Learn Hardcore Hungarian: A fürdőszobában a gyerek néha a cipőjét mosja. - In the bathroom the child sometimes washes her shoes.

Hungarian word order is driven more by information structure (what is already known vs what is new or emphasized) than by strict subject–verb–object rules.

A fürdőszobában a gyerek néha a cipőjét mosja.
Literally: In the bathroom, the child sometimes washes his/her shoes.

Putting A fürdőszobában at the beginning sets the location as the topic of the sentence – “as for the bathroom / in the bathroom…”. It answers a question like:

Hol mossa a cipőjét a gyerek? – Where does the child wash his shoes?
→ A fürdőszobában mossa a cipőjét.

If you start with the child:

A gyerek a fürdőszobában néha a cipőjét mosja.
Now the topic is “the child”, and the place is less in focus.

Both word orders are grammatical; they just highlight different parts of the information. The original sentence highlights the place first.

Why is there an article a before fürdőszobában? Could we say just Fürdőszobában…?

A is the definite article “the”. So:

a fürdőszobában = in the bathroom (a specific / known bathroom)
fürdőszobában (without article) = more like in a bathroom / in bathrooms / in the bathroom (generally), often more generic or habitual.

Both are possible, but they sound a bit different:

A fürdőszobában a gyerek néha a cipőjét mosja.
→ There is a particular bathroom we have in mind (e.g. in a house we’re talking about).
Fürdőszobában a gyerek néha a cipőjét mosja.
→ More like a general statement about what (in general) happens in bathrooms with that child; or it can sound like a less anchored, somewhat “headline-like” style.

In everyday speech, with this concrete situation, the version with a (a fürdőszobában) is more natural.

What exactly does fürdőszobában consist of? How is this word built?

Fürdőszobában is made of three parts:

fürdő – bath, bathing
szoba – room
-ban – the inessive case ending = in (something)

So literally:

fürdő + szoba + -ban → fürdőszobában
in the bath-room

About -ban / -ben:

Both mean “in”.
You choose -ban or -ben by vowel harmony:
– Words with back vowels (a, á, o, ó, u, ú) take -ban.
– Words with front vowels (e, é, i, í, ö, ő, ü, ű) take -ben.

Fürdőszoba has both front and back vowels, but Hungarian harmony follows the last vowel (a, a back vowel), so it takes -ban:
→ fürdőszobában.

Why do we say a gyerek and not just gyerek?

A gyerek means “the child”, referring to a specific child that the speakers can identify (for example, our child, that child in the story, etc.).

a gyerek = the child
egy gyerek = a child
gyerek (without article) is usually:
- generic/plural-like (children in general):
  – Gyerek nélkül nincs zaj. – Without children, there is no noise.
- or used in headlines/notes/labels, not in normal narrative speech.

In this sentence, we are describing the habit of a specific kid, so Hungarian uses a gyerek.

Where can néha go in the sentence? Can I move it around?

Yes, néha (sometimes) is quite flexible. Different positions slightly change the emphasis, but all of these are grammatical:

A fürdőszobában a gyerek néha a cipőjét mosja.
– Neutral: In the bathroom, the child sometimes washes his shoes.
“Sometimes” is a simple time adverb; no special emphasis.
A fürdőszobában néha a gyerek a cipőjét mosja.
– Slight contrast: in the bathroom, it is sometimes the child who washes his shoes (as opposed to someone else / some other activity).
Néha a fürdőszobában a gyerek a cipőjét mosja.
– Emphasis on néha at the beginning: “Sometimes, what happens is that in the bathroom the child washes his shoes.”
A fürdőszobában a gyerek a cipőjét néha mosja.
– Here néha is closer to the verb, but this version is less neutral; it may suggest contrast with other actions the child does with the shoes (he usually wears them, but sometimes washes them).

The most neutral, textbook-like word order for “sometimes” is usually:

A gyerek néha … or
Néha a gyerek …

In the given sentence, A fürdőszobában a gyerek néha a cipőjét mosja is perfectly natural and neutral.

Why is it a cipőjét and not just cipőt?

Because the sentence means that the child washes his/her own shoe(s), not just some random shoe.

Compare:

A gyerek néha cipőt mos.
→ The child sometimes washes a shoe / shoes. (indefinite, no ownership stated)
A gyerek néha a cipőjét mosja.
→ The child sometimes washes his/her shoe(s). (definite, and clearly “his/her own”)

a cipőjét encodes two things:

Possession – the -je- part in cipőjét means “his/her”.
Definiteness – the article a (the) and the possessed form make it a definite object, which also forces the definite verb form (mosja / mossa).

So a cipőjét is “his/her shoe(s)”, clearly referring to a specific, known pair of shoes – presumably the child’s own.

