A turistajelzés piros.

In Hungarian, the verb to be is usually left out in the present tense, third person.

So:

• A turistajelzés piros. = The tourist trail marker is red.

But in other persons, Hungarian does use the verb:

• Piros vagyok. = I am red.
• Piros vagy. = You are red.
• Piros. = He/she/it is red.

This is one of the most common things English speakers notice, because English requires is, but Hungarian often does not.

A is the definite article, meaning the.

So:

• a turistajelzés = the tourist trail marker

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

• a before consonant sounds
• az before vowel sounds

Since turistajelzés begins with t, Hungarian uses a:

• a turistajelzés
• but az alma = the apple

Because Hungarian very often forms compound nouns by writing them as a single word.

Here:

• turista = tourist
• jelzés = sign, marking, indication

Together, turistajelzés means a specific kind of marking/sign connected with tourist routes or hiking trails.

This is very natural in Hungarian. English often uses separate words where Hungarian prefers one compound word.

Literally, it looks like tourist + marking/sign, but in real usage it usually refers to a trail marking or hiking route marker, not a sign for tourists in general.

So even if the meaning has already been given to you, it is useful to know that the Hungarian word often has a more specific practical meaning than the literal parts might suggest.

Because here piros is not directly describing the noun inside a noun phrase. It is the predicate of the sentence.

Compare:

• A turistajelzés piros. = The trail marker is red.
• A piros turistajelzés = the red trail marker

So:

• noun + adjective can form a full sentence
• article + adjective + noun forms a noun phrase

This is a very important distinction in Hungarian.

No, not by itself.

• A turistajelzés piros. = a complete sentence: The trail marker is red.
• A piros turistajelzés = just a noun phrase: the red trail marker

So A piros turistajelzés is not a full statement on its own unless more is added, for example:

• A piros turistajelzés jól látható. = The red trail marker is clearly visible.

A few key points:

• Hungarian stress is almost always on the first syllable of each word.
• So you stress:
  • TUristajelzés
  • PIros

Roughly:

• turistajelzés ≈ TOO-rish-taw-yel-zaysh
• piros ≈ PEE-rosh

A few sound notes:

• j is pronounced like English y
• zs sounds like the s in measure
• s by itself sounds like English sh

So piros is not pronounced like English pie-ross, but more like pee-rosh.

Yes, piros is the everyday, basic word for red in many situations.

Hungarian also has vörös, which also means red, but the two are not always interchangeable.

Very roughly:

• piros = ordinary red, common everyday color word
• vörös = often a darker, deeper, or more fixed/literary/special-use red

For a simple sentence about the color of a marker, piros is the natural choice.

The sentence has a very straightforward structure:

• A turistajelzés = the subject
• piros = the predicate adjective

So the pattern is:

• Subject + predicate adjective

That gives:

• A turistajelzés piros.

This is one of the most neutral and common sentence patterns in Hungarian.

In the plural, both the noun and the adjective change:

• A turistajelzések pirosak. = The trail markers are red.

Changes:

• turistajelzés → turistajelzések = plural noun
• piros → pirosak = plural predicate adjective

This is useful because in Hungarian, predicate adjectives often show plural agreement.

Usually, that would sound incomplete or unnatural if you mean The trail marker is red.

The definite article a helps identify the noun as a specific thing:

• A turistajelzés piros. = The trail marker is red.

If you remove the article, the sentence may sound odd without a special context. Hungarian uses articles differently from English in some cases, but here the article is the normal choice.