The Hungarian definite article a/az — no grammatical gender
I can correctly use a and az before Hungarian nouns.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
A kutya barátságos.
The dog is friendly.
Az asztal nagy.
The table is big.
Az orvos és a beteg.
The doctor and the patient.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
| Rule | Example |
|---|---|
| a before consonant | a ház (the house) |
| az before vowel | az alma (the apple) |
Key fact: Hungarian has NO grammatical gender. Every noun uses the same article — no der/die/das confusion!
The article never changes for case — postfixes go on the noun, not the article.
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesNo gender to memorize — just check if next sound is vowel or consonant. Article doesn't change with case endings.
A kutya barátságos.
The dog is friendly.
'A' before k (consonant). No gender — same article for all nouns.
Az asztal nagy.
The table is big.
'Az' before a (vowel). Like English 'an' — purely phonetic rule.
Az orvos és a beteg.
The doctor and the patient.
Az before vowel (o), a before consonant (b). Each noun gets its own article.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises