A nyugati város szép.

beautiful

Breakdown of A nyugati város szép.

• az: the
• város: the city
• nyugati: western

Questions & Answers about A nyugati város szép.

Why is there no separate word for is in this sentence?

In Hungarian, the verb to be is usually left out in the present tense when the sentence is in the third person and works like X is Y.

So:

• A város szép. = The city is beautiful.
• literally: The city beautiful.

This is completely normal in Hungarian.

But van/vannak can appear in other situations, for example:

• for existence: Van egy város itt. = There is a city here.
• in other persons: Én szép vagyok. = I am beautiful.

So in A nyugati város szép., the missing is is not missing at all by Hungarian rules.

What does a mean here?

A is the definite article, meaning the.

So:

• a város = the city

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

• a before consonant sounds
• az before vowel sounds

For example:

• a város = the city
• az ember = the person

So in this sentence, a is used because nyugati begins with a consonant sound.