Questions & Answers about A diák a vizsgára tanul.
Why does a appear twice, and why doesn’t it mean English a?
In Hungarian, a/az is the definite article, so it means the, not the English indefinite article a.
Hungarian has two forms:
- a before a consonant sound: a diák, a vizsga
- az before a vowel sound: az iskola
So in this sentence, both instances of a mean the.
Why is there an article before vizsgára? Could you also say vizsgára tanul without a?
Yes, you can also say vizsgára tanul, and that is very common.
The difference is roughly this:
- a vizsgára tanul = the speaker has a specific exam in mind
- vizsgára tanul = more general, often just studying for an exam
So the article makes the exam sound more definite or already known from the context.
What does the ending -ra in vizsgára mean?
The word vizsgára is built from:
- vizsga = exam
- -ra = a case ending
This ending is called the sublative case. In concrete situations, it often means something like onto or to a surface, but with abstract nouns it can also express a goal or purpose.
So in a vizsgára tanul, the exam is the goal of the studying. That is why Hungarian uses vizsgára where English uses for the exam.