A fiú sokat jegyzetel az órán, mert hamarosan vizsga lesz.

to be

Breakdown of A fiú sokat jegyzetel az órán, mert hamarosan vizsga lesz.

• mert: because
• sok: a lot
• hamarosan: soon

Questions & Answers about A fiú sokat jegyzetel az órán, mert hamarosan vizsga lesz.

Why is it a fiú but az órán?

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

• a before a consonant sound
• az before a vowel sound

So:

• a fiú = the boy
• az órán = in/during the class

Both a and az simply mean the. The choice depends only on the sound that follows, not on gender or case.

What exactly is sokat doing here?

Sokat means a lot in this sentence.

It comes from sok = many / much / a lot, and with verbs Hungarian very often uses the -t form:

• sokat olvas = reads a lot
• sokat beszél = talks a lot
• sokat jegyzetel = takes a lot of notes / takes notes a lot

So even though it looks like it has an object ending, here it functions adverbially: it tells you how much he is taking notes.

What does jegyzetel mean, and how is it different from just ír?

Jegyzetel means to take notes or to make notes.

It is more specific than ír, which just means to write.

So:

• ír = write
• jegyzetel = take notes

The word is related to jegyzet, which means note or notes. So the verb clearly suggests classroom or study-note writing, not just any kind of writing.