Sound
Forty letters, no guessing
Hungarian is close to one sound per letter. The catch: some letters are two Latin keys, s is sh, and length changes the word.
A
a · /ɒ/
alma — apple
British hot, what — never the English ‘ay’.
Forty letters, fourteen vowels
Hungarian treats cs, dz, dzs, gy, ly, ny, sz, ty, zs as single letters. They sort as their own entries, not as c + s.
Stress is boring — in a good way
Primary stress always falls on the first syllable. Never shift it. fiaiéi is still stressed on fi-.
No diphthongs
Each vowel is its own beat. Auto is ah-oo-to, not ‘ow-to’. Stacked vowels in fiaiéi are five separate sounds.
Length is meaning
Short vs long is a different word, not a mood. kor (age) / kór (disease), öreg (old) is not őrög. Accents are not optional.
Doubling holds the sound
abban is ab-ban. Digraphs double the first glyph only: busz + -szal → busszal (busz-szal).
s and sz are swapped
s = English sh. sz = English s. This is the first trap. Magyarország starts with a sh.
Loan letters
- Q (kú) — Loans only (quasi).
- W (dupla vé) — Loans and names (Washington).
- X (iksz) — Loans (taxi).
- Y (ipszilon) — Names and the second half of ly, ny, gy, ty.