A vacsora késő este lesz.

to be

Breakdown of A vacsora késő este lesz.

• vacsora: the dinner
• késő: late
• este: the evening

Questions & Answers about A vacsora késő este lesz.

Why is A used at the beginning instead of Az or omitting the article?

In Hungarian, you use A before a consonant sound and Az before a vowel sound (similar to "a" vs. "an" in English). Since vacsora starts with a consonant (v), you use A. Omitting the article would imply a more general statement about "dinner" rather than referring to a specific one.

What exactly does késő este mean in this context?

Késő este literally means "late evening." Hungarian often uses expressions like kora este ("early evening") vs. késő este ("late evening") to differentiate times of the day more precisely than just saying este ("evening").

How does lesz function here?

In Hungarian, lesz is the future tense form of van ("to be")—though it's often optional to create future meaning. Here, lesz specifically places the event (the dinner) in the future, indicating that it "will be" late in the evening.

Is it common to place késő este at the end of the sentence like this?

Yes. Hungarian word order is more flexible than English, and important or new information typically goes towards the end. Since time (when the dinner will be) is crucial, it naturally appears at the end. If you want to emphasize a different part of the sentence, you could move késő este before lesz, but that changes the nuance slightly.

Why isn't a special future tense construction (like "fog + infinitive") used here?

Hungarian has multiple ways to express the future. Besides lesz, you can say something like késő este fog kezdődni a vacsora ("the dinner will start late in the evening"), which uses fog. However, in many everyday situations where the future is clear from context, lesz or even the present tense can be sufficient to indicate a future event.