before, even if that word is an adjective modifying the noun.

What does ifjúsági mean exactly?

Ifjúsági means youth, for young people, or sometimes young-adult / juvenile depending on context.

It comes from:

• ifjúság = youth
• -i = an adjective-forming ending meaning something like related to or belonging to

So ifjúsági könyv literally means something like youth-related book, but in natural English it is often best understood as:

• a youth book
• a book for young people
• a young adult book
  depending on context

Why is ifjúsági before könyv, but érdekes comes after ?