Ma metróval megyek a központba, holnap pedig villamossal.

Megyek is the 1st person singular present tense form of menni, meaning to go.

A few related forms are:

• megyek = I go / I am going
• mész = you go
• megy = he/she/it goes

In Hungarian, this present form can also be used for the future when the time is clear from context.

Hungarian very often uses the present tense for future events if a time word already makes the future clear.

So holnap megyek naturally means I’m going tomorrow or I will go tomorrow.

A separate future form exists, but in a simple sentence like this, the present tense is the normal and natural choice.

The ending -val/-vel is the instrumental-comitative ending. It often means with, but with means of transport it commonly expresses by.

So:

• metróval = by metro
• villamossal = by tram

The same pattern appears in many transport expressions:

• autóval = by car
• vonattal = by train
• busszal = by bus

This is because of assimilation.

When -val/-vel is added to a noun ending in a consonant, the v usually changes to match the final consonant, and that consonant is written double.

So:

• villamos + val → villamossal
• busz + val → busszal
• vonat + val → vonattal

But if the word ends in a vowel, this does not happen:

• metró + val → metróval

So villamossal is the regular form.

When Hungarian expresses the means of transport with -val/-vel, it often uses the noun without an article.

That works a lot like English expressions such as:

• by bus
• by train
• by car

So metróval and villamossal sound perfectly natural here.

Because -ba/-be shows movement into or toward a place, while -ban/-ben shows being inside a place.

So:

• a központba = to the center / into the center
• a központban = in the center

Since the sentence talks about going somewhere, Hungarian uses -ba.

A is the Hungarian definite article, like the in English.

So a központba is literally to the center.

The article is used because the destination is treated as a specific, identifiable place. In context, the speaker is not talking about just any center, but a particular one.

This is due to vowel harmony.

Hungarian suffixes often have different forms depending on the vowels in the word they attach to.

Since központ and metró contain back vowels, they take back-vowel suffixes:

• központba
• metróval

Words with front vowels usually take front-vowel versions instead, such as:

• szekrénybe
• kézzel

So choosing the suffix is not random; it follows a regular sound pattern.

Pedig adds a sense of contrast or comparison.

In this sentence, it is roughly like:

• whereas
• while
• and ... on the other hand

It helps set up the contrast between:

• today: metro
• tomorrow: tram

So it is not just a simple and. It signals a contrastive continuation.

Because Hungarian often leaves out words that are obvious from context.

The full version could be:

Ma metróval megyek a központba, holnap pedig villamossal megyek a központba.

But that sounds unnecessarily repetitive.

In the actual sentence, the listener easily understands that in the second part the speaker still means:

• megyek
• and very likely a központba as well

So the shorter version is more natural.

No, Hungarian word order is quite flexible, but different orders give different emphasis.

Here, the sentence starts with Ma and then holnap pedig, which makes the time contrast the main organizing idea:

• today
• tomorrow

That is why the sentence feels balanced and natural.

If you changed the order, the sentence could still be grammatical, but the focus would shift. For example, starting with Metróval would put more emphasis on the means of transport rather than on the time contrast.