"The buses are not in the front, but in the back."

Translation: A buszok nem elöl vannak, hanem hátul.

[RO_4_PM]

can't i just say <a buszok nem elöl, hanem hátul>? since the verb can be omited in the third person, or does it only work with persons?

[mizinamo]

van is omitted when you are describing a quality of something (young, old, green, blue, tall, ...), but not if you are saying where something is.

[ErikAnderson3]

Can someone please explain why this sentence has elöl instead of előtt?

[mizinamo]

elótt is a postposition that comes after a noun: X előtt is "in front of X".

elöl, on the other hand, is an adverb that stands alone.

Here, it is not specified what the busses are in front of, just that they are generally in front.

So just as you couldn't say "The busses are in front of" in English (it would prompt the question: in front of what? there's something missing), you can't use előtt by itself without a noun in Hungarian.

[ErikAnderson3]

Excellent explanation, thank you!