Az étterem finom pizzát kínál.

the restaurant

Breakdown of Az étterem finom pizzát kínál.

• finom: delicious
• pizza: the pizza
• kínálni: to offer

Questions & Answers about Az étterem finom pizzát kínál.

Why is az used before étterem instead of a?

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article: a is used before words that start with a consonant, and az before words that start with a vowel. Since étterem begins with the vowel é, we use az étterem.

Why isn’t there an indefinite article (a/an or egy) before finom pizzát?

In Hungarian the indefinite article egy is often omitted, especially when there’s an adjective in front of the noun. You could say Az étterem egy finom pizzát kínál, but it sounds more natural simply as Az étterem finom pizzát kínál.

What does the -t at the end of pizzát signify?

The -t suffix marks the accusative case in Hungarian. It shows that pizzát is the direct object of the verb kínál. The base noun is pizza, and adding -t gives pizzát.

Why is the verb kínál used instead of kínálja?

Hungarian verbs have two 3rd person singular conjugations:
• The indefinite conjugation (here kínál) is used when the object is indefinite.
• The definite conjugation (kínálja) is used when the object is definite (e.g. a pizzát, “the pizza”).
Since pizzát here is indefinite, we use kínál.

Can you change the word order for emphasis, for example Finom pizzát kínál az étterem?

Yes. The neutral order in Hungarian is Subject–Verb–Object (Az étterem finom pizzát kínál). For emphasis you can front the object: Finom pizzát kínál az étterem (“It’s delicious pizza that the restaurant offers”). However, within the noun phrase the adjective must stay before the noun—pizzát finomat kínál would be ungrammatical.

Why doesn’t finom take any case ending to match pizzát?

Unlike nouns, Hungarian adjectives do not receive case endings. They remain in their base form regardless of the noun’s number or case. So finom stays finom even though pizza becomes pizzát.

If the restaurant offers more than one pizza, how would you say that in Hungarian?

You’d use the plural marker -k plus the accusative -t:
Az étterem finom pizzákat kínál.
Here pizza → pizzák (plural) → pizzákat (plural accusative).