Sehol nincs szünet, ezért mindenki fáradt.

There is no break anywhere, therefore everyone is tired.

Breakdown of Sehol nincs szünet, ezért mindenki fáradt.

• lenni: to be
• ezért: therefore
• szünet: the break
• mindenki: everyone
• fáradt: tired
• sehol: anywhere

Questions & Answers about Sehol nincs szünet, ezért mindenki fáradt.

What does sehol mean exactly, and why is it used with nincs?

Sehol literally means “nowhere / not anywhere”.

In Hungarian, words like sehol (nowhere), soha (never), senki (nobody) are normally used together with a negative verb. So:

• Sehol nincs szünet.
  Literally: Nowhere not-is break.
  Natural English: There is no break anywhere / There’s no break anywhere.

So the negative meaning comes from the combination:

• sehol (no-/anywhere) + nincs (there is not).

Why is it nincs and not nem van in sehol nincs szünet?

Hungarian does not usually say nem van for “there is not”.

Instead, Hungarian has a special negative form of van (to be, for existence/location):

• van = there is / is
• nincs = there is not / is not

So:

• Van szünet. – There is a break.
• Nincs szünet. – There is no break.

Using nem van here would sound wrong; you should use nincs instead.

Why is there no article before szünet? Why not a szünet?

In nincs szünet, szünet is used in a general, non-specific sense:

• Nincs szünet. = There is no break (at all / in general).

Hungarian often leaves out the article with:

• general statements,
• “there is / there are” type sentences with van / nincs.

Compare:

• Nincs szünet. – There is no break (no such thing as a break here).
• Nincs a szünet. – This would suggest a specific known break is missing/not happening (e.g. “That particular break isn’t happening”), and sounds odd without a strong context.

In this sentence, we mean no break at all, so no article is used.

Could the word order be Szünet sehol nincs? What’s the difference?

Yes, Szünet sehol nincs is also possible, but the focus changes slightly.

• Sehol nincs szünet. – Neutral, common word order. Slight emphasis on sehol (“nowhere”).
• Szünet sehol nincs. – Emphasises szünet more; something like:
  As for breaks, there are none anywhere.

Both mean essentially the same thing in most contexts, but:

• Starting with sehol feels more natural when you want to stress that in no place / at no point is there a break.
• Starting with szünet highlights the break as the topic: it’s the thing that is completely missing.

How would you translate Sehol nincs szünet literally? It’s not the same structure as English.

A close word-for-word breakdown:

• Sehol – nowhere / not anywhere
• nincs – there is not
• szünet – break

Literal: “Nowhere there-is-not break.”
Natural English: “There is no break anywhere.”

What is the function of ezért here? Is it a conjunction like “so / therefore”?

Yes. Ezért literally means “for this (reason)”, and it works very much like “therefore / so / that’s why”.

In the sentence:

• Sehol nincs szünet, ezért mindenki fáradt.
  = There is no break anywhere, therefore everyone is tired.

So:

• Sehol nincs szünet – cause
• ezért – because of this, therefore
• mindenki fáradt – result

Why is there a comma before ezért?

Hungarian normally puts a comma between two independent clauses (complete sentences) that are joined by words like ezért, ezért aztán, viszont, azonban, etc.

Here we have:

1. Sehol nincs szünet.
2. Mindenki fáradt.

They are joined by ezért, so we write:

• Sehol nincs szünet, ezért mindenki fáradt.

This is similar to English:

• There is no break anywhere, so everyone is tired.

What is the difference between mindenki fáradt and mindenki fárad?

• fáradt is an adjective: tired (a state).
• fárad is a verb: gets tired / is becoming tired.

So:

• Mindenki fáradt. – Everyone is tired. (state, result)
• Mindenki fárad. – Everyone is getting tired / is tiring. (process)

In your sentence, the idea is the resulting state caused by no breaks, so fáradt is correct.

How would I say this in the past or future tense?

You mainly need to change nincs and fáradt (and sometimes add volt / lesz):

Past:

• Sehol nem volt szünet, ezért mindenki fáradt volt.
  There was no break anywhere, so everyone was tired.

Notice:

• nincs → nem volt
• fáradt → fáradt volt

Future:

• Sehol nem lesz szünet, ezért mindenki fáradt lesz.
  There will be no break anywhere, so everyone will be tired.

Notice:

• nincs → nem lesz
• fáradt → fáradt lesz

Why is it sehol nincs and not sehol nem nincs? Isn’t Hungarian “double negative”?

Hungarian often uses multiple negative words, but not blindly with every negative form.

With van / nincs:

• Positive: van
• Negative: nincs (already negative, you don’t add nem)

So:

• Sehol nincs szünet. – correct
• Sehol nem nincs szünet. – wrong (or would suggest a confusing double negation like “nowhere is it not that there is no break”).

Compare with verbs that do take nem:

• Soha nem alszom. – I never sleep.
• Senki nem jött. – Nobody came.

So:

• With van → negation is nincs, no nem.
• With normal verbs → use nem
  • negative pronoun/adverb (senki, soha, sehol, etc.).

What is the difference between sehol nincs szünet and sehol sincs szünet?

Sincs is “is + nincs”:

• is = too, also
• nincs = there is not

So:

• Sehol nincs szünet. – There is no break anywhere.
• Sehol sincs szünet. – There is no break anywhere either / even there isn’t a break.

Sehol sincs is often used when:

• you’re adding another negative fact to previous ones, or
• you want to emphasize the “not even there” idea.

In isolation, both can translate the same in English, but sehol sincs feels a bit more emphatic or contrastive.

Does mindenki literally mean “everybody” or “everyone”? Can it ever be plural?

Mindenki means “everybody / everyone” and it is grammatically singular in Hungarian.

So you say:

• Mindenki fáradt. – Everyone is tired.
  (literally: everybody is tired)

You do not make mindenki plural:

• Mindenkik fáradtak. – incorrect.

Even though “everyone” refers to many people, both in English and Hungarian the grammar behaves as singular:

• English: Everyone is tired. (not “are tired”)
• Hungarian: Mindenki fáradt. (singular verb/adjective form)