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Learn Hardcore Hungarian: Ez a tojás friss. - This egg is fresh.

Hardcore Hungarian
/Lesson 14
/Ez a tojás friss.

Ez a tojás friss.

Word

Ez a tojás friss.

Meaning

This egg is fresh.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Hungarian

Lesson

Breakdown of Ez a tojás friss.

Questions & Answers about Ez a tojás friss.

Why is there no word for is in Ez a tojás friss?

In Hungarian, the verb to be is usually left out in the present tense, third person.

So:

Ez a tojás friss. = This egg is fresh.
literally: This the egg fresh.

This happens very often:

A leves meleg. = The soup is hot.
A ház nagy. = The house is big.

But in other persons, Hungarian does use the verb:

Én friss vagyok would mean I am fresh.

So the missing is here is completely normal.

Why do we get both ez and a? Doesn’t ez already mean this?

Yes, ez means this, but in Hungarian, when a demonstrative like ez or az comes before a noun, it is normally used together with the definite article.

So Hungarian says:

ez a tojás = this egg
literally: this the egg

This is standard Hungarian grammar.

Compare:

ez a könyv = this book
az a ház = that house

So even though English does not say this the egg, Hungarian does.

Why is the article a and not az?

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Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

a before a consonant sound
az before a vowel sound

Since tojás begins with t, which is a consonant, Hungarian uses a:

a tojás

Compare:

ez a tojás = this egg
ez az alma = this apple

So the choice depends on the sound at the start of the following word.

Is a here the same word as the?

Yes. A / az is the Hungarian definite article, the equivalent of English the.

In this sentence, it appears as part of the normal demonstrative structure:

ez a tojás = this egg

Even though English does not include the after this, Hungarian does. So the article is still really there grammatically.

What exactly is tojás? Does it need an article in other situations too?

Tojás means egg.

By itself:

tojás = egg / an egg / egg depending on context

With the definite article:

a tojás = the egg

With the demonstrative:

ez a tojás = this egg

So tojás is just the noun, and the words around it tell you whether it means egg, the egg, or this egg.

Is there grammatical gender in this sentence? Is tojás masculine or feminine?

No. Hungarian does not have grammatical gender like many European languages do.

So tojás is not masculine, feminine, or neuter. It is just a noun.

This means adjectives and articles do not change for gender:

ez a tojás friss = this egg is fresh
ez a kenyér friss = this bread is fresh

That is often good news for English speakers, because there is no need to memorize noun genders.

Why is friss at the end?

Because friss is the predicate adjective here: it tells us what the egg is like.

Hungarian often puts the basic topic first and the new information later:

Ez a tojás friss.

Here:

Ez a tojás = the thing being talked about
friss = the important information about it

This word order is very natural.

You may also see other word orders in Hungarian, but they usually change emphasis. The version you have here is the neutral, standard one.

Why is it friss and not something like frissen?

Because friss is an adjective, and here it describes the noun as part of the sentence predicate.

friss = fresh (adjective)

The form frissen is an adverb, meaning something like freshly.

Compare:

Ez a tojás friss. = This egg is fresh.
Frissen sült kenyér. = Freshly baked bread.

So in your sentence, friss is the correct form because it means fresh, not freshly.

How do you pronounce Ez a tojás friss?

A simple pronunciation guide:

Ez ≈ ez
a ≈ short aw or uh
tojás ≈ toh-yaash
friss ≈ frish

A few details:

j in Hungarian sounds like English y
á is a long vowel, so tojás has a longer a sound
s in Hungarian sounds like English sh
sz would be the English s, but that letter combination does not appear here

So friss is pronounced like frish, not friss with an English s sound.

Where is the stress in the words?

In Hungarian, the stress is always on the first syllable of each word.

So:

EZ
a
TOjás
FRISS

That makes pronunciation more predictable than in English.

In the full sentence, you would naturally stress the first syllable of each word, with the main sentence emphasis depending on what you want to highlight.

Can I say A tojás friss instead?

Yes, but it means something slightly different.

Ez a tojás friss. = This egg is fresh.
A tojás friss. = The egg is fresh.

So if you want to point to a specific egg and say this egg, you need ez a tojás.

If the egg is already known from context, a tojás may be enough.

How would I turn this into a question?

In Hungarian, a yes/no question can often be made just by using question intonation.

So:

Ez a tojás friss. = This egg is fresh.
Ez a tojás friss? = Is this egg fresh?

The word order can stay the same. The rising intonation does the job in speech, and in writing you add a question mark.

How would I say the negative version, This egg is not fresh?

You add nem before the adjective:

Ez a tojás nem friss.

So:

nem = not

This is the normal way to negate this kind of sentence in Hungarian.

What would the plural version be?

The plural would be:

Ezek a tojások frissek. = These eggs are fresh.

Notice the changes:

ez → ezek = this → these
tojás → tojások = egg → eggs
friss → frissek = fresh → plural predicate adjective

Hungarian often marks plural in more than one place when needed, so the sentence changes more than it does in English.

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