"What is inside?"

Translation: Mi van bent?

[drawkward86]

What about "Mi bent van"?

[LelandSun]

We have seen examples where we can leave out the implicit third-person verb to be, as in "Mi ez" (What is this?) or "Péter álmos" (Péter is tired).

"Mi bent?", however, was not accepted. Should it have been? If not, what is the rationale?

[Ahkebeaivi]

Not Hungarian native but, ez and Péter are both either pronouns or holders for pronouns therefore the Hungarian language doesn't need a form of "to be", whereas in the sentence "Mi bent" there is no pronoun, so a form of to be is needed to identify a person/object.

[Filou75014]

what about the order of words ?

[juditboci888]

"mi van idebent" why is it not good?

[Bicu94]

I think is not correct, because, if I ask "What is in?"-Mi van bent/benne? ,
and "What is inside?"-Mi van belül?

[Martha94435]

Except "what is in" is not a grammatical sentence - "in" needs an object. "Belül" means something slightly different, but I'm having trouble articulating it.

[Gatyi]

Mi van belül? Ez miért nem jó?

[Martha94435]

Sokkal természetesebb volna "mi van odabent"-nek fordítani, de azt helytelennek minősíti.