ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Hungarian phonology

Okay kiddo, let's talk about Hungarian phonology. Phonology is just a fancy word for the way sounds are used in a language. In Hungarian, there are 44 sounds made by the different letters and combinations of letters.

The most important thing to know is that in Hungarian, the sounds of letters don't always match up with what we think they should sound like based on other languages we might know. For example, in Hungarian, the letter "h" is silent, and the letter "s" can sound like "sh".

Another important thing to know is that Hungarian has a lot of vowel sounds. These vowel sounds are important because they can change the meaning of words. For example, the words "egy" (meaning "one") and "égy" (meaning "distress") sound very similar, but the only difference is the vowel sound.

There are also some sounds in Hungarian that are unique to the language. For example, there is a sound called the "double acute accent" which is represented by a symbol (˝). This accent makes the vowel sound longer and can also change the meaning of words. For example, the word "ok" means "okay", but with the double acute accent over the "o" (ők), it means "they".

Overall, Hungarian phonology can be a bit tricky to master, but with practice, anyone can learn to speak Hungarian like a native!