Learn Hardcore Hungarian: Ma külön megyünk haza: én hazafelé a parkban sétálok, ő pedig busszal megy. - Today we go home separately: I walk in the park on the way home, and she goes by bus.

But Hungarian has a focus position: the most emphasised element stands immediately before the finite verb. When something else is in that position, the verbal prefix is pushed after the verb.

In Ma külön megyünk haza:

külön is in focus (“we’re going separately”).
Because külön stands right before megyünk, the prefix haza must move after the verb.

So:

Neutral: Ma hazamegyünk.
Focus on “separately”: Ma külön megyünk haza.

What is the difference between haza and hazafelé in this sentence?

Both are about “home” as a direction, but they are not identical:

haza = (to) home as an endpoint.
- megyünk haza – we’re going home (i.e. we end up at home).
hazafelé = towards home / on the way home.
- hazafelé a parkban sétálok – on the way home I walk in the park.

So in your sentence:

megyünk haza: the overall action is going home.
én hazafelé a parkban sétálok: you’re describing what happens during the journey home, not just the endpoint.

Grammatically, felé is a postposition meaning towards. With haza, it fuses into hazafelé.

What exactly does külön mean here, and what does it modify?

Külön is an adverb meaning separately, apart.

In Ma külön megyünk haza, it modifies the whole verb phrase megyünk haza:

Literally: Today we go home *separately (from each other).*

It implies that each person goes home on their own, not together (one walks through the park, the other goes by bus).

You can intensify it as külön-külön megyünk haza, which makes the idea of “each one separately” even stronger, but plain külön is already natural and clear.

Why are the subject pronouns én and ő used? I thought Hungarian usually drops them.

Hungarian can drop subject pronouns because the verb ending shows the person:

Sétálok. – I walk. (the -ok shows 1st person singular)
Megy. – He/She goes. (3rd person singular)

But pronouns are used when we want to:

Emphasise or contrast people, and
Make the contrast clear between different subjects.

In your sentence:

én hazafelé a parkban sétálok – I walk in the park.
ő pedig busszal megy – he/she, on the other hand, goes by bus.

Using én and ő highlights the contrast: I do this, but he/she does that. Dropping them would be grammatical, but you’d lose some of that explicit contrast.

What does pedig mean in ő pedig busszal megy, and how is it used?

Pedig is a conjunction/particle that usually means something like:

while / whereas / but / and … on the other hand

It connects the second clause to the first and marks a contrast:

Ma külön megyünk haza: én …, ő pedig …
→ Today we’re going home separately: I …, whereas he/she …

Typical pattern:

Topic (often a pronoun) + pedig
- rest of clause
  - Ő pedig busszal megy. – He/She, on the other hand, goes by bus.

It is not just a neutral and; it always suggests some contrast or at least a “different case” compared to what was just said.

What is the role of -ban in parkban?

-ban / -ben is the inessive case ending in Hungarian, meaning “in / inside”.

park – park
parkban – in the park

Vowel harmony decides whether you use -ban or -ben:

After back vowels (a, o, u): -ban → parkban
After front vowels (e, i, ö, ü, ő, ű): -ben → kertben (in the garden)

In the sentence, a parkban simply means “in the park”, indicating the location of the walking.

How does busszal work? Why is it -szal and not just -val / -vel?

The ending here is the instrumental / comitative case -val / -vel, meaning with or by (means of):

bor → borral – with wine
kocsival – by car

With words ending in a consonant, -val / -vel undergoes assimilation:

The v assimilates to the preceding consonant.
That consonant is written doubled.

So:

busz + val → buszval → busszal
- The z doubles, the v disappears phonetically.

Meaning:

busszal megy – literally goes with a bus, i.e. goes by bus / takes the bus.

Could we leave out the verb in the second part and just say Ő pedig busszal?

Normally, no – Hungarian usually repeats the verb:

Én hazafelé a parkban sétálok, ő pedig busszal megy.

Saying only Ő pedig busszal feels incomplete, like “He/She, on the other hand, by bus” without a verb.

Verb omission is possible in some very elliptical, informal contexts, or where the structure is extremely parallel and obvious, but the natural, standard form is to keep the verb:

Én gyalog megyek, ő pedig busszal (megy). – Here you might drop the second megy in casual speech, but writing it is safer and clearer.

Why is the word order én hazafelé a parkban sétálok? Could I say Én a parkban sétálok hazafelé and what would change?

Both orders are grammatical, but they differ slightly in information structure / emphasis.

Én hazafelé a parkban sétálok.
- Roughly: As I’m going home, I walk in the park.
- hazafelé comes early, linking the action to the journey home.
- Feels like: On the way home, I walk in the park (not at some other time).
Én a parkban sétálok hazafelé.
- Roughly: In the park I walk when going home.
- Puts a bit more weight on a parkban (the location), then adds hazafelé as an extra piece of information (“that’s when I’m going home”).

The difference is subtle in everyday speech, and both are acceptable. Hungarian uses word order heavily to show what is being highlighted, but here both adverbials are background information, so the nuance is small.

Is megyünk here present tense or future? English would say “we are going (to go) home separately today”.

Megyünk is formally present tense, but Hungarian present often covers a near future when there is a time expression:

Holnap hazamegyünk. – We’re going home tomorrow / We’ll go home tomorrow.
Ma külön megyünk haza. – Today we’re going home separately / We’ll go home separately today.

Context and adverbs like ma, holnap, etc. make it clear whether it’s now or later today / tomorrow. You don’t need a special future tense form here.

Can ma go somewhere else in the sentence, like Külön ma megyünk haza?

You can move ma, but the meaning and emphasis can change.

Ma külön megyünk haza.
- Neutral reading: Today we’re going home separately.
- ma just sets the time frame.
Külön ma megyünk haza.
- Sounds like: It’s today that we’re going home separately (not on some other day).
- Now külön is first and ma is closer to the focus position, giving ma extra emphasis: the day is what’s being contrasted with other days.

Most naturally, time adverbs like ma appear near the beginning as a scene-setter. Your original order is the most typical for the intended meaning.

Does ő mean specifically “he” here, or could it be “she” as well?

Ő is gender-neutral in Hungarian. It can mean:

he,
she, or even, in some contexts, they (singular, if the gender is unknown).

Hungarian personal pronouns do not mark gender at all. The gender of ő is understood only from context or additional words (like names, kinship terms, etc.).