# How is “ő” pronounced in Hungarian? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 24, 2025, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-o-pronounced-in-hungarian/1017429 "2025-04-24T01:38:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-o-pronounced-in-hungarian/1017429/1 "2025-04-24T01:38:58Z")
I’m curious about the effect of the diacritical mark in Hungarian names like “Erdős” and “Erdő”? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-o-pronounced-in-hungarian/1017429/2 "2025-04-24T01:49:04Z")
Like in German or “eu” in French. Think trying to say an “eh” with rounded lips as if saying “oo.” ETA: oh, wait, it’s the long one you’re asking about. Just pronounce it longer. Same sound, different length. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-o-pronounced-in-hungarian/1017429/3 "2025-04-24T09:58:47Z")
To complement what @pulykamell said, you’re basically combining two different diacritics here. One are the umlaut dots that turn the o into an ö. That will result in the same pronunciation that the ö has in, for instance, German or Turkish, rendered approximately by “eu”. The other diacritic is the accent aigu placed one top of a vowel (e becoming é). In Hungarian, that simply increases the length of the vowel. In the case of ö, that diacritic takes the form of turning both dots of the umlaut into accents aigus. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-o-pronounced-in-hungarian/1017429/4 "2025-04-24T19:04:34Z")
The Hungarian alphabet has 44 different letters, of which four are variations on the Latin letter O. This is unlike French, for example, where e, é, and è are all considered to be one letter. In Hungarian, [short] O is pronounced /o/, like French eau acute-O, Ó, is the long version of O, /oː/, like the above but longer O-umlaut, Ö, is pronounced with rounded lips, /ø/, like the vowel in French peu double-acute O, Ő, is the long version of Ö, /ø:/, like the above but longer In Hungarian, there are likewise four letters that are variations of the Latin letter U (U, Ú, Ü, and Ű), but only two each derived from Latin A, E, and I (A, Á; E, É; I, Í). The vowel Y has only one form but occurs only in loanwords. Confusingly, the Y also occurs as the second element of consonant digraph letters like GY, which is considered to be one letter, as are TY, NY, and LY. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-o-pronounced-in-hungarian/1017429/5 "2025-04-25T00:07:07Z")
When my Hungarian colleague said Erdös (I know that’s not the correct accent), it always seemed to me to have a faint r sound. I would estimate it was something like the first syllable of Dershowitz, but with a fainter r. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-o-pronounced-in-hungarian/1017429/6 "2025-04-25T00:11:12Z")
How to pronounce [ø] - Here you go: [Close-mid front rounded vowel - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close-mid_front_rounded_vowel) - It has an audio file. [r] has nothing to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-o-pronounced-in-hungarian/1017429/7 "2025-04-25T14:29:20Z")
Thanks for the replies, everyone. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-o-pronounced-in-hungarian/1017429/8 "2025-04-25T14:41:15Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > The other diacritic is the accent aigu placed one top of a vowel (e becoming é). In Hungarian, that simply increases the length of the vowel. That’s generally true, but not for the specific example you are using. In Hungarian the letter ⟨e⟩ is pronounced /ɛ/ (as in the English “b **e** t”) whereas ⟨é⟩ is /e/ (similar to English “b **ai** t”, but without the glide). In this case, the vowel quality changes, but not the length. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-o-pronounced-in-hungarian/1017429/9 "2025-04-25T14:57:09Z")
Same with the _a_ and _á_ — they are two different sounds, not just differing by length. /ɒ/ vs /aː/