A szendvicsben sajt és vaj van.

There is cheese and butter in the sandwich.

Breakdown of A szendvicsben sajt és vaj van.

• lenni: to be
• és: and
• -ben: in
• sajt: the cheese

Questions & Answers about A szendvicsben sajt és vaj van.

Why is szendvics written as szendvicsben?

Because -ban / -ben is the Hungarian ending meaning in or inside.

• szendvics = sandwich
• szendvicsben = in the sandwich

Hungarian usually expresses ideas like in, on, to, from, etc. with suffixes attached to the noun rather than separate prepositions.

Here the correct form is -ben, giving:

• a szendvicsben = in the sandwich

The choice between -ban and -ben follows vowel harmony:

• back-vowel words usually take -ban
• front-vowel words usually take -ben

Since szendvics has front vowels, it takes -ben.

Why does the sentence start with A? Does it mean a or the?

Here A means the, not English a.

Hungarian has two articles:

• a / az = the
• egy = a / an

So:

• A szendvicsben... = In the sandwich...
• Egy szendvicsben... = In a sandwich...

The form a is used before most consonant sounds, while az is used before vowel sounds.

Examples:

• a szendvics = the sandwich
• az alma = the apple

Why is there no word for there is at the beginning? Why is at the end?