Learn Hardcore Hungarian: A lány szerint a múzeumban sehol nincs csend, ami furcsa nekem. - According to the girl, there is no silence anywhere in the museum, which is strange to me.

So A lány szerint is a fixed little chunk that you put near the beginning of the sentence to mark that what follows is her opinion, not an objective fact.

What’s the function of sehol in a múzeumban sehol nincs csend?

Sehol literally means “nowhere”.

In this sentence:

a múzeumban sehol ≈ nowhere in the museum / in no place in the museum
sehol nincs csend = there is no silence anywhere

So the idea is: In the museum, nowhere is there silence → There is no silence anywhere in the museum.

Note: In everyday speech you’ll also see sehol sincs or sehol sem (adding -sin / -sem for emphasis), but sehol nincs is perfectly correct and common.

Why is it nincs and not nem van?

Hungarian does not normally use nem van to negate existence.

Instead, it uses special negative forms:

van → nincs (singular)
vannak → nincsenek (plural)

Examples:

A múzeumban csend van. – There is silence in the museum.
A múzeumban nincs csend. – There is no silence in the museum.

Using nem van is ungrammatical in standard Hungarian in this kind of sentence. So:

✔ nincs csend
✘ nem van csend

Is sehol nincs csend a kind of “double negative”? Is that normal in Hungarian?

Yes, from an English perspective it looks like a double negative, but in Hungarian this is the normal, correct way.

Pattern:

sehol (nowhere) + nincs / nem = no … anywhere

Examples:

Sehol nincs csend. – There is no silence anywhere.
Sehol nem találom a kulcsom. – I can’t find my key anywhere.

In Hungarian, negative words like sehol, senki, semmi, soha are typically used together with a negative verb (nincs / nem). That doesn’t make it positive; it stays negative. It’s just how the grammar works.

What exactly is csend here? Is it an adjective like “quiet” or a noun like “silence”?

Csend is a noun, meaning “silence, quietness, stillness.”

In English you might translate it as:

there is no silence
it’s never quiet
there’s no quiet anywhere

But in Hungarian the structure is literally:

nincs csend = there is no silence (noun)

What does ami refer to in ami furcsa nekem?

Here ami is a relative pronoun meaning “which / which is what”.

In this sentence, ami does not refer to a single word like csend; it refers to the whole preceding statement:

A lány szerint a múzeumban sehol nincs csend
→ According to the girl, there is no silence anywhere in the museum
ami furcsa nekem
→ which (fact) is strange to me

So you can understand it as:

According to the girl, there is no silence anywhere in the museum, *and that is strange to me.*

Why is there a comma before ami?

Hungarian normally uses a comma before relative clauses, much more consistently than English.

ami furcsa nekem is a relative clause introduced by ami.
The comma separates that clause from the main clause.

So:

A lány szerint a múzeumban sehol nincs csend, ami furcsa nekem.
= Main clause + comma + relative clause.

Even if English could drop the comma, Hungarian keeps it.

What does nekem do in ami furcsa nekem? Could I leave it out?

Nekem is the dative of én (I), and here it means “to me / for me.”

furcsa nekem = strange to me
Literally: which is strange to-me.

You can often leave it out if it’s obvious from context:

ami furcsa – which is strange

But including nekem:

Emphasizes that it’s your subjective reaction.
Helps avoid ambiguity if several people’s opinions are being discussed.

So:

ami furcsa nekem – which I find strange / which is strange to me
ami furcsa – which is strange (more general)

Why is it furcsa nekem and not nekem furcsa? Does word order matter here?

Both furcsa nekem and nekem furcsa are possible. Word order affects emphasis more than basic meaning.

ami furcsa nekem
– Neutral / slightly emphasizing the quality: which is (simply) strange to me.
ami nekem furcsa
– Slightly stronger focus on nekem: which *I, personally, find strange*.

In this sentence, furcsa nekem is a natural, neutral choice. Word order in short adjective + dative-pronoun phrases is flexible; speakers choose based on rhythm and what they want to highlight.

Why is it a múzeumban and not something like a múzeumból or a múzeumon?

The suffix -ban / -ben means “in, inside”.

a múzeumban = in the museum (inside the building)

The other forms would mean:

a múzeumból – from the museum (out of / from inside it)
a múzeumon – on the museum (on its surface, usually physical contact)

Here the meaning is clearly “inside the museum”, so -ban is the correct case.

Where is the verb “to be” in ami furcsa nekem? Why isn’t there a form of lenni?

In Hungarian, the verb “to be” (lenni) in the present tense is often dropped in simple “X is Y” sentences, especially with 3rd person:

Ez furcsa. – This (is) strange.
A lány okos. – The girl (is) smart.

So ami furcsa nekem is really:

(ami) [van] furcsa nekem – which is strange to me.

The van is understood and not spoken in this structure. Hungarian only typically shows the present tense van explicitly in certain patterns (existence, location, emphasis), not in basic predicate–adjective sentences like this.

Could the sentence word order be different, like A múzeumban sehol nincs csend a lány szerint? Is that still correct?

Yes, Hungarian word order is flexible, but it changes emphasis.

Original:

A lány szerint a múzeumban sehol nincs csend, ami furcsa nekem.
→ Emphasis: In the girl’s opinion, there is no silence anywhere in the museum…

Variant:

A múzeumban sehol nincs csend a lány szerint, ami furcsa nekem.
→ Emphasis shifts more to “Nowhere in the museum is there silence, according to the girl …”

Both are grammatically correct. The original puts “according to the girl” at the start, clearly framing everything as her opinion from the beginning, which is stylistically very natural.