A könyvtárban nem beszélhetsz hangosan.

the library

Breakdown of A könyvtárban nem beszélhetsz hangosan.

• -ban: in
• nem: not
• beszélni: to speak

Questions & Answers about A könyvtárban nem beszélhetsz hangosan.

Why is there A at the beginning?

A is the Hungarian definite article, so here it means the.

• a könyvtár = the library
• egy könyvtár = a library

Hungarian has two forms of the definite article:

• a before a consonant
• az before a vowel

Since könyvtár starts with k, it takes a.

What does könyvtárban mean exactly?

It is made of:

• könyvtár = library
• -ban = in

So könyvtárban means in the library.

Hungarian very often uses case endings like -ban/-ben instead of separate words such as in.

Why is it -ban and not -ben?

Because of vowel harmony.

Hungarian suffixes often have different forms depending on the vowels in the word. The pair -ban / -ben both mean in, but:

• -ban usually goes with words containing back vowels
• -ben usually goes with words containing front vowels

könyvtár takes -ban, so:

• könyvtárban = in the library

This is something you mostly get used to with exposure, though vowel harmony rules help a lot.