Learn Hardcore Hungarian: A recepció mögött egy kedves nő dolgozik, aki külföldi vendégekkel beszél. - Behind the reception a kind woman works who speaks with foreign guests.

In Hungarian, many words that correspond to English prepositions (like behind, in front of, under) are actually postpositions: they come after the noun phrase, not before it.

a recepció = the reception (desk/counter)
mögött = behind
a recepció mögött = behind the reception

So the order is [noun phrase] + [postposition], not behind + the reception as in English.

Can I also say Egy kedves nő dolgozik a recepció mögött? Does the word order change the meaning?

Yes, you can say Egy kedves nő dolgozik a recepció mögött, and it’s perfectly correct.

Both:

A recepció mögött egy kedves nő dolgozik…
Egy kedves nő dolgozik a recepció mögött…

describe the same situation. The difference is in emphasis / information structure, not in basic meaning:

A recepció mögött egy kedves nő dolgozik…
– Starts with the location. It sounds like you are first setting the scene “Behind the reception…” and then mentioning who is there.
Egy kedves nő dolgozik a recepció mögött…
– Starts with the existence of the woman. It feels slightly more like “There is a nice woman working behind the reception…”

Both word orders are natural; Hungarian allows fairly flexible word order to express focus and topic.

Why do we use egy before kedves nő? Could we leave it out?

egy is the indefinite article, like English “a / an”.

egy nő = a woman
egy kedves nő = a nice/kind woman

You normally need egy when you introduce a new, indefinite, singular countable noun.

You can sometimes leave it out in Hungarian, but then the sentence often sounds more generic or stylistically marked. For example:

Egy kedves nő dolgozik a recepció mögött.
= A (certain) nice woman works behind the reception.
Kedves nő dolgozik a recepció mögött.
– Possible, but sounds a bit like a headline, description, or generic statement, not neutral everyday speech.

So in neutral, everyday language, keeping egy here is the natural choice.

What exactly does kedves mean here? “Nice”, “kind”, “dear”…?

kedves is quite flexible; depending on context it can mean:

nice / kind / friendly (about a person’s behaviour or character)
dear (in letters, or when addressing someone affectionately)

In egy kedves nő here, it most naturally means “a nice / kind / friendly woman” – someone polite and pleasant, good with people.

It does not mean “dear” in the letter-opening sense here. That use appears in things like Kedves Péter! = Dear Peter!.

What is aki, and how does the relative clause aki külföldi vendégekkel beszél work?

aki is a relative pronoun, equivalent to English “who / that” when referring to a person.

It refers back to nő (woman), which is singular and animate.
The whole second part aki külföldi vendégekkel beszél is a relative clause describing that woman.

Structure:

egy kedves nő dolgozik = a nice woman works
aki külföldi vendégekkel beszél = who talks with foreign guests

Joined:

A recepció mögött egy kedves nő dolgozik, aki külföldi vendégekkel beszél.
Behind the reception there works a nice woman who talks with foreign guests.

If the antecedent were not a person, Hungarian would more often use ami / amely instead of aki.

Why is there a comma before aki in Hungarian?

Hungarian punctuation generally puts a comma before a relative clause, and relative clauses introduced by aki, ami, amely, ahol etc. are normally separated by a comma.

So:

..., aki külföldi vendégekkel beszél.
..., ami nagyon érdekes.
..., ahol lakik.

This is true even if English might not use a comma in the same place. In Hungarian, the comma is standard before aki in such sentences.

Why is külföldi before vendégekkel, and why doesn’t külföldi change its form?

külföldi is an adjective meaning “foreign” (it can also be used as a noun meaning “foreigner,” but here it’s an adjective).

In Hungarian:

Adjectives that come before a noun are usually in their basic form.
The noun takes the endings for number and case.

So:

külföldi vendég = foreign guest
külföldi vendégek = foreign guests
külföldi vendégekkel = with foreign guests

Only vendég- carries -ek (plural) and -kel (case), so those endings appear together on vendégekkel, while külföldi stays unchanged.

