Translate a Word document into Hungarian

How Hungarian affects the layout of a .docx

Hungarian is agglutinative: it packs into one word what many languages spread over several. In our documents becomes dokumentumainkban. Performance appraisal becomes teljesítményértékelés. The word count often drops, but individual words grow longer, and that is where layouts suffer.

• Narrow table columns. A one-word column header this long can only break at a hyphenation point. In a narrow column it overflows or breaks awkwardly. Table widths stay as they were in the original, so check those columns when you review.
• Fixed-size text boxes. Callouts, captions and diagram labels may no longer fit. A short label such as HSE Policy becomes munkavédelmi szabályzat.
• Hyphenation. For Word to hyphenate Hungarian correctly, make sure the proofing language of the text is Hungarian on the computer that opens the file. Otherwise Word applies another language's rules, or does not hyphenate at all.
• Headings. Hungarian capitalises only the first word and proper nouns. Annual Report becomes Éves jelentés. This is correct, not a lost style.

ő, ű and Hungarian typography

The double acute accent is the hallmark of Hungarian. You see it on ő, as in kettő, and on ű, as in műszaki (technical). These letters are not õ (tilde, Portuguese) or û (circumflex, French). Those two still turn up in their place in documents that went through older encodings. A Hungarian reader spots mûszaki at once.

In Word, the risk comes from fonts. A decorative or older heading font may lack ő and ű. Word then draws those two letters in a fallback font, so they look different from the rest of the word. Manuce keeps your fonts, so check that your heading fonts include both characters.

Conventions to check in the translated text:

• Quotation marks: „idézet”, with »…« for a quotation inside another.
• Dates: year first, with full stops, as in 2025. március 14. Months and weekdays are lower case.
• Numbers: decimal comma and a space for thousands, as in 12 500,75 Ft.
• Ordinals: a full stop after the numeral. 3. fejezet means Chapter 3.
• Personal names: surname first, as in Kovács Anna. Watch signature blocks and attendee lists.
• Register: business documents address the reader as Ön, with a capital letter.

Numbers, suffixes and Word fields

In Hungarian, the words around a number depend on how that number is pronounced. Three rules matter in a Word document.

• The article a or az depends on the sound that follows. You write az 1. táblázat (egy) but a 2. táblázat (kettő), and az 5. oldalon (öt) but a 6. oldalon (hat).
• Suffixes on numerals and acronyms take a hyphen and follow vowel harmony: 2025-ben, a 2024-es jelentés, a PDF-ben.
• Nouns stay singular after a number: 12 oldal, 3 melléklet, never 12 oldalak. Hungarian has only two plural categories (one, other), and the number alone carries the quantity.

The Word-specific trap is fields. Cross-references and the table of contents are fields. They keep working after translation, and updating fields recalculates the page numbers. The surrounding text, however, does not change. Take a cross-reference translated as az 5. oldalon. If the longer Hungarian text pushes its target to page 6, Word will display az 6. oldalon, which is wrong. After updating, reread every sentence that contains a numbered cross-reference. Fix the article or suffix wherever the number changed.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not do

Manuce translates body paragraphs, tables, headers and footers, and text boxes. A merged cell is translated and charged once only. Text is replaced segment by segment inside your own .docx. Fonts, sizes, colours, bold and italics, styles, numbering and table widths stay as in the original. An automatic check then compares the layout of the translated document with the original and flags any difference.

You receive the file in its original format, with the text replaced in place. You also get a Word version, a PDF and the plain text. Hungarian carries a surcharge: a ×1.25 coefficient applies to the per-word rate.

What Manuce does not do:

• It does not update fields for you. The table of contents and cross-references remain fields: refresh them in Word, then check a/az agreement.
• It does not widen columns or text boxes to fit long Hungarian words. The layout stays as in the original.
• It does not produce sworn or certified translations. For civil records, diplomas or court papers going to a Hungarian authority, ask the receiving body what certification it requires.

Preparing the file and checking the Hungarian

1. Finalise before uploading. Accept or reject tracked changes and remove comments you no longer need, so the Hungarian is based on the final text.
2. Spot text that is not Word text. A heading inside a pasted image, or a diagram saved as a picture, is not among the elements translated. Plan for it separately.
3. Check the free sample. Look at the register (Ön) and at any term that must stay as it is, such as a product name or acronym. A kept name will still take suffixes, as in az Excelben; that is expected. Check those terms again in the full translation.
4. Open the translated .docx. Look at ő and ű in headings, at narrow columns and at text boxes. The layout check already flags any differences.
5. Update fields, then reread the table of contents and every sentence containing a numbered cross-reference.

In practice

1. Upload your .docx: the quote appears straight away, based on the exact word count.
2. Choose a level and read the free sample, one paragraph of your file in Hungarian.
3. Pay, then download the translated file from your account, within minutes for a typical document.
4. In Word, update fields and reread the cross-references (a/az, suffixes).
5. Check ő and ű in heading fonts, and look at narrow columns.