A tál nagy.

No. In Hungarian, a here is the definite article, so it means the, not English a/an.

• a tál = the bowl
• Hungarian uses a before consonant sounds and az before vowel sounds.

So:

• a tál = the bowl
• az alma = the apple

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

So Hungarian says literally:

• A tál nagy.
• The bowl big.

But it means The bowl is big.

This happens very often:

• A ház szép. = The house is beautiful.
• A leves meleg. = The soup is warm.

If you change the person or tense, the verb appears:

• Nagy vagyok. = I am big.
• A tál nagy volt. = The bowl was big.

Also, in a simple negative sentence like this, Hungarian still normally leaves out is:

• A tál nem nagy. = The bowl is not big.

Because in this sentence nagy is not directly modifying the noun inside a noun phrase. It is the predicate adjective: it tells us something about the bowl.

So:

• A tál nagy. = The bowl is big.

But when the adjective directly describes the noun as part of the noun phrase, it comes before the noun:

• a nagy tál = the big bowl

This is an important difference:

• a nagy tál = the big bowl
• a tál nagy = the bowl is big

You would say:

• A nagy tál.

Here nagy comes before tál because it is directly modifying the noun.

Compare:

• A nagy tál = The big bowl
• A tál nagy = The bowl is big

So adjective position changes the structure and meaning.

A rough guide:

• tál: the á is long, like the a in father for many English speakers.
  So tál sounds roughly like taahl.

• nagy: the a is short, and gy is a soft Hungarian consonant that English does not have exactly. It is somewhat similar to a very soft dy sound for English speakers.

A rough approximation is something like:

• nagy ≈ nody or na-dy, but not exactly.

A few useful points:

• á is long: tál
• a is short: nagy
• gy is one single consonant sound, not a separate g
  • y

No. Hungarian does not have grammatical gender like many European languages do.

So nouns are not masculine, feminine, or neuter in the way they are in languages like German or French, and adjectives do not change for gender.

That means nagy stays the same whether the noun would be he, she, or it in English.

Examples:

• A fiú nagy. = The boy is big.
• A lány nagy. = The girl is big.
• A tál nagy. = The bowl is big.

In all three, nagy stays nagy.

Yes. That is also grammatical, but the emphasis changes.

• A tál nagy. is the more neutral sentence: The bowl is big.
• Nagy a tál. puts more focus on big.

So Nagy a tál can sound like:

• The bowl is big
• The bowl is large
• It’s the size that matters here: the bowl is big

Hungarian word order is often used to show focus or emphasis, not just grammatical function.

It would be:

• A tálak nagyok. = The bowls are big.

Changes:

• tál → tálak = bowl → bowls
• nagy → nagyok = big → big with plural marking in Hungarian predicative use

So in the plural, both the noun and the predicate adjective show plural:

• A tál nagy. = The bowl is big.
• A tálak nagyok. = The bowls are big.

Notice that the article is still a, because tálak begins with a consonant.