"Are you not well?"

Translation: Nem vagy jól?

[Martybet]

Why is 'nem jól vagy?' not good?

[jimmyjames653142]

According to a baratnőm, like English yes/no questions, you must put the be verb first. We would ask "Aren't you well?" Hungarian is the same with the exception that the negative marker (nem) precedes the verb.

[Axandrela5334]

Actually Hungarian has no official sentence structure. It varries from town to town and family to family.

[MrtonPolgr]

"official sentence structure" is a funny term per se :D And you are wrong with that. Changing the word order changes the meaning and there are strict general rules that really don't vary "from town to town".

[MrtonPolgr]

I'd accept "nem jól vagy". It means "Are you {not well}?" as opposed to "Aren't you well?" So it's somewhat closer to "Are you feeling sick?"

[Etisunu]

I have the same question. Why isn't "Nem jól vagy." allowed?

[horvat.bohdan]

yes. Why 'nem jól vagy?' not good&

[GrubbaFong]

Not you well? Me to sense makes none.

[WilliamsBlair]

I thought nem had to be next to the word it's negating. So "nem vagy jól" would emphasize that YOU'RE not well and "nem jól vagy" would mean you may be feeling other things, but "well" isn't one of them.

[MrtonPolgr]

Exactly :)

[UKSoaper]

Why is 'nincs jol' not okay? It 'nincs jol vagy'?

[jzsuzsi]

Actually "nincs jól" is okay, if you address the other person with the formal you (ön)

(Ön) nincs jól? (formal, singular you)

compare this with: (Te) nem vagy jól? (informal, singular you)

But, "nincs jól vagy" is totally wrong, because it contains two verbs (nincs + vagy) when you only need one verb.