"Is it Monday today?"

Translation: Hétfő van ma?

[postkar]

why do I need van?

[linguafiqari]

When talking about times, "Van" is always used.

[MrtonPolgr]

"It is monday" is a condition of the environment, just like "it is warm" ("meleg van"), "it is cold" ("hideg van") or "something stinks" ("büdös van" lit. "it is stinky"). I think all environmental conditions go with van.

[Ishana92]

what word order is acceptable?

[RyagonIV]

This course contains two pretty similar sentences: "Ma hétfő van?" (translated as "Is it Monday today?") and "Hétfő van ma." ("Today is Monday.")

For all intents and purposes I'd argue that all four work orders where van is not in the frontmost place are fair game.

• Ma hétfő van?; Hétfő van ma? - Is it Monday today?
• Hétfő ma van?; Ma van hétfő? - Is today Monday?

[PSostorics]

Yeah, I put "ma van hétfo?" and it marked me wrong, demanding "Ma hétfő van?" but aren't both correct?

[O0A4n0Uv]

I just put "Ma van hétfő" as well and it was marked ok for me. They must have changed it?

[Arpad737071]

Maybe it was not because of the word order, but because the improper letter: you used "o" instead of "ő". It should be "hétfő", not "hétfo".