Front Vowels

Hungarian Alphabet 1

Chapter 4 · Front Vowels: E É

🔤 The Front Vowels Begin — e é

The six back vowels are done. Now come the front vowels, which are made with the tongue pushed forward and the lips relaxed or spread. The first pair is e and é. Like a / á, they differ in both sound and length.

Back or Front? A Quick Test Say "oo" (as in moon) and then "ee" (as in see), slowly, a few times. Feel your tongue slide forward and your lips spread: that movement is the difference between a back vowel (oo) and a front vowel (ee). Hungarian has 6 back vowels (a á o ó u ú) and 8 front vowels (e é i í ö ő ü ű).

Front vowels	Short	Long	Respelled
Chapter 4 (today)	e	é	eh · ay
Chapter 5	i	í	(next chapter)
Chapters 6–7	ö ü	ő ű	(rounded front vowels)

✨ Two New Vowels — e é

E · e

short, like the "e" in bed — respelled eh

front vowel · short

Mouth tip: relax your lips, open your jaw a little, and say a short "eh" as in bed or get. It's a crisp vowel: don't turn it into "uh" (the) or "ay".

É · é

long and closed, like the "ay" in day said without the glide — respelled ay

front vowel · long

Mouth tip: hold a steady "ay" with spread lips and don't let it slide into "ee" at the end. Scottish speakers have a good model: the vowel in Scots day and say is a pure vowel.

e and é Are Different Sounds Just as a and á differ in quality as well as length (Chapter 1), e ("eh", open) and é ("ay", closed) are two different vowels. Compare kert (KEHRT, "garden") with kér (KAYR, "asks"). Say them back to back and hear the change in the vowel, not just the length.

📖 Read It — New Words

You can read all of these. Remember that r is a quick tap and that stress is on the first syllable.

#	Hungarian	Say it	English	Note
1	te	TEH	you (informal)	short e
2	ez	EHZ	this	short e
3	tér	TAYR	square; space	long é
4	kéz	KAYZ	hand	long é
5	lé	LAY	juice; sap	long é
6	ég	AYG	sky; (it) burns	two meanings
7	kert	KEHRT	garden	short e; tapped r
8	hét	HAYT	week; seven	two meanings
9	tél	TAYL	winter	long é
10	kék	KAYK	blue	long é
11	pénz	PAYNZ	money	long é
12	ebéd	EH-bayd	lunch	short e, then long é

Your First Negative — nem The word for "no" and "not" is nem (NEHM). You can already use it: Nem ház. ("Not a house.") And note the pair ez ("this") and az ("that"), which you met as "the": ez a ház ("this house") and az a ház ("that house").

🔀 Back Meets Front: -ban or -ben?

In Chapter 3 you saw that back-vowel words take -ban for "in". Words with only front vowels, such as kert and kéz, take the front form -ben. The two endings are the same ending, just matched to the vowels of the word.

Back-vowel word	+ ban	Front-vowel word	+ ben
ház (house)	házban (in the house)	kert (garden)	kertben (in the garden)
tó (lake)	tóban (in the lake)	kéz (hand)	kézben (in the hand)
út (road)	útban (in the way)	tér (square)	térben (in space)

💬 Mini-Dialogs

① Where Is the Garden? — Hol a kert?

A: Hol a kert? HOL aw KEHRT? Where is the garden?

B: Ott a kert. OTT aw KEHRT. The garden is there.

A: Jó! YOH! Good!

② This or That? — Ez a ház?

A: Ez a ház? EHZ aw HAHZ? Is this the house?

B: Nem, az a ház. NEHM, awz aw HAHZ. No, that's the house.

③ Where Is the Money? — Hol a pénz?

A: Hol a pénz? HOL aw PAYNZ? Where is the money?

B: Ott a pénz. Sok pénz! OTT aw PAYNZ. SHOK PAYNZ! The money is there. Lots of money!

Real Hungarian Tip — Ebéd, the Main Meal Ebéd (lunch) has traditionally been the main meal of the day in Hungary, often a soup followed by a main course, and many workplace canteens and restaurants offer a fixed-price lunch menu. If you're invited to ebéd, come hungry.

Review: Chapter 3 Words Cover the English and read these again: út (road) · hús (meat) · kút (well) · lúd (goose) · búza (wheat) · nulla (zero) · ruha (clothes) · puha (soft) · hullám (wave) · autó (car) · tud (knows) · bunda (fur coat).

✍️ Try It Yourself — Gyakorlatok

Say each answer out loud first, then click to check.

1. Say the two new front vowels with their respellings: e · é

Show answer

e = eh (short, as in bed) · é = ay (long, pure, as in Scots day).

2. Do e and é differ only in length?

Show answer

No. Like a and á, they differ in sound (eh against ay) and length.

3. Read aloud and translate: te · kéz · tér

Show answer

TEH (you) · KAYZ (hand) · TAYR (square)

4. Read aloud and translate: ebéd · pénz · kék

Show answer

EH-bayd (lunch) · PAYNZ (money) · KAYK (blue)

5. Choose a or az: ___ kert · ___ ég · ___ ebéd · ___ tér

Show answer

a kert · az ég · az ebéd · a tér (az before a vowel, including é and e; a before a consonant).

6. Add "in": kert · kéz · ház · tér

Show answer

kertben · kézben · házban (back vowel á → -ban) · térben.

Coming Up in Chapter 5 The front vowels continue with i and í. You'll then read igen (yes), víz (water), ki (who) and mi (what), and be ready to ask real questions.