Az ellenfény erős.

The backlighting is strong.

Breakdown of Az ellenfény erős.

• az: the
• erős: strong
• ellenfény: backlighting

Questions & Answers about Az ellenfény erős.

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

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.

Where is the word for is?

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.

Why does erős come after ellenfény?