Questions & Answers about A kertünk mindig szép.
No. In Hungarian, A (and its variant Az) is the definite article, equivalent to “the” in English.
- A kertünk = “The our-garden” (literally) → “Our garden” (naturally in English)
- You use A before words starting with a consonant, and Az before words starting with a vowel, just like a/an in English, but they both mean “the”.
In Hungarian, in the present tense, the verb “to be” (lenni) is usually omitted in simple statements about what something is or what it’s like.
- English: Our garden is always beautiful.
- Hungarian: A kertünk mindig szép.
(literally: “The our-garden always beautiful.”)
If you added van (the 3rd person singular form of “to be”) here — A kertünk mindig van szép — it would be incorrect.
You do use van:
- in the past or future (volt, lesz),
- in existence/location sentences (e.g. A kertben egy fa van. – “There is a tree in the garden”),
- or for emphasis in some patterns.
The ending -ünk is a possessive suffix meaning “our”.
- kert = garden
- kertünk = our garden
Hungarian often uses these endings instead of separate words like “my, your, our”:
- kertem – my garden
- kerted – your (singular) garden
- kertje – his/her garden
- kertünk – our garden
- kertetek – your (plural) garden
- kertjük – their garden
So “our” is built into the noun, not a separate word.
Literally, yes, it looks like “the our-garden”, but that’s normal and correct in Hungarian.
- A kertünk is the usual way to say “our garden”.
- Hungarian likes to keep the article + possessed noun structure even when the noun has a possessive ending.
Compare:
- a kert – the garden
- a kertünk – our garden (literally: the our-garden)
- a ház – the house
- a házunk – our house
So don’t try to avoid the article; you normally keep it.
Yes, A mi kertünk mindig szép is grammatically correct. The difference is emphasis:
- A kertünk mindig szép. – neutral: “Our garden is always beautiful.”
- A mi kertünk mindig szép. – emphasizes that it’s our garden (not someone else’s).
mi = “we / our” as a separate word.
You usually don’t need it; the suffix -ünk already shows “our”. You add mi when you want to contrast:
- A mi kertünk szép, de az ő kertjük nem az.
“Our garden is beautiful, but theirs is not.”
The neutral, natural order is:
- A kertünk mindig szép.
(topic: our garden → comment: is always beautiful)
mindig is an adverb meaning “always”, and in simple sentences it usually comes before the adjective or verb it modifies.
Other versions:
- A kertünk szép mindig. – possible, but sounds a bit marked/poetic, not the default.
- Mindig szép a kertünk. – emphasizes the “always” a bit more: “Our garden is always beautiful.”
For a normal, neutral statement, A kertünk mindig szép is the best choice.
In Hungarian, adjectives in predicative position (after an implied “to be”) do not change form to agree with the noun.
- A kert szép. – The garden is beautiful.
- A kertek szépek. – The gardens are beautiful.
Notice:
- Attributive (before noun): szép kert, szép kertek (no ending on szép)
- Predicative (with “to be”): A kert szép, A kertek szépek (adjective takes plural -ek)
In A kertünk mindig szép, kertünk is singular, so szép also appears in the singular predicative form (no extra ending).
kertünk is singular: “our garden”.
To say “our gardens”, you need both:
- the plural ending on the noun, and
the possessive ending:
- kertek – gardens
- kertjeink – our gardens (rare, more formal)
- kertjeink mindig szépek. – Our gardens are always beautiful.
Everyday speech might more often rephrase or avoid this slightly clumsy form, but kertünk on its own is clearly one garden.
Approximate breakdown:
- ker – like English “care” but with a short e (not “ee”)
- t – like English t
- ünk – one syllable:
- ü is like the French u in lune, or German ü in für (rounded front vowel)
- nk like in “ink”
Syllables: kert-ünk
Stress is always on the first syllable in Hungarian: KER-tünk.
Hungarian uses vowel harmony. The choice between -unk and -ünk depends on the vowels in the word:
- Back vowels (a, á, o, ó, u, ú) → -unk
- Front vowels (e, é, i, í, ö, ő, ü, ű) → -ünk
In kert:
the vowel is e → a front vowel
So it takes -ünk:kert → kertünk (our garden)
Compare with a back-vowel word:ház (house) → házunk (our house)
Hungarian word stress is fixed: it always falls on the first syllable of each word. So:
- A KER-tünk MIN-dig SZÉP.
In normal, neutral pronunciation, “kertünk” is the main topic, so it tends to stand out slightly as the central word of the sentence. But the basic rule is: first syllable of each word is stressed.