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The Hungarian Alphabet



The Hungarian vowels: a, á, e, é, i, í, o, ó, ö, ő, u, ú, ü, ű

The Hungarian consonants: b, c, cs, d,dz, dzs, f, g,gy, h, j, k, l, ly, m, n, ny, p, q, r, s, sz, t, ty, v, w, x, y, z, zs



Vowel harmony


Hungarian vowels fall into two groups: back vowels and front vowels. (Back vowels are formed at the back of the mouth and front vowels are formed at the front of your mouth. Hence the name.)

The easiest way to remember whether a vowel is front or back is by learning the word autó (car). It contains three back vowels: a, u, and ó. By adding the second half of each pair (á, ú, and o) you get all the back vowels. All the others are front vowels.


Hungarian words also fall into two groups: back vowel words and front vowel words. Front vowel words only have front vowels in them, e.g. fekete, beszél. Back vowel words, however, may contain not only back but also front vowels, e.g. tud, amerikai.


Front vowel words take front vowel endings and back vowel words, with a few exceptions, take back vowel endings. So the vowels of the word stem and its ending(s) are in harmony. This is called vowel harmony, and it is a feature of Hungarian.

Most endings have two forms: one with a back vowel, the other with a front vowel in it. With the exception of a few endings which have only one form, vowel harmony has to be applied when deciding non the right form of ending to be joined to the word stem.


(Source: Zsuzsa Pontifex: Teach Yourself)

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