Can you break down cipőjét morphologically?

Yes. Cipőjét breaks down as:

cipő – shoe
-je – 3rd person singular possessive suffix = his/her (shoe)
-t – accusative ending = marks direct object (his/her shoe → his/her shoe as an object)

So:

cipő – shoe
cipője – his/her shoe
cipőjét – his/her shoe (as a direct object): “his/her shoe” → “his/her shoe that he/she washes”

A few more forms for comparison:

a cipője – his/her shoe (subject or object, context decides)
a cipőjét – his/her shoe (clearly direct object)
a cipőjük – their shoe
a cipőjüket – their shoe / shoes as direct object

Hungarian often “packs” information (possession + case) into one word like this.

How would the sentence change if we didn’t want to express possession, like “sometimes he washes a shoe”?

Then you would remove the possessive and usually also the article, and change the verb to indefinite conjugation:

A fürdőszobában a gyerek néha cipőt mos.
= In the bathroom, the child sometimes washes a shoe / shoes.

Key changes:

a cipőjét → cipőt
– no article, no possessive suffix
– still with -t (accusative), because it’s a direct object.
mosja / mossa → mos (indefinite use in 3rd sg present)
– With an indefinite object (cipőt, “a shoe / shoes”), Hungarian prefers the indefinite conjugation.

So:

a cipőjét mosja/mossa – washes his/her shoe(s) (definite object)
cipőt mos – washes (a) shoe(s) (indefinite object)

Why is the verb in a “definite” form (mosja / mossa) here?

Hungarian verbs have two main conjugations in the present:

indefinite – used with no object or an indefinite object
definite – used with a definite object (something specific, like “the book”, “his car”, “that house”).

The verb mosni (to wash) in 3rd person singular:

indefinite: mos
– A gyerek cipőt mos. – The child washes a shoe / shoes.
definite: mossa (standard form)
– A gyerek a cipőjét mossa. – The child washes his shoe(s).

In our sentence, the object is:

a cipőjét – his/her shoe(s): definite (specific + possessed).

Therefore, Hungarian uses the definite form of the verb: mossa (spelled that way in standard Hungarian). The version mosja (as in the original prompt) reflects the same underlying pattern (mos + ja), but in correct spelling and pronunciation this becomes mossa (see next question).

Is mosja correct Hungarian, or should it be mossa?

In standard Hungarian, the correct 3rd person singular definite form is:

mossa – he/she washes it (a specific thing)

So the most natural standard sentence is:

A fürdőszobában a gyerek néha a cipőjét mossa.

Why mossa and not mosja?

The underlying pattern is root mos-
- definite suffix -ja.
Phonetically, s + j merges and is spelled ss in Hungarian.
So mos + ja → mossa (pronounced with a long /ʃː/).

This is the same pattern as:

olvas → olvassa (he/she reads it)
érez → érzi (he/she feels it)

So you should learn and use mossa as the correct form. Mosja would be considered a spelling error in standard Hungarian.

How would we say “In the bathroom, the child is sometimes washing his shoes” with a progressive meaning? Is the Hungarian sentence present simple or continuous?

Hungarian does not have a separate “continuous” tense like English (“is washing”). The simple present covers both:

A fürdőszobában a gyerek néha a cipőjét mossa.
→ can mean:
- In the bathroom, the child sometimes washes his shoes. (habit)
- or, in the right context, In the bathroom, the child is (right now) washing his shoes.

If you specifically want to emphasize that it’s happening now, you can add most (now) or éppen (just now / currently):

Most a fürdőszobában a gyerek a cipőjét mossa.
– Right now, in the bathroom, the child is washing his shoes.
A fürdőszobában a gyerek éppen a cipőjét mossa.
– In the bathroom, the child is currently washing his shoes.

But grammatically it’s still the simple present; the “continuous” meaning comes from adverbs like most, éppen and from context.

Why don’t we see any word for “his” or “her” in the Hungarian sentence?

Hungarian usually expresses possession with suffixes on the noun, not with separate possessive pronouns like English “his / her / its”.

In the sentence:

a cipőjét = his/her shoe (as object)

Here:

cipő – shoe
-je – his/her (possessive)
-t – object marker (accusative)

So cipőjét already contains the idea of “his/her shoe”. You don’t need to add a separate word.

Also, Hungarian does not mark gender on this suffix:

cipője / cipőjét can mean “his shoe” or “her shoe”.
The context tells you which one.

You can add a stressed pronoun for emphasis, like:

A fürdőszobában a gyerek néha az ő cipőjét mossa.
– In the bathroom, the child sometimes washes his/her own shoes (not someone else’s).

But in normal, neutral sentences, just cipőjét is enough and is the default.