A kontaktlencse kicsi.

small

Breakdown of A kontaktlencse kicsi.

• az: the
• kontaktlencse: a contact lens

Questions & Answers about A kontaktlencse kicsi.

What does a mean here? Is it a or the?

Here, a is the definite article, so it usually means the.

Hungarian has two definite articles:

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

So:

• a kontaktlencse = the contact lens
• az alma = the apple

If you wanted a/an in the indefinite sense, you would use egy.

Why is there no word for is in the sentence?

Because Hungarian often leaves out the verb to be in the present tense, third person when the predicate is a noun or an adjective.

So:

• A kontaktlencse kicsi. = The contact lens is small.

There is no van here, even though van is the usual dictionary form for is.

This omission happens in sentences like:

• A ház nagy. = The house is big.
• A fiú tanár. = The boy is a teacher.

But in other persons or tenses, the verb appears:

• Kicsi vagyok. = I am small.
• Kicsi volt. = It was small.

Why is kicsi after the noun? I thought adjectives come before nouns.