"Hol van a nő?"

Translation: Where is the woman?

[AlsEenPoffertje]

I don't know too much about Hungarian word order yet, so I'm curious as to exactly how many ways you can write this sentence. Are these two sentences valid as well?

• A nő hol van?
• Hol a nő van?

[negyvenketto]

the first one is fine, the second one doesn't work.

[AlsEenPoffertje]

Could you explain why the second one doesn't work? Does it have to do with the fact that "hol" and "van" are no longer beside each other? I don't really know enough about the language yet to understand it myself. ;)

[negyvenketto]

as a native speaker i never studied the language from this respect, so it's a bit hard, but i think it's what you suspect: "hol" and "van" should not be separated. (and it's the same with other questions, like "mikor" (when) or "miért" (why).)

[AlsEenPoffertje]

Thanks for the confirmation! :D It can be hard to explain why things work or don't work in your own language since you simply learned the language by hearing it, not by studying it methodically. ;)

[MrtonPolgr]

I'd add that miért is a bit odd-one-out here because you don't really ask about a certain detail but you ask about the reason of a certain case. Hence, focus can remain on something else and miért will precede the focused part.

[Emanuele251738]

In the normal comunication they abitually say "Hol a no ?" because the verb is understood ( exc me if I written wrong )

[AlsEenPoffertje]

It looks like somebody asked that question lower in the forum, and it seems that it is indeed an okay thing to say (I'd suggest looking at MrtonPolgr's response).

[Aprankent]

The 'h' in hol appears silent in the audio.

[aodhlmao]

Sometimes that happens the first time it plays. If you press play againit should play fine

[Julie900845]

It's been written somewhere earlier, that the verb is usually omitted in the 3rd person singular. So, would it than be correct the following version of the sentence: "Hol a nő?" ?

[evike2008]

Yes, that's a correct sentence.

[MrtonPolgr]

That's a correct sentence... accidentally. Most of the time you can't omit van if you see an adverb and locatives are adverbs. In certain simple cases, just like your sentence, you can break this rule in favor of omitting van.

[fabiank]

Why is "Where is the lady?" wrong?
I would say it is even better: a bit more polite. When you are with others I would rather say "Where is the lady?" then "Where is the woman?"

[koszeggy]

Hungarian has the polite version as well: "hölgy". Besides, the other courses are also strict in this regard. You are at level 7 in German; could you use both "Frau" and "Dame" interchangeably for woman?

[fabiank]

OK thanks koszeggy. Yes you are right. Good to know there is a polite version as well :)