Questions & Answers about A kertünk mindig szép.
What does A at the beginning mean? Is it just the letter “A”?
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”.
Where is the word “is” in this sentence? Why is there no verb?
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.
What does the -ünk at the end of kertünk mean?