The Hungarian alphabet has 44 letters and forms the absolute foundation of everything you’ll learn in the language.

While this number might seem large, Hungarian is completely phonetic.

This means that once you learn how each letter sounds, you can accurately pronounce any word you read.

The alphabet uses the standard Latin script but includes several unique accent marks and letter combinations.

I’m going to break down these letters and show you exactly how to pronounce them.

Overview of the Hungarian alphabet

The Hungarian alphabet consists of 14 vowels and 30 consonants.

Unlike English, Hungarian treats specific two-letter and three-letter combinations as single, distinct letters.

These are called digraphs and trigraphs.

You’ll find these compound letters in any Hungarian dictionary sorted into their own dedicated sections.

Let’s look at the vowels first, as mastering them is the easiest way to improve your accent.

The tricky Hungarian vowels

Hungarian has 14 vowels that exist in short and long pairs.

The accent marks above the letters tell you exactly how long to hold the sound.

They also tell you how to shape your mouth to produce the correct tone.

A small dash or double dash means the vowel is long.

No accent or standard dots (umlauts) mean the vowel is short.

The letters ő and ű feature the double acute accent.

This unique punctuation mark is sometimes called the “Hungarian umlaut”.

You pronounce them exactly like ö and ü, but you hold the sound for twice as long.

Compound letters (digraphs and trigraphs)

Consonants in Hungarian can be a single letter, two letters, or three letters long.

These combinations always represent one specific sound.

You must train your brain to read combinations like sz or gy as single letter units.

Let’s look at an example using the letter sz.

In this word, the sz makes a soft “s” sound.

The single letter s in Hungarian actually makes a “sh” sound.

The hardest sounds for English speakers

There are a few specific consonants that always trip up English speakers.

The most notorious letter is gy.

Despite having a “g” in it, it doesn’t sound like a hard English G.

It sounds very close to the “d” in the British pronunciation of “duty”.

The letter ty is another challenging sound for beginners.

It’s very similar to the “t” in the British pronunciation of “tube”.

You make this sound by pressing the middle of your tongue to the roof of your mouth.

The letter ly confuses many students because it looks like an “L” sound.

In modern Hungarian, ly is pronounced exactly the same as the letter j.

Both of these letters make a “y” sound, just like the “y” in the English word “yes”.

Finally, the Hungarian r is a rolled or trilled sound.

You create it by vibrating the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth.

If you can’t roll your R’s yet, a simple tap of the tongue will work just fine.

How to practice your pronunciation

Reading about sounds is helpful, but listening is mandatory for fluency.

You must hear native speakers pronounce these words to truly grasp the differences.

I highly recommend using Talk In Hungarian to master your listening skills.

Our platform provides thousands of native audio recordings to help you map these letters to their actual sounds.

Repeat the audio files out loud to build your vocal muscle memory.

Pay close attention to vowel length, as mixing up short and long vowels can completely change a word’s meaning.

Getting your pronunciation right from the beginning will save you hundreds of hours of correction later.