Learn Hardcore Hungarian: A diák későn megy haza.

In Hungarian you turn many adjectives into adverbs by adding -n (or -an/-en depending on vowel harmony). későn is the adverb “late.” Without -n, késő is just the adjective “late” (as in “a late bus”).

Why is későn placed before the verb megy instead of after?

Hungarian word order is fairly flexible, but the neutral pattern is Subject–Adverbial–Verb–Object/Complement. Putting későn before megy highlights when the action happens in a straightforward way.

What exactly does haza mean? Is it a noun or something else?

Here haza is an adverbial particle meaning “toward home.” It shows direction. By contrast, otthon means “at home” (a static location), while haza implies movement to home.

Why do we use the article a and not az in a diák?

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article: a before consonant-initial words and az before vowel-initial words. diák begins with the consonant d, so we say a diák (“the student”).

Why doesn’t diák have any case ending? Shouldn’t it show subject case?

Hungarian marks the subject with word order rather than a suffix. The unmarked (nominative) form of a noun is used for subjects, so diák stays in its base form.

How do you turn this into a negative sentence: “The student does not go home late”?

You insert nem before the verb (or before the adverb+verb cluster):
A diák nem későn megy haza.

How would you say “The students go home late” in Hungarian?

You make both noun and verb plural:
A diákok későn mennek haza.
Here diák → diákok and megy → mennek.

If I want to ask “Does the student go home late?”, do I have to invert the word order?

No inversion is needed. Hungarian typically signals a yes/no question by rising intonation or by inserting the question particle -e. For example:
A diák későn megy haza?
or more formally
Későn megy-e haza a diák?