How is vendégekkel formed, and why are there two k’s?

vendégekkel is built from:

vendég = guest
plural: vendég + -ek → vendégek = guests
case ending -val / -vel (“with”): vendégek + -vel

There is a sound assimilation rule:

-val / -vel often becomes -val / -vel → -vv- / -kk- depending on the preceding consonant.
After a word ending in k, -vel turns into -kel, and the k doubles in spelling.

So:

vendégek + -vel → vendégekkel (k + vel → kkel)

Meaning: “with guests”, more specifically “with (the) guests”, here modified by külföldi.

Why is it külföldi vendégekkel and not just külföldi vendégek? How do we express “talk with” in Hungarian?

In Hungarian, the verb beszél in the sense of “talk with someone” typically takes -val / -vel (the “with” case):

beszél valakivel = talk with / speak with someone

So we need to mark vendégek with -vel:

külföldi vendégek = foreign guests
külföldi vendégekkel = with foreign guests

Thus:

aki külföldi vendégekkel beszél
= who talks with foreign guests

Just saying külföldi vendégek beszél would mean “foreign guests speak”, where külföldi vendégek is the subject, not the people she talks with.

What is the difference between külföld and külföldi?

külföld is a noun, meaning “abroad / foreign country (countries)”.
- külföldön vagyok = I am abroad.
- külföldre megyek = I’m going abroad.
külföldi is usually an adjective, meaning “foreign”:
- külföldi vendég = foreign guest
- külföldi film = foreign film

külföldi can also be used as a noun, meaning “foreigner”:

Egy külföldi vár a recepción. = A foreigner is waiting at reception.

In the sentence you gave, külföldi is clearly an adjective modifying vendégekkel.

How are dolgozik and beszél conjugated here? Why don’t they have any special object endings?

Both dolgozik and beszél are in 3rd person singular, present tense, indefinite conjugation.

dolgozni = to work
- ő dolgozik = he/she works
beszélni = to speak, to talk
- ő beszél = he/she speaks / talks

Hungarian has definite and indefinite conjugations, but you use the definite conjugation only when the verb has a definite direct object (like “the book”, “him/her”).

In this sentence:

dolgozik – no direct object (she just “works”)
beszél – no direct object, just the “with”-phrase külföldi vendégekkel

So both verbs correctly use the indefinite form.

Could we say Egy kedves nő dolgozik, és külföldi vendégekkel beszél instead of using aki? Is there a difference?

You can say:

A recepció mögött egy kedves nő dolgozik, és külföldi vendégekkel beszél.

This would mean roughly:

“Behind the reception a nice woman works, and she talks with foreign guests.”

The differences:

With aki, the second part is explicitly a relative clause describing the woman:
- …, aki külföldi vendégekkel beszél.
  = “…who talks with foreign guests.”
With és, it’s just another action added, and the “she” is understood from context:
- …, és külföldi vendégekkel beszél.
  = “…and (she) talks with foreign guests.”

Both are grammatical, but aki more clearly ties the second action as a describing feature of the woman.

Could we use beszélget instead of beszél here? What’s the difference?

Yes, you could say:

…, aki külföldi vendégekkel beszélget.

Differences:

beszél = to speak / to talk (more neutral, can also mean “speak a language”)
- beszél angolul = speaks English
beszélget = to have a chat, converse (often more two-sided, informal interaction)

In your sentence:

beszél is fine and neutral: she talks with the guests.
beszélget would slightly emphasise chatting/conversing, more personal, less formal.

Both are grammatically correct; choice depends on nuance.

Is the sentence still correct if I drop A and just say Recepció mögött egy kedves nő dolgozik?

You can technically say:

Recepció mögött egy kedves nő dolgozik…

but it sounds less natural in neutral speech. Normally, Hungarian prefers:

A recepció mögött… = “Behind the reception…” (with the definite article a)

Without a, Recepció mögött sounds more like a headline, sign, or telegraphic style (like a note or label) rather than everyday conversation.

So for normal spoken or written Hungarian, keep the A:

A recepció mögött egy kedves nő dolgozik, aki külföldi vendégekkel beszél.