Mindjárt indul a busz, siess!

Mindjárt usually means in a moment, very soon, or any second now. It often suggests that something is about to happen almost immediately.

In this sentence, it gives a sense of urgency: the bus is leaving very soon, so you need to hurry.

In other contexts, mindjárt can also mean something closer to right away, depending on the situation.

Hungarian often uses the present tense to talk about the near future, especially when there is a time word like mindjárt that already makes the timing clear.

So:

• Mindjárt indul a busz = literally something like The bus leaves in a moment
• natural English: The bus is leaving soon / The bus is about to leave

This is very common in Hungarian. You do not need a special future form here.

Indul comes from indulni, which means to start, to set off, or to depart.

With vehicles such as buses, trains, or planes, indul is commonly used for departing or leaving.

So in this sentence, indul a busz means that the bus is setting off or departing.

A busz uses the definite article a, meaning the bus.

That suggests a specific bus is meant — probably the one you are trying to catch, or the one both speakers already know about.

Compare:

• a busz = the bus
• egy busz = a bus / one bus

Here, egy busz would sound odd unless you meant some unspecified bus. In this situation, a specific bus is leaving, so a busz is the natural choice.

Hungarian word order is flexible, and different orders can put emphasis on different parts of the sentence.

• Mindjárt indul a busz foregrounds mindjárt and makes the urgency feel stronger.
• A busz mindjárt indul is also correct, but it sounds a bit more like you are talking about the bus as the topic.

So the version in your sentence is very natural if the speaker wants to stress it’s happening soon — hurry.

Siess is the informal singular imperative form of sietni / siet, meaning to hurry.

So siess! means:

• Hurry!
• Be quick!

It is used when speaking to one person informally.

Related forms:

• siess! = hurry! (to one person, informal)
• siessen! = hurry! (formal singular)
• siessetek! = hurry! (informal plural)
• siessenek! = hurry! (formal plural)

Hungarian usually leaves out subject pronouns when they are already clear from the verb form.

So siess! already means you hurry! or simply hurry! The verb form itself tells you it is addressed to one person.

If you add te:

• Te siess!

that becomes more emphatic, like You hurry! or You be the one who hurries!

So leaving out te is normal and natural.

This comes from how the imperative form is built.

The base verb is siet. In the imperative, Hungarian often adds a j-type ending, and sound changes can happen when the stem and the ending come together. In this case, the result is siess.

You do not need to memorize every historical sound change at the start — the important practical point is simply:

• dictionary form: siet
• imperative: siess

Also remember that Hungarian s is pronounced like English sh, so siess is not pronounced with an English s sound.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Mindjárt ≈ MIND-yaart
• indul ≈ IN-dool
• a busz ≈ aw boos
• siess ≈ she-esh

A few important spelling rules:

• j sounds like English y
• sz sounds like English s
• s sounds like English sh
• á is a long vowel

So busz sounds like boos, not like English buzz.

Yes, both are possible, but the nuance changes slightly.

• A busz mindjárt indul
  Also correct and natural. This version makes the bus more clearly the topic.

• Mindjárt elindul a busz
  Also possible. The prefix el- can make the idea of setting off a bit more explicit.

The original Mindjárt indul a busz is a very natural everyday way to say it.

Because the sentence contains two separate parts:

• Mindjárt indul a busz
• siess

These are two clauses placed next to each other, so a comma is natural in Hungarian punctuation.

It works like English:

• The bus is leaving soon, hurry!

The comma marks a quick break between the warning and the command.