A lejtő meredek.

The downhill slope is steep.

Breakdown of A lejtő meredek.

• az: the
• lejtő: a downhill slope
• meredek: steep

Questions & Answers about A lejtő meredek.

What does a mean here?

A is the Hungarian definite article, so it means the.

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

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

So:

• a lejtő = the slope
• az út = the road

Unlike English, Hungarian articles do not change for gender.

Why is there no word for is in this sentence?

In Hungarian, the verb to be is usually left out in the present tense, 3rd person, when the predicate is a noun or adjective.

So English The slope is steep becomes simply:

• A lejtő meredek.

This is completely normal Hungarian.

Compare:

• A lejtő meredek. = The slope is steep.
• A lejtő meredek volt. = The slope was steep.

In the past tense, volt appears, but in the simple present it is omitted.

Why is meredek after the noun? Aren’t adjectives supposed to come before nouns in Hungarian?