The Hungarian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, so you don’t need to learn a new one and because every letter corresponds to each sound it is also easy to read after you have learned the pronunciation. In Hungarian, a letter corresponds to each sound, so it’s quite easy to read once you’ve learned the pronunciation. The tricky part is that the letters can be written with maximum 3 characters and they give a new sound.
Here is the alphabet and one word for each letter:
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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, r, s, sz, t, ty, u, ú, ü, ű, v, z, zs.
A: ajtó ( door)
Á: állat ( animal )
B: barát (friend)
C: cica ( kitten )
D: dal ( song )
DZ:
DZS: dzsungel ( jungle )
E: elem ( battery )
É: élet ( life )
F: fal ( wall )
G: garázs ( garage )
GY: gyűrű ( ring )
H: hívás ( call )
I: ikrek ( twins )
Í: ígéret ( promise )
J: játék ( game )
K: kacsa ( duck )
L: lakat ( lock )
LY: lyuk ( whole )
M: magyar ( Hungarian )
N: német ( German )
NY: nyaralás ( vacation )
O: oldal ( page )
Ó: óra ( watch )
Ö: öreg ( old )
Ő: őz ( deer )
P: pénzt ( money )
R: rózsaszín ( pink )
S: sárga ( yellow )
SZ: szép ( nice )
T: tiszta ( clean )
TY: tyúk ( hen )
U: utas ( passenger )
Ú: út ( road )
Ü: üveg ( glass )
Ű: űr ( space )
V: város ( city )
Z: zaj ( noise )
ZS: zsák ( bag )
How to pronounce the hardest letters?
CS – pronounced as the “ch” in “check” or cheek”
DZ – pronounced as the “ds” in “kids”
DZS (the only triple letter) – pronounced as the “j” in “jam”
GY – pronounced as the “d” in “during”
LY – pronounced as the “y” in “yes”
NY – pronounced as the “n” in “new”
SZ – pronounced as the “s” in “sister”
TY – pronounced as the “t” in “tube”
ZS – pronounced as the “s” in “pleasure”
Nora, OLS Community Manager – Hungarian