Az ellenfény erős.

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

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

Since ellenfény begins with e, Hungarian uses az:

• az ellenfény

This is similar to the difference between a and an in English, although Hungarian uses it only for the definite article.

In Hungarian, the verb to be is often omitted in the present tense, third person when talking about identity, quality, or description.

So:

• Az ellenfény erős. literally looks like:
• The backlight strong.

but it means:

• The backlight is strong.

This omission is completely normal in Hungarian.

Compare:

• Én erős vagyok. = I am strong.
• Te erős vagy. = You are strong.
• Ő erős. = He/She is strong.

Notice that in the third person singular, van is not used here.

Because erős is the predicate adjective here: it tells us something about the subject.

So the structure is:

• Az ellenfény = the subject
• erős = what is being said about it

This is the normal Hungarian pattern for a sentence like The backlight is strong.

Compare:

• Az autó gyors. = The car is fast.
• A leves forró. = The soup is hot.

However, when an adjective comes directly before a noun, it usually describes the noun inside a noun phrase:

• az erős ellenfény = the strong backlight

So:

• Az ellenfény erős. = The backlight is strong.
• Az erős ellenfény... = The strong backlight...

No. In Hungarian, adjectives do not agree with nouns in gender, and Hungarian has no grammatical gender like masculine/feminine/neuter.

So erős stays the same regardless of the noun:

• Az ellenfény erős.
• A lámpa erős.
• A fények erősek.

The main thing that changes is number when needed in some sentence types. For singular here, erős stays just erős.

Ellenfény is a compound noun:

• ellen = against, counter
• fény = light

Together it refers to backlight, backlighting, or light coming from behind, depending on context.

Hungarian often forms nouns by combining smaller elements into one word, so learners will see many compounds like this.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• az ≈ awz
• ellenfény ≈ EL-len-fayny
• erős ≈ EH-rursh

A few helpful details:

• Stress in Hungarian is always on the first syllable: EL-len-fény
• é is a long vowel, roughly like ay in say
• ő is a long rounded vowel that English does not have exactly; it is similar to German ö if you know it
• s in Hungarian sounds like English sh
• sz sounds like English s

So erős ends with a sh sound, not an s sound.

Because ellenfény is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the basic dictionary form, often called the nominative.

Hungarian uses case endings when a noun has another role, for example as an object or after certain meanings, but the subject usually has no ending:

• Az ellenfény erős. = subject, no ending

So this is the simplest noun form.

Yes, but word order in Hungarian can change emphasis.

The neutral order here is:

• Az ellenfény erős.

This simply states the fact: The backlight is strong.

If you changed the order, you might shift the emphasis. For example:

• Erős az ellenfény.

This can sound like The backlight is strong with more focus on strong.

Both are possible, but the original sentence is a very natural neutral statement.

Not always word-for-word. The exact English translation depends on context.

It could refer to:

• the backlight
• the backlighting
• the light from behind

But grammatically, az makes it definite, so it refers to a specific backlight or a known instance of it.

So the sentence is about a particular ellenfény, not just backlight in general.

Usually, for a normal sentence meaning The backlight is strong, you would include the article:

• Az ellenfény erős.

Leaving out the article can happen in certain special styles or contexts, but for a learner, the standard and safest version is with az.

So if you mean the backlight, keep az.