The Last Vowels

Hungarian Alphabet 1

Chapter 7 · Rounded Front Vowels Completed: Ü Ű

🔤 The Last Vowels — ü ű

The final pair of vowels is ü and ű, the front partners of u and ú. They sound like French u (tu) or German ü (für). With them, you'll know all 14 Hungarian vowels, and you'll see the complete chart that explains how vowel harmony works.

✨ Two New Vowels — ü ű

Ü · ü

short, like French u or German ü — respelled ue

front vowel · rounded · short

Mouth tip: say "ee" (as in see) and, without moving your tongue, round your lips as if saying "oo". Or say "oo" and slide your tongue forward. Either way, the lips are round and the tongue is forward.

Ű · ű

the same vowel, held about twice as long — respelled uue

front vowel · rounded · long

Mouth tip: same position as ü, held steady for a longer beat, with a double acute accent (two slanted strokes), as on ő.

ö and ü: The Same Trick, Two Tongue Heights Both are front vowels with rounded lips. The difference is the tongue height: ö is "eh with rounded lips" and ü is "ee with rounded lips". So the back-and-front partners are o → ö and u → ü: the lips stay the same, the tongue moves forward. A small note on the respellings: ue is a rounded "ee", so fül (FUEL) is not the English word fuel.

🗂️ The Complete Vowel Chart — All 14 Vowels

Here is everything you've learned, arranged by family. Every vowel has a short and a long version, and the three columns are the three families that vowel harmony uses.

	Back	Front, unrounded	Front, rounded
Short	a (aw) · o (o) · u (u)	e (eh) · i (ih)	ö (eu) · ü (ue)
Long	á (ah) · ó (oh) · ú (oo)	é (ay) · í (ee)	ő (euu) · ű (uue)
Count	6 vowels	4 vowels	4 vowels

The Whole System in Three Sentences (1) Hungarian has 14 vowels: 6 back, 4 front unrounded and 4 front rounded, each with a short and a long version. (2) The accent marks (á é í ó ö ő ú ü ű) tell you the length, and the double acute is only for ő and ű. (3) Endings change to match the family of the word's vowels, so the next three chapters show how that works.

📖 Read It — New Words

You can read all of these. As before, s is said "sh" (Chapter 13), r is tapped, and stress is on the first syllable.

#	Hungarian	Say it	English	Note
1	tű	TUUE	needle	long ű
2	fű	FUUE	grass	long ű
3	tűz	TUUEZ	fire	long ű
4	fül	FUEL	ear	short ü (not English "fuel")
5	üveg	UE-vehg	glass; bottle	short ü, short e
6	ül	UEL	sits	a verb: "he/she sits"
7	ünnep	UEN-nehp	holiday; feast	double n: held
8	hűtő	HUUE-teuu	fridge	ű then ő
9	tüdő	TUE-deuu	lung	short ü, long ő
10	bűn	BUUEN	sin; crime	long ű
11	kürt	KUERT	horn (the instrument)	tapped r
12	füst	FUESHT	smoke	s is said "sh"

Colours You Can Read — kék and zöld With the vowels you know, two colours are now readable: kék (KAYK, blue) and zöld (ZEULD, green). The rest of the colours need consonants you'll meet in later chapters.

🔀 Three-Way Endings, Revisited

In Chapter 6 you saw -hoz / -hez / -höz ("to"). Now that all the vowels are in place, here it is for every family. The ending follows the vowel family of the word (mixed words are covered in Chapter 10).

Family	Ending "to"	Example
back	-hoz	házhoz (to the house)
front, unrounded	-hez	kerthez (to the garden)
front, rounded	-höz	tűzhöz (to the fire) · fülhöz (to the ear)

💬 Mini-Dialogs

① A Bottle — Mi ez?

A: Mi ez? MIH EHZ? What is this?

B: Ez üveg. EHZ UE-vehg. This is a bottle.

A: Víz? VEEZ? Water?

B: Igen, víz. IH-gehn, VEEZ. Yes, water.

② The Fridge — Hol a hűtő?

A: Hol a hűtő? HOL aw HUUE-teuu? Where is the fridge?

B: Ott a hűtő. OTT aw HUUE-teuu. The fridge is there.

A: Hideg a sör? HIH-dehg aw SHEUR? Is the beer cold?

B: Igen, hideg! IH-gehn, HIH-dehg! Yes, it's cold!

③ A Holiday — Ma ünnep?

A: Ma ünnep? MAW UEN-nehp? Is today a holiday?

B: Igen, ma ünnep! Jó! IH-gehn, MAW UEN-nehp! YOH! Yes, today is a holiday! Good!

Practical Tip — Typing ő and ű The letters ő and ű are not on a standard UK or US keyboard. If you want to type Hungarian, the easiest way is to add the Hungarian keyboard layout in your system's language settings; otherwise you can copy the letters from this course. Using ö or ü instead is a spelling mistake (it changes the length), though people will usually understand you.

Review: Chapter 6 Words Cover the English and read these again: ő (he/she) · nő (woman) · kő (stone) · kör (circle) · köd (fog) · tök (pumpkin) · ökör (ox) · öt (five) · sör (beer) · öröm (joy) · kövér (fat) · főnök (boss).

✍️ Try It Yourself — Gyakorlatok

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

1. Say the two new vowels with their respellings: ü · ű

Show answer

ü = ue (short) · ű = uue (long): the same rounded front vowel at two lengths.

2. How do you make an ü?

Show answer

Say "ee" with your lips rounded as for "oo" (or say "oo" and slide the tongue forward). It's French u / German ü.

3. Read aloud and translate: tű · fül · tűz

Show answer

TUUE (needle) · FUEL (ear) · TUUEZ (fire)

4. Say which family each vowel belongs to (back, front unrounded or front rounded): ú · é · ü · á · ő · i

Show answer

ú = back · é = front unrounded · ü = front rounded · á = back · ő = front rounded · i = front unrounded.

5. Add "to" (-hoz / -hez / -höz): tűz · fül · kert · ház

Show answer

tűzhöz · fülhöz (front rounded → -höz) · kerthez (front unrounded → -hez) · házhoz (back → -hoz).

6. How many vowels does Hungarian have, and how are they divided?

Show answer

14: 6 back (a á o ó u ú), 4 front unrounded (e é i í) and 4 front rounded (ö ő ü ű).

Coming Up in Chapter 8 All 14 vowels are done, so it's time for vowel harmony. Chapter 8 shows how the endings -ban / -ben, -nak / -nek, -ra / -re and -ról / -ről choose their vowel, with a simple rule and plenty of practice.