A rövidlátás és a távollátás különböző.

A is the Hungarian definite article, roughly the.

Hungarian often uses the definite article with:

• abstract nouns
• general categories
• topics already being discussed

So A rövidlátás és a távollátás... is completely natural in Hungarian, even though idiomatic English often drops the in this kind of sentence.

A very literal translation would be something like The short-sightedness and the far-sightedness are different, but that sounds unnatural in English. The Hungarian is normal.

Hungarian very commonly repeats the article before each noun in a coordination:

• a fiú és a lány
• a ház és a kert
• a rövidlátás és a távollátás

This makes both items clearly separate and equally definite.

You may sometimes see the second article omitted in other contexts, but repeating it is very standard and often sounds clearer.

Hungarian usually leaves out van / vannak in the present tense, third person, when the predicate is a noun or adjective.

So:

• A ház nagy. = The house is big.
• A könyvek érdekesek. = The books are interesting.
• A rövidlátás és a távollátás különböző. = Short-sightedness and long-sightedness are different.

So there is no separate word for are here, even though English needs one.

Both are compound nouns.

rövidlátás

• rövid = short
• látás = seeing, sight, vision

So the literal idea is short-seeing, which became the standard word for short-sightedness / myopia.

távollátás

• távol = far, distant
• látás = seeing, sight, vision

So this is literally far-seeing, meaning long-sightedness / farsightedness / hyperopia.

Also note:

• lát = to see
• -ás / -és is a common noun-forming ending

So látás comes from lát and means seeing / sight.

Hungarian writes many compounds as a single word, especially when they form one fixed concept.

So:

• rövid + látás → rövidlátás
• távol + látás → távollátás

The double l appears because:

• the first part ends in l
• the second part begins with l

Both are kept in spelling, so you get ll.

That is a very natural Hungarian word order.

A neutral Hungarian sentence often does this:

1. mention the topic
2. say something about it

So here:

• A rövidlátás és a távollátás = the topic
• különböző = what is being said about them

So the structure is basically:

As for short-sightedness and long-sightedness, they are different.

You could change the word order for emphasis, but the given version is the most straightforward.

This is a reasonable question, because English has a clearly plural idea here: two things are different.

In Hungarian, you may also encounter forms with more explicit plural agreement in other sentences, but in short, neutral statements like this, learners should simply recognize különböző as the predicate meaning different.

The most important point here is:

• különböző = different
• it is functioning as the descriptive word at the end of the sentence

So even if the form looks simpler than you might expect, the meaning is still are different.

Here különböző means different.

In other contexts, különböző can also mean various or several different kinds of, for example:

• különböző könyvek = various books / different books

But in this sentence, because it is the predicate, the meaning is clearly:

• are different

So:

• A rövidlátás és a távollátás különböző.
• Short-sightedness and long-sightedness are different.

A few useful pronunciation points:

1. Stress

In Hungarian, stress is normally on the first syllable of each word:

• A RÖvidlátás
• ÉS
• a TÁvollátás
• KÜlönböző

2. Accents matter

The accents are not optional. They show real vowel differences.

• á, é, ő are different from a, e, ö
• ö and ü are front rounded vowels, a bit like German ö and ü
• ő is a long version of ö

3. A rough English-friendly guide

Very roughly:

• a ≈ short uh/o sound
• rövidlátás ≈ RÖ-vid-laa-taash
• és ≈ aysh but with a pure vowel
• távollátás ≈ TAA-voll-laa-taash
• különböző ≈ KÜ-lön-bö-zőő

Also:

• Hungarian s sounds like English sh
• Hungarian sz sounds like English s

So the final s in látás is pronounced sh.