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The alphabet & vowel harmony

The best place to start with any language is the alphabet — and in Hungarian this pays off unusually well. With 14 vowels and 30 consonants, the alphabet contains 44 letters, and the language is phonetic: once you master the letters, you can read every word aloud correctly, first time, every time. Every word is stressed on the first syllable.

A Á B C Cs D Dz Dzs E É F
G Gy H I Í J K L Ly M N
Ny O Ó Ö Ő P Q R S Sz T
Ty U Ú Ü Ű V W X Y Z Zs

Some letters consist of more than one character: digraphs (two characters, one sound — cs, gy, sz…) and one trigraph (dzs). They are treated as distinct letters with their own sounds.

Gemination (consonant lengthening)

Section titled “Gemination (consonant lengthening)”

Consonants can be lengthened for a longer sound:

  • Legszebb — most beautiful
  • Ujj — finger
  • Áll — stand
  • Könny — tear (long ny)
  • Asszony — Mrs. (long sz)

Note that only the first letter of a digraph is doubled: ssz, never szsz.

When some consonants meet, pronunciation assimilates to something more natural. Spot the base word to see which consonants are really there:

  • Igazság (igaz — true) → sounds like [igasság]
  • Állj meg! (áll — stand) → [ájj meg!]
  • Egészség (egész — whole) → [egésség]
  • Ne haragudj! (haragszik) → [ne haraguggy!]

Vowel harmony

Section titled “Vowel harmony”

Hungarian solves its grammar with suffixes — and which vowel a suffix takes depends on vowel harmony. The vowels come in short/long pairs (the long row also shifts the sound for á and é):

a e i o ö u ü
á é í ó ő ú ű

For harmony, vowels sort into front and back — Hungarians say magas (high) and mély (deep), and remember them with two words:

Front: e é i í ö ő ü ű   (teniszütő)
Back:  a á o ó u ú       (autó)

The rules:

  1. Only front vowels in the word → front-vowel suffixes: épület
  2. Only back vowels → back-vowel suffixes: darázs
  3. Mixed → the last vowel decides: dzsungel (front)

One-syllable words containing only i/í can go either way — it’s a property of the word:

  • szív (heart) — behaves front-vowelled
  • híd (bridge) — behaves back-vowelled

Pronunciation videos

Section titled “Pronunciation videos”

Further reading: Wiktionary’s appendix on Hungarian pronunciation assimilation.