Az ellenfény annyira erős, hogy a portré sötét marad.

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Breakdown of Az ellenfény annyira erős, hogy a portré sötét marad.

• maradni: to remain
• erős: strong
• sötét: dark

Questions & Answers about Az ellenfény annyira erős, hogy a portré sötét marad.

What does ellenfény mean exactly, and why is it one word?

Ellenfény is a compound noun. It is made from:

• ellen = against, opposite
• fény = light

So its literal sense is something like light from the opposite side, and in real usage it means backlight or backlighting. In photography, it refers to light coming from behind the subject, which can make the subject look dark.

Hungarian very often forms compounds like this as a single word.

Why is it Az ellenfény, but later a portré?

Both a and az mean the. Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

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

So:

• az ellenfény because ellenfény starts with a vowel sound
• a portré because portré starts with a consonant sound

This is similar to how English has a and an, but in Hungarian it happens with the definite article, not the indefinite one.

How does annyira ... hogy ... work?