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Learn Hardcore Hungarian: A megye nagy. - The county is large.

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/A megye nagy.

A megye nagy.

The county is large.

Breakdown of A megye nagy.

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Questions & Answers about A megye nagy.

Why does the sentence start with a?

In Hungarian, a is the definite article meaning the before most consonants.

So:

a megye = the county

Hungarian has two forms of the:

a before most consonants
az before vowels

Since megye starts with m, it takes a, not az.

What exactly does megye mean?

Megye means county. It is an administrative region.

In modern Hungarian, it usually refers to a county-level division of the country. Depending on context, you may also see it in official names of places.

Why is nagy after the noun instead of before it?

Because in this sentence, nagy is not directly modifying the noun inside a noun phrase. It is the predicate adjective.

Compare:

a nagy megye = the big county
Here, nagy comes before the noun because it directly describes megye inside the noun phrase.
a megye nagy = the county is big
Here, nagy comes after the noun because it is the main description in the sentence.

So Hungarian often works like this:

adjective before noun = big county
adjective after noun = the county is big

Where is the word for is?

In Hungarian, the verb to be is often omitted in the third person singular and plural in the present tense.

So:

A megye nagy. literally looks like The county big.
but it means The county is big.

This is completely normal Hungarian.

Compare:

én nagy vagyok = I am big
te nagy vagy = you are big
a megye nagy = the county is big
no separate word for is

Would A megye nagy van or A megye van nagy ever be correct?

No. Those are not correct.

In a simple present-tense sentence like this, Hungarian does not use van for is in the third person when describing something with a noun or adjective.

Correct:

A megye nagy. = The county is big.

Incorrect:

A megye nagy van.
A megye van nagy.

You do use van in other situations, especially for existence or location:

Itt van. = It is here.
A megyehatár itt van. = The county border is here.

How is megye pronounced?

A rough guide is:

megye ≈ MEH-dyeh, but with a softer middle sound than English dy

More specifically:

me sounds like meh
gy is a special Hungarian consonant, somewhat like the d in British-style during for some speakers, or a softened dy
final e is pronounced, not silent

So megye is two syllables: me-gye.

What sound is gy?

gy is a single Hungarian consonant, not a g plus y.

It is pronounced with the tongue close to the hard palate, and English does not have an exact equivalent. A useful approximation is a soft dy sound.

Examples:

gyerek = child
megye = county

So when reading megye, do not pronounce it like meg-yay or meg-yee. Think more like meh-dyeh, but softer and smoother.

Does nagy change form for gender, like big / big / big in some languages?

No. Hungarian does not have grammatical gender like masculine, feminine, and neuter.

So nagy stays the same regardless of what it describes.

Examples:

a megye nagy = the county is big
a ház nagy = the house is big
a város nagy = the city is big

The adjective does not change for gender.

Does nagy change for number here?

Not in this kind of sentence.

Hungarian adjectives usually do not agree in number when used predicatively.

So:

A megye nagy. = The county is big.
A megyék nagyok. = The counties are big.

Notice something important:

singular predicate adjective: nagy
plural predicate adjective: nagyok

So in predicate position, Hungarian often does mark plural. But it still does not behave like full adjective agreement in the way some Indo-European languages do.

Also compare attributive use:

nagy megye = big county
nagy megyék = big counties

Here the adjective stays nagy before the noun.

What is the plural of megye?

The plural is megyék.

So:

megye = county
megyék = counties

With the article:

a megye = the county
a megyék = the counties

And a full sentence:

A megyék nagyok. = The counties are big.

Can the word order change?

Yes, but word order in Hungarian often affects focus and emphasis.

The neutral sentence is:

A megye nagy. = The county is big.

You might also see:

Nagy a megye.

This still means roughly The county is big, but it gives more emphasis to big, almost like:

The county is big
or Big is the county, in a marked or contrastive sense

So the basic learner-friendly version is A megye nagy., but Hungarian word order is more flexible than English.

Why isn’t it Az megye nagy?

Because az is used before vowel sounds, while megye begins with a consonant.

So:

a megye ✅
az megye ❌

Examples:

a ház = the house
az iskola = the school

Is A megye nagy. a complete natural sentence in Hungarian?

Yes. It is a complete, grammatical, natural Hungarian sentence.

It has:

A megye = the subject, the county
nagy = the predicate adjective, big

And in the present tense, third person, Hungarian does not need to say is explicitly here.

So this is a normal full sentence, not a fragment.

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