A szertartás rövid.

No. In this sentence, a means the, not English a.

Hungarian has:

• a / az = the
• egy = a / an

So A szertartás rövid. means The ceremony is short., not A ceremony is short.

Also, Hungarian uses:

• a before a consonant: a szertartás
• az before a vowel: az esemény

Because Hungarian often leaves out the verb to be in the present tense, third person, when you are simply describing or identifying something.

So:

• A szertartás rövid. = literally The ceremony short.

This is completely normal Hungarian.

The verb appears in other situations, for example:

• A szertartás rövid volt. = The ceremony was short.

Here rövid is a predicate adjective: it is saying something about the ceremony.

Compare:

• a rövid szertartás = the short ceremony

  • here rövid is directly describing the noun inside the noun phrase

• A szertartás rövid. = The ceremony is short.

  • here rövid is the predicate of the sentence

So the position changes depending on whether the adjective is:

• part of the noun phrase, or
• the main description in the sentence

A rough guide is SER-tar-taash, with the stress on the first syllable.

A few important details:

• sz is pronounced like English s in see
• final s is pronounced like English sh
• á is a long vowel

So szertartás starts with an s sound and ends with a sh sound.

A rough guide is RÖ-vid, with stress on the first syllable.

The tricky part is ö:

• it is not the same as English o
• it sounds somewhat like German ö or French eu

So if you know those languages, that helps. If not, just remember it is a separate Hungarian vowel, and it matters.

They are part of the spelling and represent different vowels. They are not optional.

• á is a different vowel from a
• ö is a different vowel from o

So these marks do real work in Hungarian. They do not just show stress.

In Hungarian, changing the vowel marks can change the word entirely.

It is singular: ceremony.

The plural is:

• szertartások = ceremonies

So:

• A szertartás rövid. = The ceremony is short.
• A szertartások rövidek. = The ceremonies are short.

Notice that with a plural subject, the predicate adjective becomes rövidek.

Yes. That is also grammatical.

Hungarian word order is flexible, and changing the order often changes the emphasis.

• A szertartás rövid. = neutral statement
• Rövid a szertartás. = puts more focus on short

So the second version can sound like you are emphasizing the fact that it is short.

Often just by intonation in speech.

You may see or hear:

• Rövid a szertartás?
• A szertartás rövid?

Both can work, depending on emphasis and context.

Hungarian does not always need a special word order change like English Is the ceremony short? The sentence can stay very similar, and the question is shown mostly by intonation.