A háború hosszú volt.

A is the Hungarian definite article, meaning the.

• a is used before words that begin with a consonant
• az is used before words that begin with a vowel

So:

• a háború = the war
• az ember = the person / the man

Here, háború starts with h, so Hungarian uses a.

Háború is the noun meaning war.

In this sentence, it is in its basic dictionary form:

• singular
• nominative
• no extra case ending

So a háború simply means the war.

You may also notice the long final vowel ú. That is part of the word itself and must be pronounced and written correctly.

Hosszú is an adjective meaning long.

Here it is a predicate adjective, meaning it describes the subject through the verb volt:

• A háború hosszú volt. = The war was long.

This is similar to English The war was long, where long comes after was in meaning, even though Hungarian places hosszú before volt here.

Volt means was.

It is the past-tense form of the verb van, which means to be.

So:

• van = is
• volt = was

This verb is irregular, so learners usually just memorize volt as the past form.

In Hungarian, the verb to be is often omitted in the present tense, third person, when linking a subject to a noun or adjective.

For example:

• A háború hosszú. = The war is long.

Notice there is no word for is.

But in the past tense, Hungarian does use the verb:

• A háború hosszú volt. = The war was long.

So:

• present: often no van
• past: volt is required

Yes, Hungarian word order is flexible, but different orders change the emphasis.

A háború hosszú volt is a normal, neutral way to say The war was long.

You may also see:

• Hosszú volt a háború.

This also means The war was long, but it puts more focus on long.

So the version you have is straightforward and neutral:

• A háború = topic / subject
• hosszú volt = what is said about it

No, not in this kind of sentence.

Hosszú stays the same. It does not change to match the noun in gender, and Hungarian does not have grammatical gender anyway.

So:

• A háború hosszú volt.
• A történet hosszú volt.
• Az út hosszú volt.

In all of these, hosszú remains unchanged.

That is different from languages where adjectives have masculine/feminine or singular/plural agreement forms.

A helpful rough guide is:

• a = short aw / uh
• háború ≈ haa-bo-roo
• hosszú ≈ hos-soo
• volt ≈ volt

A few useful pronunciation points:

• á is longer than a
• ú is a long oo sound
• sz in Hungarian sounds like English s
• plain s in Hungarian sounds like English sh

So in hosszú, the sz is an s sound, not sh.

This sentence is singular:

• A háború = the war

If you wanted the plural the wars were long, it would be:

• A háborúk hosszúak voltak.

Notice several changes:

• háború → háborúk = wars
• hosszú → hosszúak = plural predicate adjective
• volt → voltak = were

So the original sentence is clearly singular:

• A háború hosszú volt.