Az új kollégám nagyon megbízható.

In Hungarian, it is completely normal to use the definite article with a possessed noun phrase.

So az új kollégám is literally something like the my new colleague, but the natural English meaning is simply my new colleague.

Also, Hungarian has two forms of the:

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

Because új begins with a vowel, the sentence uses az új.

Hungarian often shows possession with a suffix on the noun instead of a separate word like my.

• kolléga = colleague
• kollégám = my colleague

The -m is the my ending here.

There is also a small vowel change:

• kolléga
• kollégám

The final a becomes á before the possessive ending. That is a very common pattern in Hungarian nouns ending in -a or -e.

In the present tense, Hungarian usually leaves out is when the subject is he/she/it or a noun phrase, and the predicate is a noun or adjective.

So:

• Az új kollégám nagyon megbízható. = My new colleague is very reliable.

The verb van = is is not normally said here.

But you do use a form of to be in other cases, for example:

• Megbízható vagyok. = I am reliable.
• Megbízható vagy. = You are reliable.
• Megbízható volt. = He/She was reliable.

új means new.

It comes before the noun, just like in English:

• új kolléga = new colleague

Hungarian adjectives do not change for masculine/feminine, because Hungarian does not have grammatical gender. So új stays új whether the colleague is male or female.

nagyon means very.

It usually goes directly before the adjective or adverb it modifies:

• nagyon megbízható = very reliable

So the pattern is very straightforward here:

• subject: Az új kollégám
• description: nagyon megbízható

megbízható means reliable, trustworthy, or dependable.

In this sentence, it describes the colleague as someone you can count on.

It is best to learn megbízható as a whole vocabulary item. In everyday use, it is a very common adjective for people, systems, machines, coworkers, and so on.

Yes, they matter a lot.

In Hungarian, accent marks usually show vowel length, not stress.

For example:

• u and ú are different vowels
• a and á are different vowels
• o and ó are different vowels

So these are not optional spelling marks. They are part of the word.

Also, Hungarian word stress is usually on the first syllable of the word, regardless of the accent marks.

No.

Hungarian does not have grammatical gender, and kolléga / kollégám does not tell you whether the person is male or female.

So Az új kollégám nagyon megbízható. could refer to either:

• My new male colleague is very reliable
• My new female colleague is very reliable

You need context to know.

Yes, Hungarian word order is flexible, but different orders create different emphasis.

The sentence as given:

• Az új kollégám nagyon megbízható.

is a neutral, natural statement: first the topic (my new colleague), then the comment about them (is very reliable).

You could also say:

• Nagyon megbízható az új kollégám.

This still means the same thing, but it puts more emphasis on very reliable.

So the original order is a good basic pattern to learn.

Here it means the, not that.

Hungarian az can be either:

• the definite article the
• or a demonstrative like that

In this sentence, it is clearly the definite article because it directly introduces the noun phrase új kollégám.

So you should read Az új kollégám as my new colleague, not that my new colleague.