Граматична тема

Hungarian Alphabet and Reading Rules

Hungarian spelling is very regular: one written letter, digraph, or trigraph usually represents one sound. The main rule for English speakers: stress is always on the first syllable, and vowels are pronounced clearly. Do not reduce unstressed vowels the way English often does in words like “about” or “banana.”

Sounds and letters to pay special attention to:

Letter	Approximate sound	Practice note for English speakers	Example words
A a	between “aw” and “ah”	A deep, rounded vowel. It is not the English short a in “cat.”	ablak (window), asztal (table)
É é	long “ay” / closed “eh”	Keep it long and tense, close to the vowel in “say” but without a strong English glide.	ég (sky), én (I)
Ö ö	like German ö	Round your lips for “o” while your tongue says “e.”	öt (five)
Ő ő	long ö	Same quality as ö, but held longer.	ő (he/she), nő (woman)
Ü ü	like German ü	Round your lips for “u” while your tongue says “ee.”	üres (empty)
Ű ű	long ü	Same quality as ü, but held longer.	űr (space/void)

Multi-letter consonants: Hungarian writes some single sounds with two or three letters.

• cs = “ch” as in “church” (csacsi - donkey)
• gy = soft “dy” sound (gyár - factory)
• ly = “y” as in “yes” (lyuk - hole)
• ny = “ny” as in “canyon” (nyak - neck)
• s = “sh” (sas - eagle)
• sz = “s” (szalma - straw)
• ty = soft “ty” sound (tyúk - hen)
• zs = “zh” as in “measure” (zsák - sack)

Length matters: Long and short vowels can change meaning. Long consonants also matter. When a digraph is doubled in writing, only the first part is doubled: cs + cs = ccs, sz + sz = ssz, and so on.

• öt (five) - őt (him/her as object)
• agy (brain) - ágy (bed)
• megy (goes) - meggy (sour cherry)

Reading practice words: város (city), park (park), autó (car), szálloda (hotel), toll (pen), fekete (black), fehér (white).