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Learn Hardcore Hungarian: A petrezselyem zöld. - The parsley is green.

Hardcore Hungarian
/Starting a balcony herb garden
/A petrezselyem zöld.

A petrezselyem zöld.

A petrezselyem zöld.

The parsley is green.

Breakdown of A petrezselyem zöld.

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Questions & Answers about A petrezselyem zöld.

What does a mean here, and why is it a rather than az?

A is the Hungarian definite article, so it corresponds to the.

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

a before a consonant
az before a vowel

Since petrezselyem begins with p, a consonant, the sentence uses a:

a petrezselyem
but az alma

Does A petrezselyem zöld mean the parsley is green or parsley is green?

It can mean either one, depending on context.

Hungarian often uses the definite article when speaking about something in general, especially with foods, plants, and other broad categories. So:

A petrezselyem zöld.
can mean Parsley is green.

But in a specific situation, it can also mean:

The parsley is green.

Context tells you which meaning is intended.

Why is there no word for is in this sentence?

In Hungarian, the verb to be is often left out in the present tense, third person when the predicate is a noun or adjective.

So instead of saying something like A petrezselyem zöld van, Hungarian simply says:

A petrezselyem zöld.

This is completely normal.

Compare:

A leves meleg. = The soup is warm.
A ház nagy. = The house is big.

But in other tenses, or in some other sentence types, van or another form of to be does appear:

A petrezselyem zöld volt. = The parsley was green.
A petrezselyem zöld lesz. = The parsley will be green.

Why is zöld after the noun? I thought adjectives usually come before nouns.

That is a very common and important distinction.

In Hungarian:

before the noun = the adjective is describing the noun directly
after the noun = the adjective is usually part of the predicate

So:

zöld petrezselyem = green parsley
A petrezselyem zöld. = The parsley is green.

In other words, the sentence is not just a noun phrase. It is a full statement.

Can I also say Zöld a petrezselyem?

Yes, you can.

Both are grammatical, but the word order changes the emphasis.

A petrezselyem zöld. = neutral statement
Zöld a petrezselyem. = emphasizes green

The second version might sound like:

The parsley is green
or It’s green, the parsley is

So the original sentence is the most neutral, straightforward version.

What case is petrezselyem in?

It is in the nominative case, which is the basic dictionary form.

Hungarian often has no ending for the nominative, so the subject can look completely plain:

petrezselyem = parsley
A petrezselyem zöld. = The parsley is green.

There is no special subject ending here.

Does zöld change for gender or number?

For gender, no—Hungarian does not have grammatical gender like he/she or masculine/feminine adjective agreement.

So zöld does not change for masculine, feminine, or neuter, because Hungarian does not make that distinction.

For number, predicative adjectives can show plural:

A petrezselyem zöld. = The parsley is green.
A levelek zöldek. = The leaves are green.

So in this sentence, zöld is singular because the subject is singular.

Is petrezselyem singular because it works like a mass noun?

Yes, usually.

Like English parsley, Hungarian petrezselyem is often treated as a mass noun when talking about the herb in general. So singular is natural here:

A petrezselyem zöld.

A plural form is possible in special contexts, for example if you mean different kinds or separate bunches, but that is much less common.

How do you pronounce petrezselyem?

The stress is on the first syllable, as in almost all Hungarian words:

PE-tre-zse-lyem

A rough English-friendly approximation is:

PEH-treh-zheh-yem

Useful spelling points:

zs sounds like the s in measure or pleasure
ly in modern Hungarian is pronounced like y in yes

So petrezselyem sounds roughly like PEH-treh-zheh-yem.

How do you pronounce zöld?

The tricky part is ö.

ö is a rounded front vowel, similar to German ö or French eu
z is like English z
d is a normal d

A rough approximation is something like zurld or zöld, but English does not have the exact vowel.

So the main thing to remember is that ö is not the same as English o.

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